Vegeta roared and rushed Piccolo again, his Super Saiyan 4 power surging around him as he drove straight in.
Piccolo caught his fist in one broad hand.
Vegeta answered with a knee to the stomach.
The blow sank deep enough to force a spray of sour spit from Piccolo's mouth, and Vegeta followed at once, slapping him hard across the face. Piccolo hit the ground and rolled several times before springing back to his feet. He spat blood to the side, rolled his neck, and smiled.
Vegeta's expression only grew darker.
"Now that I think about it," Piccolo said, "you and I have never really fought one-on-one."
Vegeta snorted. "A Namekian isn't worthy of fighting me."
"Is that how little you think of Namekians?"
"I am a Saiyan, born from a warrior race. What are Namekians compared to that?" Vegeta's tone was full of contempt, but his eyes had already turned sharp.
Piccolo smiled. "Then prove it."
They crashed together again, and the island beneath them paid the price.
Five minutes later, a final collision tore through the land itself. The deserted island shattered from the force of their fight and vanished beneath the sea, leaving only waves and broken stone where the battlefield had been.
Piccolo and Vegeta rose into the air at the same time.
Piccolo glanced down at what was left of the island.
Vegeta did not. His whole body trembled with anger.
Why?
Why was a Namekian this close to him?
He refused to accept it.
He could not accept it.
"Let's stop here, Vegeta," Piccolo said. "If we keep going, Earth is next."
Vegeta said nothing.
"And their Fusion should be ending soon," Piccolo added. "Don't forget, Buu is still the enemy."
Vegeta clicked his tongue and shot him a bitter look before turning toward the Lookout.
Piccolo let out a quiet breath and followed, soon catching up to him in the sky.
Vegeta did not say a word the entire way back.
Once they returned to the Lookout, he took out the rest of his frustration on Zarotenks. Only after beating the fusion black and blue did Vegeta finally look a little less murderous.
By Earth's clock, one day passed quickly.
At Mr. Satan's house, Buu ate until he was perfectly satisfied. Afterward, Mr. Satan personally helped him bathe, scrubbing his back and thumping his shoulders with the practiced rhythm of someone who took the job far too seriously.
Buu loved it.
"Satan, you're good at this," Buu said, grinning.
Mr. Satan chuckled. "I was going to bring in a few pretty attendants to scrub your back, but you didn't want that."
"You do it better," Buu said.
"I usually let pretty girls do mine," Mr. Satan said, grinning in a way that immediately made him look suspicious. "That has its own kind of energy."
Buu blinked. "What kind of energy?"
"We could call them in now."
"No." Buu shook his head at once. "I'm not interested in that. Look at Broly. Ai tied him down too much. Being free is better."
Mr. Satan paused. "Broly?"
"My best friend," Buu said.
Mr. Satan's eyes filled with tears on the spot. "Buu…"
Buu turned around, confused. "Why are you crying, Satan?"
"I thought I was your best friend."
"No," Buu said honestly. "You're my second-best friend."
Mr. Satan stared at him.
Universe 7, Sacred World of the Kai.
Elder Kai had finally stopped circling Gohan and was now sitting across from him, drawing out the enormous power hidden inside him.
Kale waited nearby with more patience than anyone had expected.
Goku, Caulifla, and Cabba were eating fruit. Shin and Kibito stood beside them, watching Elder Kai from a distance.
"Goku," Shin said after a while, "that man named Ken is a Saiyan, isn't he?"
"Yeah." Goku bit into something like an apple and nodded. "He is."
"Then how did he become an Angel?"
"You didn't know?" Goku laughed. "Ken is a genius. He trained himself into a real Angel."
"A Saiyan can become a real Angel through training?"
"I don't know if anyone else can. Ken can, at least." Goku took another bite. "He's amazing."
Shin looked at him. "What about you? Don't you want to become an Angel?"
"No. I want to be a Supreme Kai." Goku answered without hesitation. "Angels always keep such serious faces. They don't show much expression."
Shin fell silent.
"And Angels can't use Kai Kai," Goku added with a grin. "That sounds inconvenient."
Shin's eyes lit up. "When you put it that way, being a Supreme Kai is better."
"I heard Angels have a lot of rules too," Goku went on. "Like not being allowed to travel through time."
Shin blinked. "Travel through time?"
"You don't know?" Goku lifted his left hand and showed him the ring on his finger. "This is a Time Ring. With this, you can move through time pretty easily."
Shin stared at the ring.
He had never heard of that rule.
"I went to Future Trunks's timeline and trained for a long time with the Supreme Kai of Universe 6 there," Goku said.
"The round one?" Shin asked at once.
"Yeah. Fuwa."
"What did you learn from him?"
"A lot." Goku scratched his head, smiling. "I even made a planet in Trunks's timeline with my own power."
Cabba and Caulifla both looked over.
Goku seemed ridiculous most of the time, but he had actually created a planet.
Shin felt another sharp stab to his pride.
He was not sure he had ever created one by himself.
Kibito did not look much better.
"How did you create it?" Shin asked.
"It's simple," Goku said. "You gather meteorites in space, pack them together, then put energy into the inside of the planet. That makes the planet's… what was it called? Fuwa told me, but I forgot."
"The core," Shin said.
"Right, the core. You really do know a lot, Supreme Kai."
Shin stared at him.
This man had created a planet without even remembering what the core was called.
Then another thought struck him. "But you can't survive in outer space."
"That's why I made the planet near Mars. Mars had air. The place was rough, but you could still survive there."
"Mars is part of the solar system, correct?"
"What's a solar system?"
Shin stopped talking.
Kibito could not resist asking, "Then how did you gather the meteorites? They should have been in space."
"Like this."
Goku lifted his hand.
The sky above them darkened.
A massive meteorite appeared overhead, far larger than the one he had meant to summon.
Goku stared at it. "Oops. Too big. I still haven't learned this properly."
Then he vanished.
The meteorite dropped.
Shin, Kibito, Cabba, and Caulifla did not have time to move before it slammed down and pinned them beneath it.
Under the stone, the four of them stared at one another in silence.
From a safe distance, Goku looked puzzled. "Sorry. Why didn't you dodge?"
Caulifla punched the meteorite away and climbed out with a dark face.
She had only been standing there eating fruit.
Somehow, disaster had still found her.
Shin dusted himself off and returned to Goku, because apparently he still had questions. "When you say Trunks's timeline, do you mean that child named Trunks? Vegeta's son?"
"About seven years ago, Future Trunks came to our time in a Time Machine," Goku said. "Then he went back. That created a parallel timeline for him."
"Let me see that Time Ring."
Shin looked at the ring with open desire.
Goku immediately pulled his hand back. "Ken told me to keep the Time Ring safe. I can't give it to anyone."
Shin went quiet.
That ring looked very familiar.
In fact, he was fairly sure it was his.
Goku quickly changed the subject and tucked his hand behind his back. "Anyway, is the old man really doing this properly?"
"It should be fine," Shin said, looking toward Gohan.
Goku pointed. "He looks asleep. I think he's snoring."
Shin turned.
Gohan had noticed too.
"Supreme Kai…"
Elder Kai sat facing Gohan with a snot bubble swelling from his nose, snoring softly.
"Elder Kai!" Gohan shouted.
Kale's hands twitched. "Old man…"
Elder Kai snapped awake. "Were you calling me? What is it?"
"You fell asleep," Gohan said flatly.
"Nonsense. I was awake the entire time."
"I don't think so."
"I don't think so either," Kale said. "You had a snot bubble."
"To amateurs, it may look that way," Elder Kai said, completely shameless. "But a Supreme Kai would never lie."
Gohan decided arguing with him was pointless.
"Enough wasting time," Elder Kai said. "We continue."
He lowered his head again.
A snot bubble swelled from his nose almost immediately.
Gohan stared.
Kale silently rolled up her sleeves.
Elder Kai's eyes snapped open at once, bright and innocent.
Kale paused.
The two of them stared at each other.
Then Elder Kai's head drooped again, and the snot bubble slowly returned.
Kale looked at Gohan.
Gohan looked back.
Neither of them had the energy to say anything.
Back on the Lookout in Universe 6, Zarek, Goten, and Trunks finally split apart.
Piccolo moved them straight into position. "Good. Now we try it as Super Saiyans."
Zarek frowned. "Super Saiyan isn't my strongest form."
"We start with Super Saiyan," Piccolo said. "Complain after you can fuse properly."
Zarek clicked his tongue but transformed anyway. Goten and Trunks followed a moment later, golden light rising around all three of them.
Piccolo's expression hardened as he looked them over. "If this works, you do not run off. You do not pick a fight with Buu. You wait for orders."
"You and Vegeta already beat us half to death," Zarek muttered. "You didn't have to go that far."
Vegeta stepped forward. "Then remember how it felt. If you act up again, we'll do it properly next time."
Zarek's mouth twitched. Goten laughed awkwardly, while Trunks only grinned and kept quiet.
Piccolo raised his hand. "Begin."
The three Super Saiyans moved together, their ki lining up as they swept into the final motion. Their fingertips met at the center of the triangle, and golden light washed over the Lookout.
When the glare faded, Super Saiyan Zarotenks stood in their place.
This version was different. The failed fusions had looked ridiculous from the first second, but now the power around him was real, sharp enough that even Dende and Mr. Popo fell silent. Zarotenks rolled his shoulders, smiled, and that smile carried far too much of Zarek's arrogance.
Mr. Popo nodded slowly. "This one worked. His ki is much stronger."
"Yes," Dende said. "Much stronger."
Piccolo studied the fusion without relaxing. "Strong, but still not enough for Majin Buu. You need more than this. If you can reach Goten's Super Saiyan God form, or Zarek's destruction form, then we can talk."
Zarotenks scoffed. "Still looking down on me? Then fight me and find out."
Piccolo's mouth tightened. "Every fusion comes out this arrogant. So Zarek is the one steering, then."
Vegeta stepped past him. "I'll handle it."
Zarotenks pointed toward the open sky. "Good. I still owe you for earlier, Vegeta. Let's take it away from the Lookout before we break the place."
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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