Tankōbon Title Page
Kanzenban Title Page
Full Color Title Page

Chapter Information

Chapter Synopsis

“Ka… me… ha… me… ha!!!!” Piccolo freaks out that it’s the real thing, and just barely jumps out of the way of the Kamehameha. However, while mid-air, the monster jumps up behind Piccolo and grabs him, trapping his arms and legs. He drives his tail towards Piccolo’s chest, but Piccolo turns away just enough for the tail to pierce his left arm. The monster had tried to kill him, and gets pissed he got his arm. But he doesn’t mind taking his powerful life extract instead, and starts sucking the life out of Piccolo’s arm. Piccolo manages to headbutt him and escape, although his arm has shriveled up into nothing. The monster says that without the use of one arm, the tides have turned. Piccolo, clutching his arm, says he’s losing balance too, and regretfully says the monster wins. The monster is glad, since absorbing life extract of Piccolo’s level will bring him ever closer to his perfect form.

Piccolo has a request before he gets absorbed, though: why does he have the ki of Goku and Freeza and everyone, and why can he use Kamehameha. The monster figures he’ll die anyway, so what the hell. “My name is ‘Cell’, I’m an artificial human. I was invented by Doctor Gero’s computer. Long ago, he began gathering the cells of fighting experts, and combined those cells. His artificial human research began, but since it was taking too much time, he abandoned it mid-way. However, his computer continued the work without rest. Son Goku, Piccolo, as well as Vegeta’s cells were harvested at the battle when Vegeta and Nappa came to Earth.” Piccolo figures with Goku at that time, it’s no wonder the Kamehameha didn’t seem so great.

“Furthermore, we lucked out and took cells from Freeza and his father when they came to Earth. It would’ve been good to take cells from the kid called Trunks as well, but there was already enough Saiyan cells gathered.” Piccolo wants to know how they gathered cells, because they didn’t see anyone suspicious around. “You should’ve heard from Doctor Gero that your actions have been monitored by spy robots. Little robots like bees. Nobody would notice. While they were at it, they took some of your cells. Take a good luck. [pointing to a tiny bug] Even now, it’s sending this data to the computer. I think it wants your cells.” Piccolo spots the spy robot, and then destroys it. “Destroying it now is too late. The necessary cells have already been gathered, and the research has begun. Although, I won’t be completed for another twenty-four years.”

Piccolo tells him that’s impossible, since Doctor Gero’s laboratory was destroyed. “The computer is in a research room below ground.” Piccolo asks why it’s taken him three years since he got here to come out of his egg. “Once I return to my egg, it takes three years underground for me to mature again. It was just that I needed the time. Plus, I could gradually absorb people.” Piccolo’s last question is why he even came here from the future. “For me to reach my perfect form, the life extract of humans alone is insufficient. There are two essential and special life forms I need to combine with. The computer told me that those two special life forms were… the artificial humans created by Doctor Gero, No. 17 and No. 18! Though, when I awoke in my future, I don’t know how, but that Trunks person had defeated No. 17 and No. 18. They were gone.”

“However, I lucked out. Trunks had a time machine. I killed Trunks and came to this time to search for No. 17 and No. 18. That’s how it is.” Piccolo asks why come to this time. “Well… Trunks’ time machine was set for this time. I just pressed the switch.” Piccolo thinks to himself that maybe Trunks wanted to come back and inform them that he had defeated the artificial humans. “The computer also said this! If I reach my perfect form, I could obtain fearsome power beyond imagination!!!” Piccolo asks what he needs that kind of power for. “What for? The computer was programmed to just create a strong person, as far as I can figure. Or perhaps it’s the blood of the Saiyans, Freeza, and Piccolo flowing within me.” Piccolo says okay, the mystery has been fully unraveled, as he rips off his shriveled arm. Then he regenerates a new one right away. Cell is shocked, and realizes that’s why he made him talk. Piccolo says he won’t let him reach his perfect form and that he was foolish for having his blood flowing within him, yet didn’t realizing his regeneration ability.

Chapter Notes

• Each issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump features short comments from the various series’ authors, giving fans a brief insight into their current thoughts, ranging from series-related announcements to trivial happenings in their personal lives. Akira Toriyama’s comments from this issue were:
  3月7日から劇場版ＤＢＺが公開されます。本誌やＴＶとは一味違う迫力に乞ご期待！！＜明＞

  ---

  A Dragon Ball Z movie will open on March 7th. Please look forward to a kind of impact that’s a bit different from the comic and the TV show. <Akira>

  The movie in question is Dragon Ball Z movie 6.

Page Breakdown

The majority of the Dragon Ball series was drawn in black and white, but chapters were occasionally published with color pages. This breakdown notes how many full-color, limited-color, and black-and-white pages appeared in this chapter. As the tankōbon volumes were not released with these colors intact, any color pages shown are taken from the kanzenban release.