"Vados, didn't you say last time that there was a gourmet planet in your universe?" Kusu asked, steering the topic away from Ken. "Take me there sometime. I want to try the food."
"Of course. That gourmet planet is actually Earth," Vados answered honestly. "Ken's home planet."
"Earth, hm?" Kusu said, glancing toward Ken.
"But I usually go there in secret," Vados said with a giggle, lowering her voice. "I hide my angel power and slip into some seven-star luxury hotel to enjoy the food."
"Why do you have to go in secret?" Kusu asked, confused.
"It's better if he doesn't know," Vados said with a smile.
"Because otherwise he'll flirt with you again, right?" Kusu asked, trying not to laugh.
"Yes, exactly," Vados said, nodding. Then she shot back, "As if he hasn't flirted with you too, Kusu-nee-san."
"Oh my... honestly, having an angel like him around does add a bit of flavor to life," Kusu said with a smile.
"Once he leaves, let's sneak off to Earth together and eat something good," Vados whispered.
Kusu nodded, her eyes already showing anticipation.
"Hey, Vados, Kusu, what are you two whispering about?" Ken asked with interest.
"Nothing. The weather's lovely today," Vados said, looking up at the sky.
"Yes, not a cloud in sight," Kusu replied.
"On Earth, this would count as autumn weather, wouldn't it?" Vados asked with a smile.
"That's right," Ken said, nodding. "You can even smell autumn in the air."
As he said that, he leaned in and took a sniff around Vados, then around Kusu too.
Autumn really did have a rather distinctive scent.
Kusu: "..."
Vados: "..."
"Since autumn's here, I should at least treat you two to the season's first milk tea," Ken said with a smile.
"Milk tea?" Vados repeated, blinking. "What's that?"
"I've never heard of it either, but the name sounds lovely," Kusu said, looking intrigued.
Vados had sneaked off to seven-star hotels plenty of times to eat, but even she had never actually had milk tea before.
"I'll make some for you," Ken said, pulling out several ingredients on the spot.
"What are all those?" Vados asked curiously, pointing at the assortment.
Ken set out a glass container and started mixing the drink right there.
"First, a spoonful of creamer..." he said.
A minute later, the milk tea was done.
Ken poured it into two cups and handed one to Vados and one to Kusu.
They each took a sip.
Their eyes lit up instantly.
"This is delicious. So this is milk tea?" Vados said, smacking her lips.
"It really is something special," Kusu said. She liked it immediately too.
But after drinking a little more, both angels started to sense that something was off.
"Ken, does this milk tea actually have anything to do with milk or tea?" Vados asked curiously. "I didn't see you add either."
"Neither did I," Kusu said with a nod.
Calmly, Ken took out black tea and fresh milk, then made himself a proper cup from scratch.
Kusu: "..."
Vados: "..."
"Why is your milk tea different from ours?" Vados asked.
"Let me try yours," Kusu said.
Ken took a long, satisfied sip of the fresh one he had just made.
The taste was... decent, he supposed.
But honestly, it did not taste as good as the first batch.
That left him speechless.
So the version made from real ingredients actually tasted worse?
"Try it," Ken said, handing his cup to Kusu even though he had already drunk from it.
Kusu did not mind. She took a small sip.
"It's not as good. Mine tastes better," she said, shaking her head.
"I want to try too," Vados said, taking the same cup from Kusu and tasting it herself.
Sure enough, it was nowhere near as good as what she had in her own cup.
A little disappointed, she handed the cup back to Ken.
"Ken, you're so kind," Kusu said. "You gave us the delicious one and kept the ordinary one for yourself."
"Yes, really. That's rare for you," Vados said with a grin. "So thoughtful toward your older sisters."
Ken: "..."
For a moment, he genuinely had no idea what to say.
In the end, he decided not to care.
Artificial additives, food science, whatever.
He was an angel.
Anything that entered his body would be completely broken down by angel power anyway.
So Ken gave up on the fresh version and happily joined Vados and Kusu in enjoying the lab-made one instead.
"Time really flies," Ken said while drinking. "Just like that, more than thirty years have passed. I'm already in my thirties."
Vados: "..."
Kusu: "..."
The two beautiful angels had no desire to respond.
He was only in his thirties.
Did he have any idea how old they were?
They had lived for hundreds of millions of years.
"Angels have eternal life," Vados said at last. "You've only lived a little over thirty years. You still have an unimaginably long future ahead of you."
"Vados is right," Kusu added with a nod. "That's exactly how it is."
"But think about it," Ken said. "I've only been alive a bit over thirty years, and I've already reached this level. By the time I'm your age, won't my level be completely absurd?"
"He really did come here to show off his level," Vados whispered to Kusu.
"It could not be more obvious," Kusu whispered back. "Maybe we should just ask him. It must be exhausting for him to hold it in."
"Fair point. Honestly, I want to know too," Vados said.
"You're in the same universe as him. Haven't you been keeping track?" Kusu asked.
"No. If I kept tabs on him all the time, he'd definitely misunderstand and think I liked him," Vados said with a giggle.
"That... does sound plausible," Kusu admitted, nodding. Then she looked up and asked openly, "What level are you now?"
"Vados doesn't know?" Ken asked, pretending to be surprised as he turned to her.
"Know what?" Vados said, shaking her head.
"Zeno-sama came to Universe 6 before. Don't tell me you didn't know that," Ken said.
"Oh, that," Vados replied. "I knew a little, but I didn't keep following it after that. Zeno-sama likes visiting different universes all the time, so him suddenly showing up in ours isn't exactly strange."
"So you have no idea about my fight with Righty?" Ken asked.
"Righty?" Kusu repeated. "Who's that?"
"The Right Guard," Ken said.
Kusu froze.
Vados's eyes widened even more, her face full of shock.
He actually called the Right Guard "Righty"?
Had the Right Guard not beaten him half to death for that?
"You... challenged the Right Guard?" Kusu asked in astonishment.
"We had a little spar in the World of Void," Ken said with a smile.
"You must've lost horribly," Kusu said with a laugh. "The Right Guard is at least level 70."
"Exactly," Vados added. "Other than the Grand Priest, the two guards are the strongest gods of all."
"I did lose horribly," Ken said, nodding.
"Then wait until you reach level 70 before challenging him again," Kusu advised.
"Listen to your Kusu-nee-san," Vados said. "She's absolutely right."
"Yes, yes," Ken said. "It's just that from now on, every time the Right Guard sees me, he'll have to bow. Do you think it'll bother Zeno-sama if the Right Guard and Left Guard stop looking symmetrical?"
Vados paused.
Kusu frowned slightly, not quite following at first.
But both of them were angels.
It took only a moment for the meaning to sink in.
Clack!
In the next instant, both Kusu's staff and Vados's staff slipped from their hands and fell to the ground.
Their eyes went wide, their lips parted slightly, and for a moment the two of them looked like a breathtaking view all by themselves.
...
Universe 7, Supreme Kai World.
Shin struggled to his feet.
But his injuries were still serious, and the moment he got up, he collapsed right back to the ground.
"Supreme Kai!" Kibito cried.
He had sensed Shin's return and rushed over at once, landing beside him.
"Kibito? You finally got here... Your descendant is really unreasonable," Shin said with a bitter smile before passing out again.
"Supreme Kai! How were you hurt this badly?" Kibito cried in alarm.
Without hesitating, he immediately used his healing power on Shin.
After Kibito treated him, Shin's injuries finally healed completely. He opened his eyes, and Kibito helped him back to his feet.
"Supreme Kai, what happened?" Kibito asked anxiously. "Did Majin Buu do this to you?"
"My injuries from Majin Buu's self-destruction were real enough," Shin said with a sigh. "But most of this came from your descendant beating me up. Kibito, this new Supreme Kai you took in has one hell of a temper... young people these days..."
Kibito: "...?"
He looked utterly lost.
Then he reached out and placed a hand on Shin's forehead.
"Kibito, what are you doing?" Shin asked, startled.
"Supreme Kai... did getting hit damage your brain?" Kibito asked, deeply confused. "Since when do I have descendants?"
"You don't?" Shin said blankly. "No, that can't be right. That guy was clearly a Supreme Kai!"
"Other than you, are there even any other Supreme Kais left?" Kibito asked, scratching his head. "Could it be that the previous Supreme Kais weren't actually killed by Majin Buu after all?"
"No. The Supreme Kai who attacked me was someone I'd never seen before," Shin said, shaking his head.
Then suddenly something occurred to him, and he quickly looked around.
What he saw only made the whole thing even stranger.
This was the Supreme Kai World he knew.
So where exactly was the place he had gone before?
Shin felt like his brain was about to overheat.
What in the world was going on?
"Supreme Kai, what happened exactly?" Kibito asked again.
"Kibito, answer me this first. What year is it?" Shin asked.
"What year?" Kibito repeated, not understanding at all.
"No, let me ask it another way. How long was I gone?" Shin said.
"A little over three hours in total," Kibito said after thinking about it.
"Only three hours?" Shin said, even more bewildered. "That makes even less sense... I'm absolutely certain the place I went to was another Supreme Kai World. There was even an incredibly comfortable bed there. I rolled around on it several times."
Kibito: "..."
"Could all of that have been a dream?" Shin muttered, scratching his head.
"That honestly sounds likely," Kibito said after considering it. "You were badly injured, Supreme Kai. Maybe you started hallucinating."
"When you put it that way... that actually does make sense," Shin said slowly. "So everything I saw before... was all just a hallucination?"
"Exactly," Kibito said. "How could there suddenly be other Supreme Kais? The other three were all killed by Majin Buu."
"You're right, Kibito... it must have been a hallucination," Shin said, finally letting out a small sigh of relief.
If it was only a hallucination, then it did not matter.
"But putting that aside, Supreme Kai," Kibito said nervously, "is Majin Buu really dead?"
"I saw him self-destruct with my own eyes. He was blown to pieces," Shin said with a nod. "Unfortunately, I was too close and got caught in the blast. I passed out, and when I woke up, he was gone."
"That's wonderful! That monster is finally dead!" Kibito said excitedly, grabbing Shin's hand.
The two of them began dancing across the ground of the Supreme Kai World in celebration.
What they did not know was that they were celebrating far too early.
Majin Buu was already flying toward them from Universe 6.
At his current speed, he would reach the Supreme Kai World in a little over ten hours.
...
Universe 7, outer space.
Jiren was moving swiftly through the void.
But after flying for a while, he began to feel that something was wrong.
This wasn't right.
Wasn't he supposed to be heading back to Universe 11?
He was pretty sure he had gotten lost.
This did not look like Universe 11 at all.
So which universe was this?
Jiren came to a slow stop in the middle of space and looked around, hoping to find someone he could ask.
But the universe was vast.
How was he supposed to casually run into people out here?
He extended his senses and suddenly picked up a powerful presence far away.
"That energy is fairly strong," Jiren muttered. "Probably the strongest person in this universe so far... If anyone knows whether this is Universe 7, it would be him."
He immediately flew in that direction.
About ten minutes later, Jiren spotted someone rather unusual.
The man had red skin, pointed ears, and a distinctly evil look in his eyes. Nothing about him suggested friendliness.
He was floating in open space too, so clearly he could survive in the vacuum.
At that moment, the man noticed Jiren as well and gave him a disdainful smile.
The figure standing opposite Jiren was none other than Dabura, King of the Demon Realm.
Dabura had only recently come out of the Demon Realm and planned to recruit a few underlings to help him expand his influence.
But after wandering around for a while, he had found no one worth taking.
Just as his disappointment was starting to grow, he noticed Jiren flying toward him from afar.
Dabura sized him up from head to toe and decided that making this man one of his subordinates would be an excellent choice.
He also had the feeling that this person might be very strong.
"Excuse me," Jiren said politely. "Which universe is this?"
Dabura blinked.
"What are you talking about? Which universe?" he asked, confused.
"There are twelve universes in total," Jiren explained simply. "I'm asking which one this is."
"Oh? There are twelve universes? How would I know something like that?" Dabura said, startled.
Jiren looked disappointed.
If this guy did not even know there were twelve universes, then he obviously did not know which one this was either.
Wait.
Maybe that told him something.
If someone this strong did not even know which universe he was in, then odds were the local Supreme Kai was doing a terrible job.
Which meant there was a decent chance this really was Universe 7.
"Could this actually be Universe 7? How did I end up in Universe 7?" Jiren muttered, shaking his head as he thought it through.
Yes. He had definitely gone the wrong way earlier.
What a headache.
Now he would have to head back to the World of Void and start over from a different direction.
Jiren said nothing more and turned to leave.
If the other man did not know where he was, then there was no point staying. Better to keep moving.
"Stop right there! Did I say you could leave?" Dabura snapped, now thoroughly annoyed.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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