A new milestone has been achieved for me… This story has surpassed 100,000 words! Technically it surpassed that mark a while ago, but I wasn't really considering the posting of the original story as counting towards the full word count as it was about 10,000 words just in itself. So thanks to everyone who has reviewed for pushing me to take the story this far. It has been quite the ride!
One thing I wanted to take a moment to clarify before starting this next chapter is Dragon Ball physics. I got a review that kind of concerned me that I'm making people believe things in the story that I'm not really intending. Although I plan for this story to take the character powers of Dragon Ball and exaggerate them beyond anything the original story had intended (we're so not there yet, but give it time…) I just wanted to point out that it is my belief that the power of a transformation is not set. What I mean by that is that I believe it would be very possible for one saiyan's first level of super saiyan to be more powerful than another saiyan's fourth level transformation. This is because I see the transformations as an enhancement over the saiyan's base stats. Therefore the higher the base stats the higher the multiplier output will be for the transformation's power yield. What I'm trying to say is I'm hoping people aren't looking at this portion of the story as trying to overpower the Dragon Ball GT era because the base stats aren't as high yet. I don't know if that makes a whole lot of sense, but with any luck it might have put a few concerns into perspective so that the rest of the story may continue without contradicting the physics of the actual Dragon Ball storyline.
Okay, no more boring stuff, let's get to the fun!
Chapter 24: One Way
"Really this is not the time to be keeping secrets from us…" Gohan sounded annoyed but was doing his best to keep his emotions in check around the Supreme Kai.
Nodding the Kai replied, "I am aware, but I had hoped it wouldn't come to this, it isn't an easy thing you see…"
"Alright I can understand, but please hurry, we don't have much time," Gohan urged.
"It was many millennia ago when Bibidi first created Majin Buu, you see Buu was quite different in the beginning. Bibidi created Majin Buu to be a creature of pure evil and hate, and filled him with such monstrous power…" Gohan held his tongue but willed for the Kai to get to the point.
"He was much more powerful than any of us… There were four of us Supreme Kais at the time, and we were led by the Grand Supreme Kai Daikaioshin. When we fought Majin Buu we were horribly defeated. But Majin Buu… he didn't just kill off the Kais… He…" The Supreme Kai stopped for a moment, his eyes wide as he fought off his emotions, "He absorbed the Kais into his being. He gained their powers, abilities, knowledge…"
A loud explosion rang through the area as Buu released the energy he'd built up at Goku and the others. Shin nodded trying to hurry, "He was becoming unstoppable, and that was when our leader, Daikaioshin, he put himself in the path of Buu to become absorbed himself. Daikaioshin had an innocence about him, he was far from aggressive and very non violent. Once he was absorbed into Buu, Buu noticeably calmed and became less willing to follow Bibidi's instructions. He did for a point until he grew bored. That was when he finally struck back at the wizard and delivered the blow that would end Bibidi's life. Not before Bibidi thankfully sealed the creature away."
Gohan tapped his forehead, "So Buu absorbed the Grand Supreme Kai, mellowed some, and then fought back against Bibidi… That's still not helping me much…"
"Gohan…" The Supreme Kai took another breath, "Daikaioshin, he wasn't exactly a strong fighter, but he had the ability to turn the attacks of others back upon them. The stronger a blow that was dealt to him, the stronger the blow he could then deal back. It was how he kept superiority over the universe."
"That explains a lot then…" Gohan tried piecing together this information with what he had seen earlier, "Wait… So if the ability that is allowing Buu to keep increasing his strength is coming from a being he absorbed…" Thinking back to the last time they fought, he recalled Goku and Vegeta fighting two different Buus. The larger one had been incredibly challenging, but the smaller one had been taken down quickly by just Goku and Vegeta, "He split into two different Buus and then reabsorbed himself…"
"What was that Gohan?" The Kai blinked trying to understand what Gohan was speaking of.
"The powers of the Grand Supreme Kai, they reside inside the naïve fat buu, if we could split the two Buus again we could destroy the evil side without Daikaioshin's power interfering!" Gohan slammed his fist down into his open palm as he tried to formulate a plan.
Kibito looked over at the Dark Buu and grimaced, "But how can we manage to separate the different parts of Buu?"
"It's possible…" The Supreme Kai whispered.
Gohan and Kibito blinked wide eyed hoping they had heard what they thought they had heard, "What is it Supreme Kai sir?"
The Kai shook his head, "My way would be nearly impossible though… I would need to be close enough to Majin Buu to affect his very essence. If I could specifically find the life force of Daikaioshin inside of Buu I could use my power to pull the two apart." Another explosion echoed across the area as the fight against Buu continued only a short distance away, "But there's no way Buu would hold still long enough to allow me to do such a thing from the outside…"
"On the outside huh?" Phips waddled up to the three of them with his hands behind his back.
"What are you thinking Phips?" Gohan asked with a worried edge to his voice.
Phips snickered slightly, "What if I could just maybe possibly put you on the inside? That way you could do what you needed to do directly, hmm?"
Shin rubbed his chin as he thought about it, "It could work, it would definitely allow me to come into physical contact with Daikaioshin's life force and make the process of breaking them apart much simpler! Can you do such a thing Phips?"
Phips opened up a rift below Kibito's feet and allowed the large guard to fall in. He opened the exit to the rift just above his upturned palm and Kibito fell out standing only an inch tall, "It's a simple rifting trick!"
Kibito looked up at Phips angrily, "Restore me this instant!" He shouted with a squeaky voice.
The Supreme Kai stifled a laugh as Kibito was rifted from Phips' hand and back to his normal size landing on his rump with a rough thump.
"Easy as that!" Phips exclaimed looking pleased with himself, despite Kibito's angry glare.
"It's something…" Gohan still looked pensive about the idea.
"There isn't time Gohan!" The Supreme looked adamant, "I too know the risk, but I'm willing to take it if it means the lot of you will be able to destroy Majin Buu once and for all!"
Gohan gave in with a nod, "Alright, I'll be the one going with you I guess. Are you ready Phips?"
"A heave and a ho, and toodles!" Phips waved his hand in front of both Gohan and the Supreme Kai and pulled them into his rift.
"What now?" Kibito asked sternly.
"In order to properly project their exit trajectory I'm going to need to be pretty close to Majin Buu, that's where you come in," Phips informed as he started walking in that direction.
Kibito's expressions quickly dawned much concern, "What?"
Phips continued trotting forth, "It's simple, I just need you to get us close enough to Buu that I can open the rift inside of him without all of us being blasted away into kingdom come, ready?"
Kibito gulped down another pane of nervousness as he stepped up behind Phips, "I am to…"
"Pick me up, fly us over there quickly, and fly us back quickly, that's all you have to do," Phips reassured the guard while keeping his hands cupped tightly.
Bending down slightly, Kibito grabbed Phips by the waist and lifted him from the ground. Looking up towards the battle field he noticed Dark Buu fighting the saiyans and Piccolo at a pace he could barely keep up with. Sweat built up on his brow as he realized he had to safely charge through at close range without Buu engaging them.
Gritting his teeth, Kibito powered up, "We go!" Barreling toward Buu as fast as he could, Kibito held Phips in front of him.
Phips held out his hands ready to throw the rift when Dark Buu turned and glared right at them. Both Kibito and Phips donned a wide eyed terrified expression as Buu prepared to intercept them. With barely enough time to react, Kibito changed direction, flying upward to avoid an energy blast Buu threw at them. The pair landed a fair distance away, out of breath from fright.
"Should we try again?" Kibito asked as he recovered.
"No need…" Phips grumbled.
Concerned with the tone of Phips's response Kibito asked, "What do you mean?"
With a slight shrug Phips simply said, "I dropped them."
"YOU WHAT?" Kibito blew up at the insinuation that the Supreme Kai was simply dropped.
"Well I did manage to drop the rift as we passed over Buu… so with any luck it will have opened inside Buu and not in the middle of solid rock," Phips nodded and trotted away in the opposite direction of the battle.
Kibito took a moment to gaze toward the battlefield longingly before taking cover as well.
Being held inside a rift was the equivalent of floating in empty space. No true direction existed, and no light was visible anywhere. The rift opened and deposited Gohan and the Supreme Kai roughly onto a mushy ground.
"Good heavens…" Shin slowly pushed himself to his feet as he got over the shock of the harsh traversal.
Gohan also quickly flipped himself to a standing position, "I'm sorry about that Supreme Kai, rifting travel is usually a lot smoother than that. Phips must have had to move too quickly to concentrate properly."
"I see…" Shin took a look around at their gummy surroundings, "Nevertheless, I'd say we hit our mark, this appears to be the insides of Majin Buu."
"The big question then would be… where in Buu are we?" Gohan scratched his head and saw what appeared to be a series of tunnels in the surrounding substance.
Gohan's question was answered as the tunnels around them began to flex and quake. The opening they found themselves in constricted momentarily before a strong gust of air blew by the two of them. Both Gohan and the Supreme Kai pinched their noses and started coughing.
"Darn it Phips…" Gohan wiped the tears from his eyes as tried to keep himself from laughing as well as crying from the smell which stung his eyes.
Shin shook his head not finding the situation at all funny, "We must hurry in an upward direction immediately!"
"Right," Gohan pulled himself together and started leading the way forward. "You know since I died, I've been to some strange places… but never once did I even imagine I'd end up in a monster's ass!" Gohan couldn't help himself from commenting and laughing again at his own joke before continuing forth.
Although the light hearted way Gohan approached the situation lifted Shin's spirits, he still did his best to mask the humor he felt.
After a few minutes of walking, the two entered a large cavernous space, "I've read books on anatomy, and I can tell you this doesn't look anything like how the human body is supposed to be laid out…"
"Majin Buu is the incarnation of evil and hate; of course his structure is completely different from a normal living creature…" The Supreme Kai spoke with such spite every time the subject was on the gummy being.
Seeing a hole in the ceiling of the cavern, Gohan floated up toward it, "I'm just trying to understand the connection still I suppose…"
A look of confusion crossed the Supreme Kai's face, "Connection with what?"
Shaking his head Gohan replied, "Maybe it's just that no one really knows much about Ru… But we do know that Majin Buu was created by an act of immense evil magic. Created for the sole sake of bringing destruction to the entire universe… I mean… it all sounds kind of epic doesn't it?"
"I suppose so…" Shin thought about it for a moment, "But what does that have to do with Ru?"
"Exactly what I was thinking… From what I've heard Ru just wanders through infinity without any real purpose… Maybe I'm just thinking too much about it…" Gohan crossed his arms and grimaced as they levitated up the channels within Buu's body.
"I believe the way you think about things is one of your strongest assets Gohan," Shin smiled reassuringly to the boy, "I see very well why the Sovereign Kai wanted you as one of his warriors."
Gohan smiled confidently back to the Kai, "Thanks!"
As two reached the top of the shaft a strong pulse of deep bass vibrations pinned them to the wall momentarily and ceased. Shin rolled back onto his feet, "What was that?"
Another strong pulse reached them with much the same effect. Gohan stood his ground against the pulse, but the Supreme Kai was knocked back a second time. Every few seconds the pulse would echo through tissue in front of them and drastically increase the pressure of the chamber. It lasted for only a second before the pressure was released.
Shielding his face, Gohan started pushing forward to the source of their impediment. The wall of gummy tissue separating their chamber from the next was thin convincing Gohan the best action would be to tear through it to get to whatever was on the other side. With a swift slice from his outstretched hand a clean cut was torn through the mush.
Both Gohan and the Supreme Kai looked in awe for a moment at the organ before them steadily contracting and expanding with immense force.
"That is…" Shin watched its movements unblinking.
"His heart…" Gohan finished as he took a few steps closer.
The look on the Supreme Kai's face changed quickly to disgust, "I should have known it'd be black…"
As the muscle contracted, a light from under the layers of tissue would shine through until it expanded again, "Do you feel that?" Gohan held a hand out and approached the light.
The Supreme Kai nodded, "That is the horrible energy of the original Majin Buu… His dark desires and abilities still lay locked away here…"
"But…" As Gohan placed a hand on the tissue holes opened in the goopy substance which made up their ground and steam began filling up the chamber. From within the steam formed several small malformed versions of Buu which looked almost like amoeba.
"I believe this could very well be Buu's immune system kicking in…" One of the Amoeba Buus charged up an energy ball and threw it at the Supreme Kai.
Gohan quickly pulled the Kai out of the way, "And apparently we're the bacteria it wants to flush out!" Powering up quickly, Gohan flew upward again looking for another shaft to escape the heart cavern.
A newly formed Amoeba Buu dropped from above and landed on Gohan's face. It latched on tight wrapping its transparent gooey body around Gohan's entire head. Gohan stopped immediately and tried to pry the creature off. Shin noticed Gohan's face turning blue looking as if he were suffocating.
Gathering some energy in his hand, Shin ran over to Gohan and poked the creature dealing enough of a jolt for the Amoeba Buu to jump off of Gohan and scurry away, "Are you alright Gohan?"
Gohan took a deep breath now that his air passages were clear, "Much better, thanks… But umm…"
The Amoeba Buu Shin had scared off took cover in the midst of its counterparts. There were now hundreds of the amoeba creatures surrounding them. "Get ready, looks like the antibuudies about to attack…"
Shin shook his head, "Antibuudies?" Gohan and the Kai crouched down as the surrounding creatures jumped to attack. The two were ready and leapt straight up into the air, dodging the attacks.
Gohan pulled energy out into his hands quickly, "Let's try a spreadshot!" Taking to blasting at each one individually, Gohan started firing off dozens of quick blasts of energy. Each Amoeba Buu hit would dry out and crumple to the ground. The Supreme Kai tried to help by firing his own energy blasts at the ones he feared were getting too close.
Landing on the ground after frying the last of the Amoeba Buu, Gohan took a look around at the battle field. Shin landed close by, "Antibuudies?" he asked again.
"I think it works for having to call them something under short notice," Gohan scratched his nose as the two turned to continue up the insides of Buu. A sickening compilation of pops and bubbling goop noises built up from behind causing Gohan and the Kai to stop cold in their tracks, "Do you ever get that feeling that things just aren't going your way?"
"Most definitely…" Shin muttered in response.
Slowly both of them turned around and saw the Amoeba Buu combining to form a giant creature by their stature's standard.
Gohan sensed a strong power emanating from the culmination of Antibuudies, "We should probably go…"
The Creature howled in rage as it swung toward Gohan and the Kai. The hit missed but as it collided with the walls of the cavern pieces of the monster broke apart and splashed onto Gohan's coat. The goopy substance started burning through the fabric coaxing Gohan to pull the article off and discard it, "It's acidic!" Shin yelled.
"That's not good…" Gohan grabbed onto the Supreme Kai's arm and started flying away, "Need to move, now!"
Pulling the Kai through the inner duct work of Majin Buu, Gohan started picking paths almost at random to get away from Buu's white blood cells. It moved with incredible speed, matching every turn the two took across Buu's body.
"Of course it knows where we're going; it's part of Buu…" The Kai grit his teeth as he watched the creature gain on them.
Gohan rolled over and fired an energy blast back at the creature to slow it down. The shot tore a hole through the monster leaving a trail of steam but didn't affect its speed. As Gohan turned back around he noticed the path in front of them closing off as some kind of sphincter sealed shut.
"I think we're coming up to Buu's esophagus…" Gohan grunted as he tossed the Kai in the direction of closing and turned to face the approaching monster.
"What are you doing Gohan?" The Kai yelled as he stabilized his movement.
"We're going to need some pressure to pop that open!" Gohan held his hands to his side as he channeled his energy down, "KAMEHAMEHAA!" The beam Gohan fired at the Amoeba Buu creature was large enough to engulf its entire body. As the energy ripped through, huge amounts of steam were secreted from the burning cells. Shin felt the pressure building at the top waiting to be released. Gohan pushed the beam a little while longer until the entire shaft began to shake.
The blockage finally opened and the increased pressure shot through the roof, blowing both the Supreme Kai and Gohan up Buu's body. Gohan saw the top coming and grabbed onto the Kai's arm as he unsheathed the Realis. As they hit the ceiling, Gohan stabbed the Realis upward, digging into the roof of Buu's mouth before they could be blown out by the mighty belch.
On the outside, Goku and Vegeta were holding Buu down, trying to keep him from causing anymore damage when Buu opened his mouth and burped in Goku's face, "Ewww!" Goku let go of Buu to wipe the moistness from him which Buu used as an opportunity to grab Vegeta by the hair and toss him at Goku.
The two tumbled away as Buu jumped into the air and started gathering a huge amount of power into an energy ball. He aimed it down at the planet and threw it. Piccolo dashed in to intercept, landing on the ground directly in front of the incoming attack. With his arm pulled back and his muscles taught, Piccolo grunted as he powered up waiting for the blast to hit. When it was in range he lashed out at the ball and knocked it up into the sky. The energy ball flew far into the upper atmosphere before exploding sending a huge shockwave across the earth.
The airship Hercule and Videl Satan rode in shook from the vibration as they approached, "Look dad, that has to be Majin Buu over there!" Videl stated with a determined expression plastered on her face.
Mister Satan sank into the corner of the ship suddenly not feeling well to his stomach as he watched more explosions going off across the battle field.
"This is as close as I can safely take the ship sir," The pilot informed Mister Satan.
Perking up quickly Mister Satan responded, "Oh right! Don't worry about getting any closer than this, in fact you can back off a little, we wouldn't want any other innocent bystanders like yourself getting hurt in this mess. Land as far back as you would like and we can make the rest of the trip there on foot no problem, no siree…"
The pilot smiled to the pair, "Thank you sir, you really are the caring type; I'll do my best then still to get you as close as I can so you'll be ready for battle!" Pushing down on the stick, the airship made a sharp nosedive for the surface.
"Why me…?" Mister Satan grumbled as he held on tight to a support rail as the ship descended through the air.
End Chapter
I think that came out rather entertaining. I was having fun writing it so I hope others out there have fun reading it! Please drop me a review and let me know what you're thinking so far.