Dragonball Super manga Volume 4 (chapter 24)

 By Mark Rodriguez

Goku Black and Zamas have fused into God Zamas, easily overpowering Goku and Vegeta. Upon finding out that Potara Fusion only lasts an hour for mortals, Goku and Vegeta decide to use their own Potara and become Vegetto. God Zamas is about to toss a barrage of Katchin cubes, the hardest substance in the universe, just as Vegetto is about to fire off a Final Kamehame Ha. Before he can deliver the finishing blow, Vegetto splits back up into Goku and Vegeta, moments before the Katchin blocks hit them.

Chapter 24- Son Goku's Evolution

Goku and Vegeta lay exhausted, having narrowly avoided being crushed by the metal cubes. Goku asks Vegeta what's going on and Vegeta asks him how he expects him to know. Goku says they should have had more time. 

Trunks asks Gowas about the Fusion lasting an hour. Gowas says maybe those two are so powerful that the fusion was unstable. Trunks says that Zamas is still fused, and Gowas says it might be the limit of being mortals. 

Zamas also notices that the fusion has already worn off for his enemies. He then says that mortals can't handle the treasures of the gods and that they should stop desecrating them. Zamas forms a dark portal and lunges his fist into it. Another portal appears next to Goku and Zamas' fist comes out of it, socking him in the face and sending him flying. Vegeta is confused as another portal appears next to him and Zamas' foot kicks him away.

As Zamas beats up on Goku and Vegeta, Trunks asks Kaioshin how much time they have left before Zamas can unfuse. Kaioshin says they have around 20 minutes and Trunks decides to go and help. Kaioshin says if he goes now his death will be meaningless. Trunks says he's useless and asks why he even returned to his timeline. 

Zamas keeps punching Goku and Vegeta via his portals. Goku laments that they don't have any senzus left. Kaioshin regrets his current title because if he was still an apprentice of his old master, he could use the restoration technique. Gowas says that is true but then if he wasn't a Kaioshin, he wouldn't have had the Time Ring to arrive to their current location. Trunks overhears this and asks about the restoration power. Kaioshin says apprentices like Kibito and Zamas have restoration powers and wonders why Trunks is asking about that.

Trunks says he was an apprentice to the Kaiohshin of his timeline when he had to fight Darbura. Kaioshin asks if he went through the ritual. Trunks asks if it was when his timeline's Kaioshin danced around for an entire day. Kaioshin confirms that Trunks has the power to restore. Trunks remembers when he was holding onto Mai and Gowas earlier and they both seemed to get better. Trunks wants to go and heal Goku and Vegeta but Kaioshin tells him to wait.

Suddenly there's a nearby explosion and Vegeta is sent flying through the air. Trunks flies up to catch him and says he can heal him. Vegeta is confused as to what he's talking about. Kaioshin says he'll only be strong enough to heal one person with the powers of a Super Saiyan Blue, so he'll have to choose one. Trunks tells Vegeta that he has healing powers and will heal him back to normal. Trunks sets his hand on Vegeta and he takes it away, saying if he can only heal one man, then he should heal Kakarot. 

Vegeta says for now the only one able to fight Zamas on even ground using Super Saiyan Blue is Kakarot. He hates to admit it but he realized it when they were fused. Vegeta says they will get through this and will all return home alive. He then flies off to continue the fight.

Zamas is lifting Goku up by the throat and tells him to beg for his life and grovel at his feet. Goku asks who would ever bow to him. Zamas angrily throws Goku into a portal. He creates another portal next to him and kicks Goku as he flies out of it.

Zamas starts kicking and punching Goku around through several portals saying no matter how many times he hits him his anger never ceases. Vegeta arrives to catch Goku before he's sent flying into another portal. Vegeta tells Goku to go to Trunks, and he is confused as to why. Vegeta says to do as he says and throws him down to the ground. Goku is confused and angry and Trunks runs over to him.

Zamas reaches his hands through a portal from behind Vegeta and grabs him by the throat. He asks him if he's ready to kneel before god. Vegeta says he's the Prince of all Saiyans and even if he has to die, he won't give up his pride. Vegeta powers up and lets out a powerful explosion. Kaiohshin tells the others that Vegeta is fine and didn't self-destruct. Vegeta is laying on the ground and calls over to Zamas to hurry up and kill him. Zamas says he will make him suffer until he can no longer bear it, then he will kill him. Kaioshin says Vegeta is buying them time. Zamas appears in front of Vegeta.

Zamas punches Vegeta hard enough to knock a tooth out. Mai is horrified as he continues to hit him and Kaioshin says they have to hurry before he's killed. Goku asks Trunks if he can only heal one of them and if he's ok with it being him. Trunks says Vegeta himself swallowed his pride and said it had to be him. Trunks sets his hands on Goku and starts to focus on using his restoration power.

Goku is fully healed and Trunks falls over. Trunks says he's alright as Mai holds onto him. Gowas says he expected that it would take a lot of energy to fully heal a Super Saiyan Blue. Goku is sure he can win with his full power. Kaioshin says that Vegeta is almost at his limit as Goku gives off a serious glare.

Zamas sends Vegeta flying to the ground with his knee. He sees that Vegeta is already unconscious. Goku suddenly appears in front of him, which confuses Zamas since he was just on the brink of death earlier. Goku says he's been restored thanks to Trunks and Zamas says he didn't think he could do that. Kaioshin appears to take hold of Vegeta and teleports away with him, leaving the fight up to Goku. Goku tells Zamas that this is Round 2, and this time he will show him everything he's got.

Kaioshin returns to the others and Trunks runs over to heal Vegeta. Kaioshin is worried but Trunks says he'll only heal him enough to wake him up. Vegeta wakes up and asks what the current situation is. Trunks tells him that Goku is about to fight. Goku has a staredown with Zamas and transforms into Super Saiyan Blue.

Zamas says there isn't a future for Super Saiyan Blue and to stop using such an outdated transformation. Goku then relaxes himself and the blue aura around him disappears, even though he is still transformed. Trunks notes that the aura is gone and Vegeta says this is the answer that Goku's reached. Zamas was wondering what he was up to and says he might have been buying some time after all.

Goku flies into Zamas and starts the attack. While Zamas is able to block all the attacks, this time Goku is also dodging his. Zamas starts using the portals again but this time Goku is able to dodge all of his attempts to hit him. Goku flies in and finally lands a blow on Zamas' face while one of his fists punches him as well. Goku smiles and says he got him, which only angers Zamas more.

Trunks notes that Goku is fighting equally with Zamas, Vegeta says he's managed to seal the overflowing power from Super Saiyan Blue and contain it in his body. Super Saiyan Blue's weakness is that its full power only lasts a short time, and Goku managed to overcome this weakness. Vegeta says that Goku is now fighting continuously at 100%, he has completed Super Saiyan Blue.

As the two continue to fight, Zamas manages to punch Goku in the stomach, but Goku hits him with his elbow hard enough to send him flying back. Zamas flies back towards Goku and they both lock hands. Zamas hits Goku with a headbutt, but Goku kicks him back. Trunks says at this rate they can last until Zamas' fusion wears off.

Goku flies towards Zamas. Now enraged, Zamas forms a huge energy ball and tosses it at him. Goku extends his hands to hold onto it as Zamas pushes it towards him. After some struggle, Goku flings the energy ball into the sky. He tells Zamas that Saiyans are as strong as iron, and he should have figured that out already. Vegeta takes note of Goku's condition and says that holding the power of Super Saiyan Blue within him could break his body at any moment. He wonders how long Goku can bear it. 

Goku flies in and punches Zamas into another building. This time, his wrist acts up. Goku says it was too early for him to try this as he's already starting to break. Zamas gets back up and says Saiyans being overconfident with their power is a bad habit. Goku comments that God Zamas is all healed up and this is starting to be a pain.

My thoughts- 

This arc keeps getting more and more exciting with the routes they've taken when compared to the anime version of the Zamas arc. I know Toriyama has forgotten a lot of details of his original story, but Toyotaro seemed to have gone back and re-read the Buu saga a few times. While it's never stated that the reason Kibito always had healing powers while Kaioshin himself did not, it was clever to see that it's because only a Kaioshin's apprentice can do so. Since Trunks was an apprentice of the Kaioshin of his timeline when dealing with their own Buu saga, it would make sense that he would now have healing powers too. I guess the only problem is back in DBZ, I don't think they ever stated that Kibito was Kaioshin's apprentice. He just seemed like his assistant or something.

Zamas shows off some Halo portal powers in this chapter as he keeps coming up with new tricks. Similarly, Goku now showed off the Completed Super Saiyan Blue form, which is pretty much the blue hair but without the huge blue aura around him. It's true that the Super Saiyan Blue form wastes a lot of energy, which is why both Goku and Vegeta would sometimes use the Super Saiyan God form to conserve power until they really needed it. This new state keeps Goku fighting longer, but it seems that it horribly messes up your body from the inside. 

I liked the callback to the dance ritual that the Older Kaioshin would use on Gohan to unlock his potential. I'm assuming it's the same ritual to grant the apprentice restoration powers. It's funny thinking of Kaioshin doing that dance in circles. Seeing as the main Kaioshin didn't even know about this until after his ancestor did so, it seems at least the one from Trunks' timeline was better informed.

While the manga seems to keep Goku as the one to take Zamas down, the anime actually gave Trunks a shot with a weird energy sword made out of the energy of the few remaining people of Earth. Think of the energy of the Genki Dama, but condensed into a huge energy sword. Trunks would use this sword to slice Zamas in half. It was cool to see Trunks step up and take out the final boss of his own arc, seeing as Gohan was the one that took Cell the last time, but it still made no sense for Trunks to pose any sort of a threat to the fused Zamas. This guy, inconsistent power level or not, was giving Super Saiyan Blue Goku and Vegeta trouble, what would a Super Saiyan Trunks hope to do?

We still have a few chapters left to go, but seeing the manga version only has Mai as the last surviving human, I doubt we'll be seeing a Genki Dama sword in this version.

While this chapter didn't have a gag page, as it closes off the manga, there was an extra interview with Toriyama and Toyotaro. Some of the things mentioned was that they liked how Zamas was more of a psychological villain since he thinks he's doing the right thing from his perspective. Toriyama mentioned these types of villains are harder to draw, and he only gave Zamas this angle since he was writing this and not drawing it. Had he been drawing the story, he would have made Zamas pure evil, and enemies that are just evil for the sake of being evil are easier for him to draw. 

Toyotaro was asked if he had made any changes to the story. He says that while he knew it was going to end with Goku facing down Zamas, there still needed to be twists to the story before they got there. He then remembered that Trunks was Kaioshin's apprentice so it made sense that he would have healing powers. 

The story is taking an interesting turn, I can't wait to read the next chapter!