Hmph. This thing is even more dim-witted than I anticipated. Frieza had been cautious at first, but Majin Buu was far too confident in his own absorption ability — he hadn't noticed at all that Frieza was now moving freely of his own will.
The Emperor of the Universe wandered through his neighbor Buu's interior like a well-mannered houseguest, taking in the sights at his leisure and occasionally offering a quiet commentary.
Buu had absorbed quite a few powerful fighters during this period, and Frieza recognized several of them.
"A Namekian warrior with an impure heart? What was his name... Saoneru, I believe? Hmph. A fool who refused my recruitment offer."
"Oh my, this one is built like a brick wall. Is that the Boar Doctor?"
"Now this one..." Frieza paused, eyes narrowing at an extraordinarily unusual cocoon inside Buu's body.
Ordinary cocoons showed only a face, the rest of the body fully wrapped, with the captive's energy being drained away steadily until nothing remained. This one was different. Positioned right at the center, it contained a woman — and the lower half of her torso along with one arm had already broken free of the wrapping.
Frieza studied her with cold curiosity, a smirk playing at the corner of his mouth.
The woman had not expected to find an idle visitor strolling through Buu's insides. She froze.
"Who are you?" Frieza asked.
The woman answered with smooth, practiced composure: "Hello, young man. I am Leila, the West Supreme Kai. I am not dead — as you can see, I was absorbed by Majin Buu. If you are willing to help me, I am prepared to share with you the Sacred World of the Kai and all of my treasures."
"The West Supreme Kai?" Frieza looked her up and down.
Leila was currently in a state where seven remnant souls had merged into one, carrying the memories of each remnant soul.
"Yes. The aura around you... you don't seem to be from the Sixth Universe. My remnant soul believes it has heard your name before. Frieza — am I correct?"
Leila smiled. "Come to think of it, I even knew your father, King Cold. He once wished to take me as his wife, but the wedding in the end..." Her expression flickered. "The wedding — blast it, why is that part of my memory a complete blank? Hmm. I recall the wedding was disrupted by a Saiyan named Nappa. Yes, it's coming back to me now — there was also someone called Vegeta."
Frieza blinked. Nappa? Vegeta? She meant the Nappa and Vegeta he knew?
Hearing the names of familiar people in a foreign land stirred nothing particular in him. He certainly had no intention of accepting Leila as a mother figure.
He didn't even want to acknowledge his father.
He asked with impeccable politeness: "Lord Supreme Kai, I would dearly love to help you escape. However, as you can see, my body was nearly destroyed by an enemy, leaving me with nothing but this broken, feeble mechanical shell. How desperately I wish to restore my true body."
Leila understood perfectly well that her ready-made son wanted to negotiate. She had no desire to be fully absorbed by Buu. Escaping the cocoon and then fleeing had been her only plan — originally through concealment and teleportation. But Frieza's appearance had handed her a new option: she could have him draw all the attention while she slipped away.
Leila gestured around them. "Young man, you are standing inside a treasure vault and simply don't know how to make use of it. Allow me to help you. The energy here is more than sufficient to restore your flesh-and-blood body — and to multiply your potential many times over."
Seeing clear profit on the horizon, Frieza dropped all pretense and changed his tune instantly. "Mother dear, what do I need to do?"
Leila's experience ran deep. She thought for a moment and quickly taught Frieza a method. "I'll show you a secret technique. It may hurt a little — first, we dismantle your mechanical body piece by piece, then use the flesh of Buu surrounding us to nourish and restore your own."
Frieza bit down on his back molars. "I'm not afraid of pain. The only thing I fear is dying in this wretched place like some insignificant insect."
"Then let us begin at once. Who knows when Buu will notice what we're up to — our time together is very short."
...
"Blech — what the—!?" Majin Buu felt an uncomfortable rumbling in his gut, something squirming around inside him, until his body simply rejected and expelled a lump of metallic femur head. He stared at it blankly. What on earth was this? When had that gotten inside him?
He quickly recalled the "Frost" he had just absorbed.
"That guy was a robot the whole time!? No wonder I didn't get a single bit stronger — what rotten luck."
He proceeded to spit out a steady stream of shoulder blades, rib bones, various metal components, and finally half a skull that had been heavily corroded.
Buu regarded "Frost" with utter contempt. Absolute garbage — what a waste of his time and stomach acid!
...
The warm, happy reunion between the "mother-and-son" duo of Frieza and Leila was invisible to anyone outside. From the perspective of No. 18 and Krillin, all they could see was Majin Buu looking insufferably smug, and then expelling a collection of metal parts one after another.
The two exchanged a glance. Same thought: head back and report to the Seventh Universe, then sit back and watch the chaos unfold across the Sixth Universe.
They called over Kibito — who was shaking like a leaf after being frightened half to death by Buu — and quietly began to retreat, intending to leave this planet and return to the Seventh Universe.
They hadn't taken two steps when the ground shook violently beneath their feet. An earthquake? They looked toward the distance and saw that the alien city and all the facilities in the spaceport were shaking along with it. Krillin stared open-mouthed at the sky and pointed, and No. 18 numbly tilted her head back to look — just in time to see the three moons hanging in the night sky swaying with enormous, lurching motions, one of them appearing to crack apart entirely.
"What on earth is happening?" No. 18 instinctively asked Krillin beside her.
Krillin wore an expression of total bewilderment. You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?
They looked toward Kibito. Kibito's face was equally blank — he made clear he had absolutely no idea what was going on.
...
The Demon Realm.
Demon Realm Supreme Kai Mechikabura, drawing on the energy generated by the war between the Demon Realm and the Tenth Universe, had finally gathered sufficient power to activate the entity he called the Dark Shenron.
The thing was a counterfeit product through and through. When it manifested, the draconic silhouette it projected was hazy and indistinct.
The impossibly ancient, deeply wrinkled Mechikabura raised a hand toward the Dark Shenron.
Towa — Dabura's younger sister and long-time servant of the Demon Realm Supreme Kai — stepped forward. She was carrying a metal canister engraved with elaborate ornamentation. She twisted the handle and opened it, and a stream of golden light flowed out and into the Dark Shenron's body.
This was the divine power of the Super Dragon Balls. Ino had become a Supreme Kai through the Super Dragon Balls, and her energy naturally carried within it a trace of the Super Dragon Balls' divine power. Towa and a group of Celestial Mages had employed a relay battle approach to siphon away a portion of Ino's dispersed energy over time, and from that energy they had extracted this single sliver of the Super Dragon Balls' divine power.
The moment the Dark Shenron received this trace of divine power, it solidified instantly into a fully real presence. Its voice was low and resonant, like a thunderclap: "Whoever has gathered the Dark Dragon Balls..."
Mechikabura cut off its preamble. "Less talk. I have two wishes. First — restore my youth."
The Dark Shenron nodded. "This wish is a simple one."
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