White Lies
by Meressefers
Author's note: AU, set immediately post-"Yo Son Goku and His Friends Return".
There's a minor discrepancy between "Yo Son Goku" and the series proper that's relevant to this story. The series makes it sound like the Dragon Balls were used to wish away all knowledge of Majin Buu, but the OAV suggests that Earth's population knows that something called Majin Buu existed and thinks that Mr. Satan beat it, even if they don't draw the connection to a certain round pink dude. I'm following the OAV's lead here. (This will be more important in later chapters.)
Obviously, I do not own DBZ or any of its characters.
Chapter 1: The Separation
It was a wonder that he waited so long to take the obvious solution.
Watching the battle between Vegetto and Super Buu from the safety of the Kaioshin planet, Kibitoshin had felt the horror of despair when Buu overcame his opponent by absorbing him.
All of my efforts have been for naught, he thought.
Five million years of guilt washed over him—five million years of replaying the deaths of his fellow Kaioshin over and over again in his head, regretting Buu's survival, regretting his own survival. Five million more years of guilt from his lifetime as Kibito. He had not protected his master; he had not protected the universe. If only he had spoken up, said something on that fateful day when they could have destroyed Majin Buu in his shell. More recent shame too—the childish and petulant way he had treated Gohan, their hoped-for savior, sensing that he was a rival for Kaioshin's affections. Even after the fusion, he could have—should have—gone to Earth to fight alongside the Saiyans, despite Elder Kaioshin's warnings. Two voices, two streams of thought echoing in his head. It struck Kibitoshin then: if he survived this disaster, he would hear these two voices, desperate and trauma-wracked, bleeding in and out of each other forever, reverberating with a thousand other hurts that lay between Kibito and Kaioshin.
The revelation that Vegetto had deliberately planned to be swallowed in order to free the other Z-Senshi was a surprise more heartening than Kibitoshin could have imagined. But secretly, in the back of his mind, the separation of Vegetto into Vegeta and Goku filled him with another kind of relief.
There is a way to separate, he told himself. There is a way to separate.
That thought was lost as events continued to unfold. And since the defeat of Buu, Kibitoshin had hesitated to ask Elder Kaioshin about the fluke of the fused Saiyans. If he admitted to the psychological strain of the fusion, he risked his ancestor's contempt; the elder deity had, after all, endured the consequences of fusion for fifteen million years. Kibitoshin already felt more than enough shame in his ancestor's presence, thanks to his own lackluster part in the Majin conflict. And should he suggest that Elder Kaioshin might have been wrong about the permanence of Potara fusion—well, Kibitoshin blushed to think of the reproach he would meet.
The idea returned to him in full force after the unfortunate incident at Mr. Satan's hotel. Before the arrival of Tarble interrupted the party, the deity was impressed by the gentle demeanor of the good Buu. He had feared the opposite, though he understood rationally that the creature was no longer the monster who had ravaged his planet so many millennia ago. The flashes of Grand Kaioshin in Buu's mannerisms comforted him as much as they saddened him.
Perhaps—perhaps this is a favor I can ask, he thought.
He never had asked Elder Kaioshin if there were another way to separate, or even if this way would work for him as it had for Vegetto. But two years of echoing voices was enough.
When the party was over, Kibitoshin brought Elder Kaioshin home to their planet with his Instantaneous Movement, then returned to Earth. He headed straight to Kami's Lookout, hoping to speak with Dende. The mild-mannered Namek knew Buu and Mr. Satan well; more importantly, he was likely to lend a sympathetic ear to Kibitoshin's plight.
"Do you really think it will work?" said Dende when he had heard the proposed plan.
"I'm not sure." It was an honest answer. "But I cannot live like this. I don't know how my venerable ancestor has stood it for so many millions of years. I shudder to think of the fate to which we would have doomed Goku and Vegeta, had they remained in their fused state."
Dende furrowed his brow. "Well, if you really think it's for the best. I'm just worried that something could go seriously wrong." He paused. "What does Elder Kaioshin-sama think of this?"
"He doesn't know." Kibitoshin turned beet-red. "The only thing worse that being trapped in one body forever would be to try this plan out, fail, then hear 'I told you so' constantly until the end of time. My ancestor is not, ah, the most charitable of critics. I'd much rather try it first."
The guardian of Earth looked down at his feet. "It is, of course, your call. I certainly don't presume to give advice to the supreme deity of the universe. But maybe we should talk to Buu before you get your hopes up too much."
"You want Buu to do what?" Hercule Satan practically screamed the words. He, Buu, and the two deities sat in on of the several luxurious living areas in his mansion in Satan City. "But he's good now. He doesn't do that anymore!"
"I realize I'm asking quite a lot of him," said Kibitoshin. He cast a nervous glance at Buu, seated impassively in a large armchair on the other side of the room, his round pink face unreadable. "But I don't mean for him to do it as a malicious act. It would be a great favor to me."
"But what if it turns him bad again? What if he gets a taste of what he used to do and decides he'd rather be" —here Mr. Satan dramatically lowered his voice—"like that again?"
Dende shot Kibitoshin a meaningful look but said nothing.
"I don't think that's terribly likely," Kibitoshin said. "The change in his demeanor is such, and he is obviously so contented with his current life, that his previous life surely holds little reward for him. The risk is entirely mine."
"Well, I don't know," the World Champion stuttered out. "It seems like a long shot to me. I don't want to risk losing the Buu I know and love."
"I understand your feelings completely, but perhaps Buu can decide for himself." Kibitoshin turned back to Buu. The creature's eyes were closed, his mittened hands folded across his belly. "What do you say, Buu? Will you do it? Will you absorb me so my fusion can be broken?"
A moment passed in agonizing silence. Kibitoshin felt his heart drop into his stomach. Buu slowly opened his eyes and looked straight at the deity.
"Okay."