Time has no color, no temperature, no weight. That was Ino's understanding of time — her true, honest perception of it, at this moment, on this day. Perhaps when she reached a higher plane of existence, her understanding would change entirely. But for now, this was the truth she knew.
After Majin Buu was swallowed by her Time Domain, the flow of his personal time was corroded by a leaden, washed-out state of decay. Even so, she could tell — even trapped within that disorienting temporal field, he had not gone completely still. His body shifted in small, subtle adjustments of posture, and he was already attempting to gather his energy again.
Ino was bearing part of the time current through her own body to sustain the domain. It was an immense strain. But she looked outward anyway, scanning carefully.
Several distinct time threads ran through Majin Buu's body, visible to her trained perception.
The thickest — the one that coiled around his entire form — was his own. He was, after all, a living being. Bibidi and Babidi had both claimed that a Majin was immortal, that a single cell could rebuild the whole — but that was complete nonsense. What did two wizards know about true immortality? Supreme Kais could die. Naturally, a Majin had a lifespan of his own.
Admittedly, Majin Buu's lifespan was extraordinarily long. Ino had no technique for directly reducing a being's lifespan, and even if she had, she couldn't shave off much in this short a window anyway.
His longevity came from two sources: his own innate nature, and the absorbed essence of the Grand Supreme Kai and the South Supreme Kai.
Beyond the thread that wound around his whole body, there were two more — one thick, one thin.
Majin Buu had absorbed other intelligent lifeforms over the eons as well, but those souls had essentially been fully digested away over the vast span of time. Only these two remained.
Ino studied the time threads belonging to the Grand Supreme Kai and the South Supreme Kai with careful attention.
Strengthen yourself, weaken your enemy. It was the most enduringly practical tactic in existence.
If she couldn't see them, it would be one thing. But she could. And for the sake of the Seventh Universe's civilizational progress, these two Supreme Kais needed to be saved — one way or another.
Ino's shoulder shifted. Two figures stepped out of her own time stream.
They were her. One was herself from one second in the past; the other, herself from one second in the future.
The three Inos looked at each other. All three nodded in unison.
The Ino from one second past formed hand seals. Submerged within the river of time itself, even she had limited means to call upon temporal power.
But she perceived time as flowing water. Combining her own "power of water" and "Time Power," she moved through the hand seals rapidly — and a time-based ninjutsu took shape.
"Time Ninjutsu — Sage Art: Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"
A tide of time crashed down onto Majin Buu with the force of a flood surge. A resonant, drawn-out toll of bells accompanied the wave — within it was the joy of a living thing making its very first sound, and the tranquil stillness of the end of time, when all things return to nothing. Time in that space moved like the face of a clock, turning clockwise, then counter-clockwise, spinning so fast even Ino herself felt dizzy.
The energy Majin Buu had just barely managed to gather was scattered apart. His resistance had been ground down to its absolute lowest.
The Ino of the normal time stream formed her seals: "Ninja Art: Mind God Transfer Jutsu!"
Son Goku used the Kamehameha Wave from start to finish his entire career. Ino was starting to develop the same habit...
No shame in that. A technique doesn't have to be fresh — it just has to work.
She seized temporary control of Majin Buu's body. Working quickly, she located the cocoons still steadily draining the life energy of the Grand Supreme Kai and the South Supreme Kai.
What she found left her momentarily stunned.
The South Supreme Kai was nearly gone. His body had been fully absorbed; his soul had long since lost any sense of self. The cocoon encasing him was desiccated, dry as old bark. Ino estimated that if she yanked it out now, what remained of the South Supreme Kai might amount to two ounces of ash — and that would only be thanks to the collective blessings of every Supreme Kai who had ever lived.
The Grand Supreme Kai's situation was marginally better. His physical body had been completely absorbed as well — only his soul remained. But it was still there.
He and Majin Buu had formed a strange, symbiotic dependency. After the separation of Fat Buu and the other forms, what remained as Fat Buu was essentially the Grand Supreme Kai at his core — he had simply lost the majority of his memories, with Fat Buu's personality dominant in place of his own.
Ino glanced at her two time clones. What now?
The Ino from one second in the future was blunt about it. She made a single decisive gesture: Stop overthinking. Pull the good one out, then concentrate everything on destroying the bad one. How is this complicated?
"Fair enough. Let's try to wake the Grand Supreme Kai first." Ino turned her full attention toward the soul within the cocoon.
"Grand Supreme Kai — I am the Supreme Kai of the Seventh Universe. Can you hear my voice? I am going to bring you out. When we separate, please take as much of your core life-source with you as you can."
She repeated it twice before she received the faintest, barely-there response from within the cocoon.
The Grand Supreme Kai's consciousness stirred awake, little by little, within Majin Buu's body. After a hesitant pause, he asked: "You are so very young. May I ask — who is the Supreme Kai now?"
"Supreme Kai Shin — the East Supreme Kai from your era."
The Grand Supreme Kai's response carried a warmth that needed no words to convey. "Shin is outstanding. Knowing he is the one protecting the Seventh Universe — I am at peace."
The weakened Grand Supreme Kai hesitated, then said, "Young Supreme Kai — do not rescue me. As long as I remain within the Majin's body, I can still suppress his malevolence. The moment you extract me, what you'll be facing is a Majin of pure, undiluted evil."
Ino had a different view. "Grand Supreme Kai, the Seventh Universe needs your strength for its civilizational development. I cannot maintain this state for long. Come out first — we'll discuss the rest after."
"...Very well, then."
Even with the Time Domain bearing down on him, even with the river of time washing through him in full current, Majin Buu's resistance was growing stronger with every passing second. She could feel her grip on the body beginning to slip.
"Now!" She sent the signal to her time clones.
For the South Supreme Kai, there was nothing left to do. She could only wish him peace.
The cocoon belonging to the Grand Supreme Kai began to emerge from within the body, rising inch by inch toward the surface.
Ino suppressed the instinctive resistance of Majin Buu's body, continuously redirecting the Majin's own life force into the Grand Supreme Kai to sustain him.
The two time clones outside pulled from their end.
"Harder!"
"More! Give it more!"
"Main body, you need to do your part too!"
Ino was equally frazzled on her end: "Don't rush me — do you two have any idea what I'm doing over here?"
She was busy stuffing the West Supreme Kai's remnant soul into Majin Buu's body.
The Super Dragon Balls had rewritten her bloodline, granting her a Supreme Kai lineage — which meant the West Supreme Kai's remnant soul was no longer of any use to her. But it remained a liability. A loose thread. Something that could surface at the worst possible moment and expose her.
Simply killing it wasn't an option. In this world, death was not an end.
So she was using this opportunity — this perfect, convenient opportunity — to dump the West Supreme Kai's remnant soul directly into Majin Buu, and let the Majin take the blame on her behalf.
Once she formed her own closed time loop in the future, this matter would be completely severed from her, permanently and beyond dispute.
Shin had testified that he witnessed the North Supreme Kai and the West Supreme Kai being killed, the South Supreme Kai and the Grand Supreme Kai being absorbed. But Shin had been hopelessly weak back then — and he was still hopelessly weak now. Who's to say he hadn't made a mistake? Who's to say Majin Buu hadn't quietly absorbed a trace of the West Supreme Kai's remnant soul on his own? Wasn't that perfectly plausible? Entirely understandable, really.
Ino gathered the three fragments of the remnant soul together. Before the remnant soul's consciousness could stir awake, she shoved the whole bundle smoothly into Majin Buu's body. The Majin held an insatiable hunger for any form of energy — his body automatically formed a new cocoon, wrapping up every last scrap of what remained of the West Supreme Kai.
Ino was deeply satisfied.
You reached out and grabbed this blame yourself. That has absolutely nothing to do with me.
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