"What's going on with this thing?" Frieza watched Majin Buu with casual disinterest.
Leila said, "It seems Majin Buu's original body was destroyed at some point. When he absorbed me, he rebuilt his power structure using my intellect as the core. Now that I've reclaimed my freedom, the energy balance he constructed has collapsed. He should be rebooting at the cellular level — reverting to his initial state."
"Rebooting? Heh heh. This fool won't get the chance." Frieza extended a single finger and, seizing on Majin's moment of transformation, fired a crimson Death Beam straight at Majin's forehead.
At the critical moment, Majin Buu snapped back to consciousness — but with Leila's departure, every last shred of his intellect had been stripped away. To rally himself, he could only fall back to factory defaults.
Majin Buu became Kid Buu — the creation of the sorcerer Babidi, a pure and absolute crystallization of malice.
He could no longer speak. When he looked at Frieza and Leila, only a bestial shriek escaped his lips.
He swung his arm with force, shattering Frieza's Death Beam.
Leila retreated without a flicker of expression. She too had been reborn using Majin cells fused with her own soul — right now she couldn't even match Kid Buu, let alone reach the heights she'd known in life.
Throwing herself into a direct fight with the Majin would simply be suicide.
In his half-golden state, Frieza had absolutely no fear of Majin Buu. His old habit kicked right back in — he held up five fingers toward the beast-like Majin: "I hope you can last a little while under my attacks. Though... I'd estimate all it'll take is fifty percent of my power to turn you into cosmic dust."
...
Sacred World of the Kai.
Shin's voice trembled with barely suppressed panic. The universe under his watch was expanding and swelling in a wildly abnormal fashion. He turned to the Grand Supreme Kai in bewilderment, hoping his senior would give him some guidance.
The Grand Supreme Kai set down his barbecue and narrowed his eyes to survey the surroundings. "Some peculiar energy is affecting the Seventh Universe. Don't panic."
Panicking now wouldn't do any good anyway. He gestured for Shin to hold still and not act rashly — get a read on the situation first, understand the full picture, then decide.
Neither of them said a word about going to ask Grand Zeno for help. Grand Zeno was like a spoiled brat — what would he even understand? If they actually went to him, he'd just wave that little hand of his and wipe everything out — the most convenient solution. These were backwater universes anyway; Grand Zeno wouldn't lose a wink of sleep erasing them.
The Grand Minister was Grand Zeno's steward — what was the point of keeping all these Supreme Kais and Destroyers around if the steward had to be the one charging into the fray every time something went wrong?
The Grand Supreme Kai dismissed Shin's impulse to go investigate personally. Don't go running around — if you die, the Destroyer goes with you. Better to watch and wait for now.
Demon Realm.
Mechikabura watched the timeline fractures that kept appearing as the two universes fused together, and couldn't help but let a cold smile curl at the corner of his mouth. Yes — just like that. Fuse deeper, let the timeline shatter faster, and he would be able to break free entirely.
...
Time Nest.
The three sides' warriors produced the food they'd each brought and sat down to a proper feast. Once they'd eaten and drunk their fill, they began preparing for the second contest.
The three Supreme Kais of Time restated the rules.
No Senzu Beans. No external means of physical recovery. No Fusion Technique or Potara Earring fusion.
A free-for-all between nine warriors. Whichever side's warrior was last standing would win, and would earn the right to participate in the final decisive battle among the three Supreme Kais of Time.
This round was purely a test of each side's fighters.
The Supreme Kais of Time themselves could not participate.
Aeos's side would field Black-clothed Bardock, Black-clothed Son Gohan, and Black-clothed Piccolo.
Kuronoa's side deployed three formidable warriors from the Time Patrol: Captain Trunks, and members Son Goku and Son Gohan.
A textbook Saiyan squad.
Ino's side would send out Future Trunks, Future Gohan, and Kale — also a standard Saiyan lineup.
Nine fighters in total. Among them were two Trunks and three Son Gohans.
Eight of the nine were Saiyans. Only Black-clothed Piccolo was a Namekian.
"Don't be reckless. Once the fight starts, don't jump straight into Legendary Super Saiyan God mode — maneuver around in Super Saiyan 3 for a bit. Remember that." Ino looked her second daughter in the eyes. "If you can't win, just concede. Don't dig in and fight to the death. Your father isn't about to make a half-grown kid die fighting for me — do you understand?"
Her current cute girl appearance made the whole lecture to the already-practically-adult Kale look a little strange — but you get used to it. The Grand Minister walked around every day in the face of a young boy, and his own children didn't laugh at that, did they? Sooner or later you just adapted.
Worried that Kale would be too single-minded about it, Ino repeated herself at length — and in the end even invoked Hinata.
"If something happens to you, Hinata will grieve for the rest of her life... Please, please, remember — keeping yourself safe is the top priority."
She went on and on, saying a great deal.
Regardless of who won this round, the decisive battle between the three Supreme Kais of Time would still take place. The only difference was that the winning side would have one extra warrior participating — someone who might just tip the scales in the final outcome.
But a weight on the scale was only ever a weight. If the raw strength wasn't there, no number of extra weights would matter. Conversely, if you were powerful enough, one more warrior on the enemy's side would still get wiped out in an instant. Whether it made a difference was, in truth, debatable.
Ino added a few more words to Future Trunks and Future Gohan — stay safe, and if things look bad, there's no shame in conceding.
The atmosphere on Kuronoa's side was much the same. The big cute girl Aeos was considerably stricter — judging by the sharp, stern look on her face, she was probably telling her people that they'd better die on the arena floor before they even thought about giving up.
The three sides' warriors entered the arena one by one.
The arena space was, in a sense, infinite — there was no ring-out rule.
Only two conditions allowed a fighter to leave: surrender, or unconsciousness.
All three factions eyed each other warily, each worried about being jointly targeted by the other two.
Kale was a little nervous. This was her first time participating in a battle at this level, and her heart was hammering away. She took several deep breaths before she managed to settle herself.
Future Trunks had been watching her expression the whole time. He saw the young woman shift from uncertainty to calm — the entire transition took barely any time at all.
A born warrior. For a Legendary Super Saiyan who only appeared once in a thousand years, the name was well earned.
Future Trunks and Future Gohan both had their share of experience being chased around like dogs by the Androids. The two of them were well-versed in making their escape, well-acquainted with the art of avoiding the strong and striking at the weak — or to put it more plainly, they knew how to lie low and survive.
In their timeline, those who couldn't keep their heads down — Vegeta, Piccolo, Krillin — had all died in battle.
The one Future Trunks was worried about was also Kale. He leaned in and said in a low voice, "Miss Kale, per our plan — expose your ki at the start, act tough... but don't cross that line."
Looking at Ino's side from any angle, they were the weakest of the three — at least that was how it appeared psychologically.
This was exactly the moment they could not afford to show weakness. If they did, the other two sides would team up and knock them out first.
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