"Yes," Taro casually replied.
Hathaway blinked her big eyes at him, not saying anything.
Taro helplessly placed his cup on the coffee table and said, "This is my true appearance."
As he spoke, his face began to rapidly age, wrinkles appearing from shallow to deep. His hair also lost its deep black luster and thick volume, growing longer and eventually flowing down behind him. At the same time, the middle-aged look on his face underwent subtle adjustments.
This transition was exactly how he appeared when he used the guise of the "soul Painter" and the author of The Uchiha Sinners, "Kishimoto Yoshihiro."
"These are just disguises I once used."
Shaking his head, Taro removed the transformation magic, and his appearance returned to its original form.
Short black hair, in his twenties.
He had no intention of making himself appear younger; rather, the combined effects of his divine tree physique and the longevity water had resulted in an extremely robust vitality, slowing his aging process to an incredibly slow pace. This wasn't something he could control, and frankly, there was no need to control it.
On the other hand, since the night he had awakened in the forest twenty-one years ago, under the moonlight, Taro had decided to leave the past behind and begin a new chapter in his long life. Therefore, there was no need to... deliberately appear older than he really was.
In short, he let everything take its natural course.
---
"Ah... so amazing..." Hathaway blinked her big eyes, watching Taro's face change like a magic trick, from young to old, and then from old to young again. The drawing and two books in her hands had already unconsciously dropped.
After a while, Hathaway suddenly asked, "Taro, how old are you?"
To be honest, Taro was momentarily stunned.
Not because of the question itself, but...
After thinking carefully, it had been many years since anyone had called his name like that.
But Taro didn't mind. His daze lasted only a moment, and he answered calmly, without any change in expression: "This year... I'm around one hundred sixty or so."
"Wow..." Hathaway exclaimed, "That's really old... older than my father."
"Yes, I've lived a long time," Taro said, sounding almost like a light sigh, but without any emotional fluctuation, just calmly stating it.
"No wonder they call you by such extravagant mname: Muten Master! Hee hee..." Hathaway suddenly laughed again. She was such a strange girl.
She acted as casually as if she were at a newly made friend's house, without any restraint, picking up the tea cup on the coffee table and taking a sip.
At that moment, the Phoenix on the sofa next to Taro slowly woke up. It blinked twice, saw Hathaway across from them, and seemed very pleased. It flapped its wings while softly chirping.
Hathaway knew the bird was greeting her, so she smiled and waved. "Hello, you..." She paused, then turned to Taro, "By the way, what's its name?"
Taro shook his head and said, "It doesn't have a name."
It had been by his side for so many years, and they had a deep bond, so Taro had never really thought about... giving it a name. In fact, he didn't feel the need to.
Hathaway saw the bird give Taro a look of grievance and sorrow, which made her laugh.
Finally, Hathaway said, "I didn't intentionally spy on your room, it's just that your door wasn't fully closed, and when I passed by, I accidentally saw... uh..."
As she spoke, her eyes couldn't help but sparkle with excitement, like she had discovered something interesting. She looked as if she couldn't wait to try it out. She whispered, then hesitantly asked, "What's all that equipment in your room...?"
"Equipment?" Taro was momentarily stunned, then quickly understood.
This girl... must have passed by and seen all the hardware and parts in his room that were jumbled together. Those were things he had been trying to piece together to make a computer. Unfortunately, after researching for all these years, he had made no progress, and it was just a pile of scrap metal.
Thinking about the girl in front of him, with her character design very much like Bulma's, even Taro couldn't help but feel a bit 'shy' and 'annoyed'. How many years had it been since he felt 'ashamed'? But there was nothing he could do. No matter how strong his martial arts were, if his IQ and understanding of science were lacking... well, he just didn't understand it, and that was that.
'Could it be...?'
As he thought this, Taro felt a stirring in his heart as he looked at the girl in front of him, somewhat moved.
"Those..." Hathaway quickly described the equipment she had seen in the room. Her body leaned forward, her hands bracing on the coffee table as she peered at Taro, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "You're trying to make a machine for personal calculation and information processing, right? Right? It's not finished yet, right? You've encountered some difficult problems, right? And you can't solve them alone, right?"
She blurted out a rapid-fire series of "right?" and "right?", her big eyes blinking with what seemed like the ability to speak, sparkling with requests and hope.
Taro gazed into her eyes for a while, then lowered his head to pour himself another cup of tea. He said, "Hmm... if you're willing, you can help me research it."
"Of course, of course! I'm totally up for it!" Hathaway cheered, and in the blink of an eye, she vanished.
Is this the quirky behavior of a scientific genius? Taro looked at the spot where the girl had disappeared, then shook his head and chuckled.
There was no doubt that a girl capable of independently developing a machine capable of detecting the Dragon Balls would likely not be too far behind the original Bulma. Besides, more than a hundred years had passed, so the scientific and cultural education she'd received would differ. Therefore, a direct comparison wasn't fair.
Looking down, Taro saw the painting and two books that Hathaway had left on the coffee table.
A thought stirred in his mind, and a vast mental force surged out, surrounding the painting and the two books, lifting them into the air before him.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
The painting and books seemed to be controlled by an invisible hand, floating above the coffee table, unfurling in front of him.
The paper of the painting stretched, becoming almost like a square blade from the side, seemingly "disappearing into thin air"; meanwhile, the two books flipped through their pages...
While sipping his tea, Taro's gaze landed on the painting. As he looked at the little girl on the painting, he remembered the young girl he had sent it to all those years ago. He wondered... could this Hathaway be the daughter of that little girl from back then?
(Taro didn't know that the pregnant woman he had helped give birth to at that time had been the same little girl from years ago.)
The Uchiha Sinners 7 flipped over, and the story of Uchiha Sasuke's life slowly moved toward its final chapter: his brother's death, the disasters in the Ninja World, the ancient truth, the break with his best friend... Ultimately, he stood alone, resolutely on the opposite side of the Ninja world.
What had he been thinking when he wrote this? Was it the original story, or his own second life in the Ninja world? Uchiha Musashi, are you dead or alive? If you're still alive, take a look at how the Uchiha clan ends in that world...
A faint smile appeared on Taro's lips as his eyes scanned the other book. The clippings from newspapers and magazines, photos of the "soul Painter" and the author, all of which were once him — his former self.
A thought crossed his mind, and Taro paused briefly before setting down his tea cup. His eyes focused on the floating painting and two books in front of him. He finally understood... why Hathaway had looked at him like she was looking at a "familiar face".
He remembered... her eyes, pure to the point that they seemed to be able to see into the heart of others.
Taro smiled faintly, lifted his tea cup again, and took a gentle sip.
At this moment, Hathaway returned to the living room from the hallway, scratching her head awkwardly. "Um... could you maybe tell me a little about your design ideas...?"
Taro laughed silently, shaking his head as he stood up and said, "Follow me."
The Phoenix remained on the sofa, watching the man and woman leave, its eyes twirling as it wondered what it was thinking. Was it considering whether it would get a new female master, or... why it didn't have a name?
---
Five months later, on Earth in the Dragon Ball world, the first personal computer was finally created.
Beep.
A slightly dark, stained hand pressed a button on the mainframe.
Hathaway watched eagerly as the screen of the monitor slowly lit up with flashing neon light.
In the center of the black screen, a white circle appeared, seemingly a sphere. After a while, the progress bar moved forward, and in the center of the circle, a hollow black pentagram appeared...
System operation successful.
After waiting for three minutes, the desktop screen appeared.
Hathaway grabbed the mouse and clicked a few times. She pulled out the keyboard, her nimble fingers tapping away at lightning speed, as lines of code danced across the display...
Debugging complete.
"Success!" Hathaway cheered with joy, her face smeared with dust, looking like a little flower cat.
She turned to look and saw Taro smiling at her. She froze for a moment and asked, "What's wrong?"
Taro saw her turn around and immediately suppressed his smile, shaking his head. "Nothing... hmm, you're really smart. I don't understand these things too well, but you've managed to make it work... It's really amazing."
This was the truth. Some of the theories were already vague in his memory. But Hathaway was indeed a genius, a true genius. Her mind was completely different from that of a normal person. She had managed to figure it all out on her own... In this aspect, the difference between her and Taro was as vast as the difference between her intellect and his martial power — worlds apart, impossible to compare.
"Of course! I'm a genius!" Hathaway said proudly, lifting her nose.
Taro smiled faintly, then after a moment, turned around and said, "Since that's the case..."
A soft body pressed against his back.
Taro froze.
A finger stretched from behind, poking his cheek. Hathaway, standing behind him, first rested her head on his back, then moved to his neck, whispering in his ear, "Hey hey hey, you're not going to use me and then send me away, right?"
Taro stood still, unmoving.
Although with his abilities, breaking free from the person behind him would be as simple as breathing... But somehow, this woman's arms felt like shackles, preventing him from exerting any strength.
He didn't know what was wrong with him, but at that moment, the image of Fanfan suddenly popped into his mind...
Strictly speaking, Taro never considered the idea of "being faithful" or "should I be faithful?" He never really thought about it.
In his three lifetimes... there had never been a chance for him to think about this question.
In his first life, he was an ordinary young man who died unexpectedly without ever having been in a relationship. In his short life, he read a lot of internet novels about harems. Although he didn't take them seriously, he had jokingly said things like "a man, traveling to another world, kicking the gods and building a harem"...
In his second life, it was even more irrelevant. In that world of professional assasins, he was too busy being a freak who only knew how to kill, and never had time to find a partner, eventually being slowly killed by his own brother...
And in this third life.
After taking on the identity of 'Mu Taro' and promising the dying Mutaito to take care of Fanfan, Taro naturally became involved with her. He hadn't thought much about it at the time.
If he had known how slowly he would age, known that Fanfan would be heartbroken, known that he wouldn't find the Dragon Balls before Fanfan died, known that... being together wouldn't necessarily bring happiness, maybe he wouldn't have chosen to be with her.
So, he never thought about "love" and never expected... that someone like him would encounter or have "love."
"Hathaway, I..." Back to facing this girl, a very good girl. After five months of being together, Taro admitted that his withered heart had stirred, but... but!
"Ah, why are you thinking so much about it?"
Hathaway didn't care at all, and jumped straight onto Taro.
---
[Year 608, December 25th, heavy snow falling]
[Today is the wedding day, haha, so strange, I'm actually marrying an old man who's been alive for over a hundred years! Am I crazy? Hehe, although he isn't bad at all, he looks really young... He said he drank some immortality water when he was younger? And there's also talk of the underworld and the universe... It all feels so interesting!]
[Also, it's so funny! When my parents saw him, they must've been shocked, right? Haha, their precious daughter comes back after a trip and brings home a fiancé? Hmph, now Mom keeps nagging me about boyfriends... But, I didn't tell them Taro's real identity, I was really afraid of scaring them...]
[Hehe... Actually, I have a secret, even Taro doesn't know about it... I've actually been a "freak" since I was little... When I was very young, I could "remember"... The first time I met Taro, I didn't think he was the author of the painting and the book, but rather... I had seen him when I was a child! I remember that face! When he left, he even gave me a candy!...]
[Thinking about it... it's really strange... I really married someone who i met when I was a child? Oh my, am I a weirdo? Hehe... But I can't help it, I like him! If you like someone, why not be together, right?]
[So, whatever!]
[Anyway... I, this young lady, hereby declare, Taro's life of over a hundred years is now mine!]
[... Hmm, after hearing his story, I feel like he's really lonely, poor thing, patting my husband's head, don't cry, haha, he seems like he can't cry anyway...]
[... And that plan of his, I feel like... my husband really is an amazing person! I have to help him as much as I can... He said he needs to find various scientists from the universe? How can that be? I'm such a genius, there's nothing I can't do! This is humiliating, he's definitely looking down on me! How dare he! I'm not dumber than any alien... ]
[... Artificial intelligence, huh? Well, if I, this young lady, no, I mean, if I, this wife, step in, it's no big deal, right?]
[So...]
At this point, Hathaway paused for a moment, her gaze softening as she gently twirled a purple strand of hair around her finger. A gentle smile appeared on her face as she picked up the pen and finished writing the last sentence.
"What's wrong?" On the bed beside her, Taro turned over.
"Nothing." Hathaway closed the diary, snuggled under the covers, lay on top of Taro, and began stroking his muscle-bound body, gently tapping him with her hand, laughing softly, "You said your constitution is special, so... can we have children?"
Taro sighed, rolling his eyes. "Who knows…"
"So... we have to try hard!" Hathaway shrieked, pulling the covers over both of them.
"Hey! Be careful!"
The blanket shifted.
The diary resting on the nightstand sat quietly, bathed in the dim yellow light.
[... Can I live to be a hundred years old?]