Chapter 48: Five Dragon Balls in Hand!
This answer was obviously completely out of Colleen's expectation. Her eyes widened as she asked again: "Going around the world? What are you doing? How long would that take?"
After giving the matter some thought, Saint decided not to lie, but also no spill out the whole truth. He said: "I'm looking for a few items. Some of them may still be in the wilderness, or even under the sea, so I have no accurate way of estimating how long this trip should make."
Colleen's was very confused, and it took her a while before she could make up her mind: "I can't go. bakuto might come to New York very soon, and I have a score to settle with him!"
"Bakuto? Where did you get the news?"
"A Former student!" Colleen grinned and said: "There is news that Bakuto is coming to deal with Danny Rand personally."
Saint frowned, doing his best to overcome his protective instincts. He knew he couldn't just treat Colleen, a martial artist, as a weakling. He could only remind her: "Be careful; this could be a trap! Your former student is a member of the Hand after all!"
"Do not worry." Colleen showed a happy confident smile; "I can protect myself, I promise! You…"
"Hold on!" All of a sudden, Saint yelled, and then said to the surprised Colleen: "I know what you'll say! You've trained me well, and I was able to master the Zanzoken! Well, remember, you can only use the Zanzoken once, you should never do it again until your body is fully rested!"
Colleen couldn't get herself to respond angrily and instead rewarded Saint by smiling even more: "I know, you can rest assured!"
"That would be impossible, but oh well, even if I'm worried, I could only trust you!" Saint's tone became even more serious.
"…"
Colleen bit her lip slightly, and suddenly stood up from her chair, went across the table, respond to Saint's word with a kiss to his lips…
"Smash! Crack!" The pasta dishes fell to the ground, and the food got splattered all under the table….
...
Five hours later, Saint got on the flight to London, alone. After landing, he immediately called Colleen to tell her he made it well, and then sent a text message to Lorna. Then, he rested in London for one night before renting a car and going to the periphery of the city in the direction of the Dragon Ball he sensed.
Naturally, SHIELD were well aware that Saint had left the country, and they already sent orders to their branch in Britain. As soon as Saint left the airport, a large black SUV tracked him wherever he went.
Of course, with his Ki Sense, Saint was able to notice them almost immediately, but he didn't care much. As long as he used normal means of transportation, he couldn't lose them. Yes, he had to do it somehow, but it wasn't the time yet.
After a long half-day drive, Saint finally reached his destination. He parked the rented car near a country house, and then quickly carried a bag and got down. Using the large building cover, he got into the forest behind it, disappearing from SHIELD's eyes…
After waiting for a while, the two SHIELD agents finally decided to advance carefully, just to find out that Saint wasn't anywhere to be found! He could only be inside the forest, and could only follow…
In there, Saint found the Three-Star Dragon Ball and hid it in his backpack. By the time he returned to the car, the two agents where still lost in the woods.
SHIELD did manage to locate Saint outside, as he was leaving the country! While they knew that Saint did "something" in the UK, they had no idea what it was. They didn't give up however, for he still had two agents following him at any given time.
During the following twenty days, Saint took SHIELD on a trip from England to Canada, where he found the One-Star Dragon Ball, and then got back to the states, where he was able to locate the seven and four star Dragon balls. After getting his Visa, he flew to Brazil, where he found the Two-Stars Dragon ball. After such a long journey, he could finally return to New-York with the five Dragon Balls in hand.
At this point, only the Six-Star Dragon Ball remained. As for the other Six, he kept finding ways to hide them. Not only did he keep them hidden from SHIELD's eyes, but also every time he went through airport security, he used some tricks to not let the Machines catch them. While these Dragon Balls were just some crystal globes in the eyes of the uniformed, Saint did not want to take any risk, for he knew he couldn't be too careful.
Therefore, until Saint set foot in the JFK Airport and grabbed a taxi, they still had no idea why he just took a trip around the world. What was his purpose? They couldn't make even a decent guess!
When in the taxi, out of boredom and loneliness, Saint took out his cell phone, just to have outdated news appear on its screen:
"Stark Industries owner and talented scientist, Tony Stark, disappeared in Afghanistan."
"Ha!" Saint held his breath as he looked for the timestamp of the news, just to start laughing out loud. Five days ago, on the second day of his trip to Ryo, Tony Stark's convoy in Afghanistan was targeted by missiles made by his own company. While he was lucky to stay alive, he was abducted by the "Ten Rings" and locked into a dark cave.
The reason why Saint was laughing wasn't because he hated Tony, but actually because now he could finally go safely for the last Dragon Ball, not worrying about the future Iron Man or any trouble running into him would bring him.
Saint was initially thinking that if he had to provoke Tony, he would have to make a wish right after that. He never expected he would get such a surprise when back to New York.