The Rise of a Protector

by The Legendary Dragon Reaper

Wracked with guilt over Goku's death and blessed with a new power from the god of dragons, read as Gohan struggles with life, love, puberty, fulfilling his destiny, and above all, protecting the people he loves and his world. Please read each chapter until the very end and check for authors notes. Gohan x Kagome, OC x Erasa.

36. Training Begins, Dormant Power Unleashed

Gohan was about to slash at Kai with his Ryuuga when he froze "Kai, do you feel that?"

Kai nodded "Yeah no doubt about it, that's your dad."

"I figured but is that even possible? No, it couldn't be."

"Well it's Goku there's no doubt about that, his Ki signature is unmistakable. But we'd have to be god only knows how far away from Earth at this point so how could his power have increased so much in just a few hours? This is leagues beyond anything I've ever felt from him before, or from you for that matter."

"Dammit, I just wish I knew exactly what was going on down there. It doesn't feel like he's in a fight though."

"So what then, did he unlock a new Super Saiyan form or something?"

"No that's not it, whenever dad transforms into a Super Saiyan or higher it has a sort of angry vibe to it. This is him in his base form but the power is totally insane, I don't know what my dad did to get this strong but whatever it is it worked."

"Gohan, Kai." Shin snapped them out of their conversation "You should both know that even with this new level of power, it's unlikely that Goku will be able to defeat Magatsuhi. As unfortunate as it may be, that is simply how strong Magatsuhi is. Gohan, Kai, our two best bets for defeating this foe literally rests in the hands of the both of you. Kai, this is why you must master the legendary Z Sword."

"Yeah, I know." Kai struggled to raise the Z Sword "Alright Gohan, back to sparring. This time I'm going on the offensive." he brought down the blade.

Gohan blocked the sword with his own, then aimed a slash at Kai's torso.

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Magatsuhi looked in a certain direction 'This energy… Interesting, it seems the father of the Dragon Saiyan has gained a rapid increase in strength.'

Frieza let out a chuckle as he reverted back to his first form "I'd expect nothing less from that filthy monkey, this only proves the worth of my 6 months of training. But don't forget, when this week is up his head belongs to me."

"I'm well aware of that, but until then why don't we give them a reason to get even stronger so that you have a proper challenge? Janemba."

Then Janemba suddenly appeared.

"Go wipe out a city or three, give the Dragon Saiyan's allies a reason to panic."

Janemba disappeared.

"It feels good to have henchmen."

Frieza chuckled "You get used to it."

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Yamcha knelt down besides Goku's squirming form on the ground "Come on Goku, you've only gotta hang in there for just a little longer."

Goku suddenly stopped squirming and slowly stood up "What… What happened?"

"You just survived drinking the Ultra Divine Water."

"Yeah but did it work?"

"Well why don't you just try going Super Saiyan and find out."

"Alright." Goku floated into the air and began powering up, the entire Lookout shaking from the sheer force, and with a furious roar he was engulfed in a bright white light.

'His Ki keeps rising higher with every second, I didn't think it was possible for even him to become that strong!'

When the light dissipated, Goku appeared but his appearance had been somewhat altered, for his hair had become slightly spikier and more solid without any sort of loose strands, his pupils visible with silver coloured irises, and a silver aura consisting of rippling Ki travelling upwards.

'Awesome…'

Goku took a minute to adjust to this new form and powered down "It's weird, I couldn't get a feel on even the normal Super Saiyan and when I tried to I wound up transforming into that instead."

"Well that means that this Ultra Divine Water is legitimate stuff."

Goku looked back and saw Vegeta approach with Mirai and Bankotsu approach "Yeah I guess it is."

"Then step aside and let me get a drink of it."

"Fine by me."

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"Gotcha!" Kai brought down the Z Sword, struggling to control it due to its extreme levels of weight.

"I don't think so!" Gohan blocked the Z Sword and thrusted his own Ryuuga forward several times.

Kai dodged every thrusted, but stumbled and fell to the ground, but quickly got back up and went back on the offensive.

"It's unthinkable." Kibito muttered "No Supreme Kai has been able to handle the Z Sword properly for centuries and here comes Kai mastering it after a mere few hours."

"You shouldn't have doubted me when I said that they were the ones." Shin told him "Kai may not have been as powerful as Gohan or the other Saiyans, but his courage and potential are unlike any Earthling before him. Knowing his heart, I think that while Gohan defeats Magatsuhi, Kai will be able to defeat Majin Buu and many others amongst the Kings of Destruction."

Kai stuck the Z Sword in the ground, panting heavily "Give me… a minute…"

"Your progress has been superb Kai, but it sounds like you could use a break, the both of you actually." Shin suggested "In fact the two of you are already ahead of where I thought you would be by now."

"Sorry but there's no time for a break, not at a time like this." Kai quickly drew the Z Sword from the ground.

"He's right." Gohan quickly blocked a slash 'When dad died against Cell and didn't want to be wished back, he kept training harder than he ever did on Earth, so I figured that if I was going to protect everyone then I would have to do the same.'

Kai had the same train of thought going 'I know I'll probably never be able to catch up to the likes of Gohan and Goku, but I owe it to the Earth, to my friends, to myself, to give it everything I've got. After all, Magatsuhi and his Kings of Destruction are still out there.'

'So we have to keep training and make sure that what we have to protect is still there when all of this is over.'

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Vegeta slowly powered down from his new form "This is unreal…"

Goku nodded "I know right? This power is unbelievable."

Krillin grinned "This is awesome, now you guys can trounce Magatsuhi no problem-"

"Didn't you hear what I said before Krillin? Even with this new power I know that even if me and Vegeta teamed up there's no way we'd be able to win. Besides Korin told me that there's one last step to learning to truly control this new power, we have to meditate for 24 straight hours or else the effects will disappear."

"You didn't have to do that back when we fought King Piccolo." Tien pointed out.

"Yeah I know but that was because the water really didn't have any effect on me, it was just a basic Zenkai. Anyway, now Vegeta and I both have to meditate for 24 straight hours, and then we'll both go into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber while I take Goten and he takes Trunks. I think you guys should pair up and decide who goes in there while we do this."

"I've got that order sorted out." Bankotsu offered "I was thinking that I go with Mirai, Krillin goes with 17, Tien goes with Yamcha, Raditz goes with Bardock and Cooler with Piccolo."

"Works for me. Maybe you and Mirai should go in and see how much you can power up while we're meditating."

"Good idea, after all I can only hold my own against Super Saiyan 2 right now. You heard him bowlcut, let's move." and he made his way towards the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

"Right." and Mirai followed after him, albeit somewhat reluctantly.

While this happened, Goku and Vegeta sat down and began meditating in order to master their new power.

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"Come on Kai, put your back into it!" Gohan brought down his sword.

Kai blocked the attack using the Z Sword "I am putting my back into it, this is training not a death match-" he he accidentally sliced a few hairs off of the figure standing in front of him "Oh my god I'm sorry-" then he froze when he realized who it was "M-Mom?"

The figure, Kumiko was a woman in her early 30's, with black hair and black eyes, and she quickly clutched the side of her head "What a way to greet someone."

"...And again I say, mom?"

Kumiko quickly recomposed herself and pulled Kai into a gentle hug, accidentally causing him to drop the Z Sword "You've really grown haven't you Kai?"

"I had to considering everything that's happened since…"

"I know, and I'm sorry."

"Don't be, it wasn't your fault you got sick when you did. I just wish you could've been there to see everything I've been through since then."

"I have, and I know everything that's been going on down on Earth. But nevermind that right now, what I'd like to know is why you and your friend over there are dressed up like the Supreme Kai."

"Oh right, mom this is Gohan. Gohan, this is Kumiko Sato, my mother."

"Hi." Gohan wheezed out, clearly in a great amount of pain.

"What's the matter with you?"

Gohan pointed to where a large part of the blade of the Z Sword had ended up being lodged in his foot.

"Oh, sorry." Kai drew the Z Sword from Gohan's foot.

"Wait a minute." Kumiko looked back at where Shin was waving at her, while Kibito was looking on jaw dropped "So you mean that the short one is the Supreme Kai? That other one next to him, what was his name? The big one, supposed to have been killed by Dabura, looks down on mortals when he doesn't have any of the strength to back it up."

"What- Impossible…" Kibito stammered "Another mortal here to tarnish our sacred lands?"

"See what I mean?"

"We both know very well what you mean ma'am." Gohan told her.

"Please, just call me Kumiko."

"As thrilled as I am over this mom, why and how exactly are you here?" asked Kai "And what have you been doing since you've been dead?"

"Well since I was a martial artist before your father and I got married and I won the 20th World Martial Arts Tournament, I was sent to the Grand Kai's world by King Yemma and I've been there for about 7 years. He also allowed me to see how you were doing, and to my joy I saw that you were the new 25th world champion after defeating Mr Satan."

"Beating a disgrace like that really isn't very hard. Still though, what's been happening on Earth while Gohan and I have been training?"

Kumiko let out a sigh "Well your friend Broly tried to slay Magatsuhi himself but failed, and even his sacrificial attack did little good. Your friends and allies are in the middle of training on the Lookout."

"You're really well informed."

"I've met your father, he's told me a lot about his time on Earth. Anyway, that Higurashi girl had to be sent to collect something known as the Ultra Divine Water from the far North."

"Wait, Kagome went to get it?"

"She drank it and survived its effects, and now Son Goku and that other one with the spiky hair drank it."

"Dad and Vegeta? What about Magatsuhi and the Kings of Destruction?" asked Gohan.

"Magatsuhi sent that monster from Hell called Janemba to destroy some cities and cause chaos before the week he gave them is up. Oh, and your father and the others have formed an alliance with one of those Magatsuhi brought with him who defected. I believe it was Bankotsu of the Band of Seven."

"...Wow, I thought that things would be bad but I not that bad."

"Yeah but your dad and the others aren't weak."

"I know but this is Magatsuhi we're talking about, the guy that beat me within an inch of my life without breaking a sweat while I was using my Dragon Saiyan 3 form."

"Well that just means that we have to get that much stronger."

"That reminds me." Kumiko looked at the Z Sword "That blade that you were using, that's the fabled Z Sword isn't it?"

"Yeah that's right, you wanna give it a shot?"

"Sure, you've definitely improved in your kendo since I last saw you use a sword."

"7 years will do that to you, but this thing is really heavy."

"I think I can manage, after all I'm the one who got you into martial arts." Kumiko gripped the Z Sword and held it with one hand "You were right, this is really heavy. I almost have to use two hands for this. So this is the sword you have to use to defeat that creature Majin Buu right?"

Kibito's jaw dropped to the ground 'What is going on today? Another mortal swinging the great Z Sword around like it's nothing more than a useless piece of scrap metal?'

"Supreme Kai was it? Would you mind if I stayed here and helped the boys with their training until they went back to Earth?"

Shin quickly snapped out of his stupor "Of course, that would be a very big help. Feel free to make yourself at home."

"Hey Supreme Kai." Kai cut in "I'd hate to impose at a time like this, but you don't have anything to eat do you? To me it feels like I haven't eaten in days, so to Saiyans and their increased metabolism it must be unbearable."

"Oh of course, all of you just follow me and I'll show you the way. Gohan and Kai have earned a lunch break after all the training they've been putting in." and he flew off.

Kai followed with Gohan and Kumiko "I still can't believe that one of those Band of Seven bastards would actually offer to help."

"It doesn't really surprise me." Gohan commented "A while after the first thing with Janemba, I could sense the Ki signatures of Frieza and a bunch of others suddenly disappear and the other Band of Seven members reappear. Maybe they have something to do with this."

"Makes sense."

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Training began in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

Mirai quickly dodged a slash from Banryu, his Super Saiyan 2 aura flaring 'Unbelievable, Bankotsu claims that he wants to help us but the minute we get in here he's trying to waste me! What's worse is that he's even stronger than a Super Saiyan 2!'

"Gotcha!" Bankotsu successfully slashed at Mirai's torso, drawing some blood.

Mirai quickly broke away and blocked another slash.

"You're getting pretty good with that sword of yours, but even so…" he knocked the sword away and slashed Mirai down his chest "That doesn't mean that you don't have a long way to go with it."

"I guess so. Alright Bankotsu, let's go again."

"Right." Bankotsu charged and brought down Banryu.

Mirai quickly retrieved his Brave Sword and blocked the attack, then burst forward in order to close the distance.

'As soon as he saw that my reach got in the way of close quarters combat, he switched to try and minimize the distance.' Bankotsu ducked under a slash "Nice try." he quickly aimed a slash of his own "You see, my durability is well beyond any ordinary human. I can grip the blade of Banryu and not even get a scratch."

Mirai leapt away, though his ankle was now bleeding "Is that right?" he charged again.

'Even so, we've only been here for about 2 weeks and he's miles ahead of the way he was fighting when we first got in here. Still though he's not quite at full strength, I guess he can only access that insane reserve of extra Saiyan strength when he has somebody nearby that he has to protect. But even then…'

Mirai blocked a strike from Banryu 'It's weird, I can't feel any sort of emotion from when he attacks. At first I thought it was because I never really knew anything about this guy, but that's not it. But even now, no matter how many times our swords meet I feel nothing from him. It's not like when we fought Naraku, I guess that was just that his heart had been turned elsewhere. But this is different, this guy is looking at me but it's like there's a lid over his heart. Magatsuhi and Frieza were the exact opposite, even if they weren't looking directly at me I could feel their bloodlust stabbing into me every second of the fight. Is it that I can't read their hearts because they aren't Saiyans or don't have human blood, or is it that I still don't fully trust him not to betray us?' he broke away.

"I can see that you're letting your mind wander, I did tell you that this was a real fight didn't I? I guess I'm gonna have to drag it back into place." Bankotsu suddenly blitzed forward and used Banryu to quickly slash Mirai across the eyes.

Mirai screamed in pain and fell to one knee, clutching his now useless eyes as they began pouring blood "What's wrong with you?! Are you completely out of your mind?!"

"Shut your hole!" Bankotsu kicked Mirai in the face, sending him tumbling back "Will you quit your whining already, you're getting on my last nerve."

"What in the world are you trying to do? Are you really on our side?"

"Hey now, what are you going on about? I told you my objective from the start, I'm doing this to save my fellow brothers in the Band of Seven and as a precondition to that I've gotta get you stronger."

"And you're trying to do that by blinding me?! The more you act like this, the harder it gets for me to believe that you're really on my side."

"Seriously, what are you going on about?"

"What?"

"If this is all it takes to make you stop trusting me at all then why the hell did you agree to come in here and train with me? It's because you figured that if someone was going to help you get strong enough to fight Magatsuhi then you didn't care if you could trust them or not. Did you really think you could make it through on your own if I turned on you not even 10% through this? You as weak as you are? Tell me another, right now you've lost your sight and you can't lift a finger against me."

"You…"

"You're a complete idiot, it was over the second the two of us came in here on our own and so were you!" Bankotsu charged forward and slugged Mirai square in the face, sending him to the ground.

"Dammit…" Mirai didn't move.

"What's the matter? You know that I'm gonna kill you, dodge like your life depends on it you coward! And once this is over, I'm gonna go outside, kill everyone there, steal your time machine, head back to your timeline and blow the whole damn planet to smithereens! But before I do that, I'll hunt down and murder every last person you care about one by one. I should warn you, for them it's not gonna be quick." he brought down Banryu.

Mirai suddenly batted Banryu away with his bare hand "The people of my time… of my world… are innocent… they have nothing… to do with this!" he slowly got onto one knee and began hyperventilating, but it quickly died down "If you do anything to my home… or anything to my friends or family… or my students… I will… MAKE YOU PAY!" he suddenly let out a furious roar and was enveloped in a golden pillar of light, his body bulking up slightly, his hair standing more on end as a blue glow appeared around his body. When the light dissipated, Mirai slowly stepped forward, his now useless eyes showing nothing but rage "Bankotsu…"

"Nice work." Bankotsu retrieved Banryu "Looks like you did it."

"What…"

"The first two Super Saiyan forms are gained through anger so I thought I'd check and see if it was possible for you to awaken a new form if I make you give into your rage and think only about trying to kill me"

"Bankotsu…"

"Sorry about that, I know that me being a villain is really kind of cliche these days but you've gotta do what you've gotta do right?" he pulled a Senzu Bean out of his pocket and stuffed it into Mirai's mouth, healing his wounds and restoring his eyes "Alright, now let's get back to work. We still have 11 ½ months in here."

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A full day passed, and training was progressing.

"Alright, bring it!" Kai brought down the Z Sword.

Gohan blocked it with his own sword "You're gonna have to do better than that." he thrusted his sword forward.

Kai blocked the sword with his "Oh I'm just getting warmed up."

"Alright boys, that's enough." Kumiko stopped them "Kai I can't believe how skilled you are with that blade and you've only had it for a day or so, I really am proud of you son."

"Thanks mom, coming from you that means more than you could know."

"Excellent Kai, I never doubted that you would be the one to wield it." Shin told him.

"Thanks but even if I didn't we'd still have Gohan, after all I'm only at like 20% of his base form's power."

"That reminds me, the Z Sword has to be sharper than any other blade in the universe, even my Ryuuga. Why don't we test out the edge?" Gohan suggested.

"Sure why not, what's the worst that could happen? What are you gonna use?"

"Let's see here… Oh good, this should do nicely." Gohan quickly summoned a large boulder out of the ground "Okay, what do you say we start with a small one? See if you could get her in one slice."

"Oh please, I could go through this thing faster than your dad through a bowl of your mom's cooking. Alright Z Sword, let's see what you're made of. Alright Gohan, let her fly!"

"Letting her fly!" Gohan threw it.

Kai raised the Z Sword and brought it down, cutting the boulder clean down the middle in an instant "And that be how we do."

Shin grinned "Excellent Kai, that was superb."

"Thanks, I try."

"Now for the next step." Gohan pulled out another boulder and generated fire in both hands, causing the boulder to turn to adamant "Okay, you ready?"

"Throw it!"

"Throwing it!"

Kai brought down the Z Sword, and although it strained slightly, he cut through the blade in one clean stroke "Piece of cake."

"Okay, how about my Platinum Cannon-"

"Please hang on just a moment." Shin stopped him "I feel that we should try something harder to push the sword's limits."

"What did you have in mind?" asked Kumiko.

"I believe this should do." he summoned a cube made of a black metal "Alright Gohan, it's all yours."

Gohan caught it "What's this thing made of?"

"That is the hardest element ever discovered in the known universe, it's referred to as Katchin."

"Katchin huh?" Gohan poked it "I can see that it lives up to the reputation."

"Yes, this will be a much better test."

"If you say so. Alright Kai, slice it in half on the first try!" Gohan threw the cube.

"FORE!" Kai slashed at the cube, only for the blade to snap in half once it made contact, causing the cube of Katchin to fly over his head and embed itself in the ground "Uh… oops."

Shin was losing his shit "H-He broke what cannot be broken, all is lost!"

"...Well to be fair, using Katchi to test the blade was your idea." Kumiko pointed out "I'm not normally one to point fingers, I'm just stating a fact."

"But the legend says that the one who successfully wields and masters the Z Sword will hold the greatest power in the universe!"

Kibito was just as bad "The holiest of all relics in the sanctuary of the Kai's and you broke it in half!"

"Well legends do tend to be exaggerated." Kai nonchalantly dropped the sword, or what was left of it "But look on the bright side for a change guys, thanks to the Z Sword being super heavy I'm more than twice as powerful as I was before thanks to swinging that thing around for about a day." he threw a few punches "Maybe the point is that whoever can master the handling of the Z Sword is what the legend is talking about when it says that I'll end up getting some new insane level of power."

Shin found renewed hope "Yes, that must be it. We must have interpreted the legend wrong, if the sword has much you this much stronger in your normal state then imagine how much stronger you'll become when you use your Zen Ryuken!"

"I guess."

"Well I'm glad we're in agreement then, the legendary power of the Z Sword is really just an upper body workout."

Gohan was rather skeptical "Yeah I guess that could be it, but are you guys really sure about this? No offense Kai, but I'm pretty sure that you're still not strong enough to win against anyone other than Bojack or Android 13. Maybe Turles and Slug, but don't forget about the Fruit from the Tree of Might enhanced by Magatsuhi and his dark power. Sorry, but I don't see it working out."

"What are saying then Gohan, that we don't have a chance?"

"No no no, none of you are anywhere near close to having it right." a new voice cut in from behind, scaring Shin into soiling himself.

Shin slowly turned around and found an older version of him standing behind him "Excuse me sir, who are you exactly?"

"Oh you'll be very surprised to find out who I am, why I can't wait to tell you. Well the thing is that I'm sort of you, the same rank as in I'm also the Supreme Kai, but I'm from 15 generations ago."

"...What?! 15 generations ago?!"

Kai and Gohan shared a look 'What the f*ck?'

"How is this even possible? I don't understand."

"Then allow me to explain." Old Kai let out a shallow cough "A long long long time ago, there was a particularly strong, not to mention extremely evil, fella. That fella is the one that you're all facing now."

Gohan froze "You mean-"

"Yes, I faced Magatsuhi personally many eons ago. Anyway, that evil son of a gun feared my power and potential so he went and sealed me up inside that sword there. Of course I'm sure it was because he was scared of my fearsomeness, and I'm sure that's why he did it. But now I'm finally free and feeling frisky."

"...I don't know guys, he doesn't look that fearsome to me." Kai commented "He looks like some old guy who can't throw a punch."

Gohan shrugged "I guess."

"So what do you say we test him out and see what he's made of?"

"I don't know if that's a good idea Kai."

"Oh come on, what's the worst that could happen." he then fired a simple Ki blast, hitting Old Kai square in the face and sending him crashing to the ground "Uh… oops."

Shin and Kibito started freaking out and rushed over to him "Oh Great Ancestor, are you alright? Please be alright!"

Old Kai bolted up and started lashing out at Kai "You imbecile! What in the hell do you think you're doing you dried up turd stain?! How dare you treat a venerable elder Supreme Kai like myself with such disrespect?!"

"...So yeah, he's just some hot tempered old wind bag." was what Kai got from that.

Kumiko just blinked "I know I should scold you, but to be completely honest you're right."

"You little-" then Old Kai somewhat cooled off "The reason that Magatsuhi feared me had nothing to do with my physical strength you numbskull and everything to do with the powerful ability that I possess!"

"Okay now you have my attention, what ability are we talking about here?"

"Wouldn't you like to know? Well you can forget it, after a stunt like that there's no way I'm telling you." he stuck out his tongue for emphasis.

'I can't believe I'm about to say this. Okay how about this, you see him?" he jerked a thumb back in Gohan's direction "I know where his dad's old martial arts master keeps his dirty magazines, I can bring you as many as you want."

"Kai!" Gohan hissed "Why would you say something like that?!"

"I thought it would work, he's got the pervert eyes."

Old Kai scoffed "I have no need for such things, thanks to my divine peepers I can spy a broad taking a bath or changing clothes whenever I want."

Shin face planted "Please show some decorum sir!"

"Decor- what now?"

"And that would explain a few things." Kai leaned in to whisper in his ear "Hey old man, I think I have an offer for you if you tell us about this ability."

"Is it squeezing a woman's boobs? Or maybe her tush?" Old Kai then proceeded to make the grave mistake of looking at Kumiko "Is it her?"

"That's my mother you old sack of shit!" Kai promptly grabbed him by the throat "Okay I tried to be nice but you crossed the line, now you can either show us this technique of yours or we can send you down to fight Magatsuhi since he's so afraid of you. Your pick old man."

"Alright alright." Old Kai freed himself "Honestly, you people are so impatient."

"You brought it on yourself old man, now what's this great power you've got?

"Get a load of this, see I can take any warrior no matter how amazing they were to start with and I can use my hidden power to pull hidden strength from deep and I mean deep inside him to bring that untapped vigor to the surface, and pushing the warrior beyond his limits. Now then boys tell me, have you ever heard of such a thing before?"

"...Actually, I think that's a pretty common ability." Gohan pointed out.

"Hogwash! To their limits and beyond, their limits and beyond I push them! Can you think of somebody else who does that? Anybody else?! You can't, can you?"

"Nobody who's still alive, but I guess you've got a point."

"That's what I thought." then he looked at Kai "You with the mouth, you're the one who finally managed to pull the Z Sword out of the stone right?"

"Yeah, why?" asked Kai.

"Go stand over there real quick."

"Alright, I guess." he slowly walked over.

"A guy like you who can already retrieve that sword and swing it around like that, by the time I'm through with you I swear that you may very well be the strongest man in the universe. It's funny you know, I thought for sure that the one who pulled that sword out and released me from my infernal imprisonment would have been like myself, one of the proud and mighty Supreme Kai. But no, to my astonishment it was a measly earthling. What are the worlds coming to I can only wonder. Now then, you just stand still and try not to fidget around too much."

"Got it."

"Alright then, let's do this." he took a deep breath "Off you go to dispose of Majin Buu!" he then started dancing around and making constipated noises.

"...So is all of this-"

"Keep your mouth zipped! This is an extremely important ceremony!"

"...This is part of the ceremony?"

"...Excuse me, but how long is this ritual going to take exactly?" asked Kumiko.

"5 hours for this part, then there's another 20 hours for the power up itself.

"Uh huh. Well in that case, Kai just hang in there."

"Please don't leave me." Kai pleaded.

"You're the 25th world champion, you can handle this. Gohan, would you like me to teach you a technique that I developed?"

"Sure, what is it?" asked Gohan.

"The original version of the technique that Kai used during the tournament, it's called the Ryuken. It's derived from willpower, which is the biggest difference from the technique you know as the Kaioken."

"You traitors…" Kai ground out.

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The 24 hours of meditation ended.

Goku opened his eyes "It's done."

Vegeta did the same "Looks like it." he looked over to where Cooler sat meditating in silence close by "So he must have drank the stuff too."

"Looks like it, I wonder when."

"About 6 hours after you guys started meditating." Piccolo told them.

"Did Mirai and Bankotsu come out yet?"

"See for yourself." he pointed to where Mirai was meditating on the edge of the Lookout "From what I can tell he unlocked some new transformation in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, one that's different from Super Saiyan 3. We don't have time to talk though, one of you better take your kid in there and get your round done."

"Yeah, good idea. I think I'll go first. But first, you and I are gonna have to go on a sort of vacation."

"...What?"

"You see, King Kai told me that even though you fused with Kami again you still couldn't access your ultimate potential and that's because there was a small part of your essence missing since you were born."

"I'm listening."

"He told me that you'd have go to to Otherworld, or Hell to be more specific, find that missing piece of your essence, and reabsorb it."

"...Alright, let's do it."

"That's all I needed to hear." Goku promptly grabbed Piccolo and they both disappeared via Instant Transmission.

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Gohan's aura, now blue instead of the usual white, powered down "Okay, I think I've got this down now."

Kumiko nodded "Nice work, you mastered the basic version of the Ryuken after just a couple of hours."

"You said it was based on the user's willpower, I don't usually like to brag but I've never been weak of will. So how do you think Kai is doing with that weird looking ritual?"

Kumiko pointed a thumb.

"Oh. It never ends does it? Just like my dad after tacos."

"Well to be fair it's only been about 2 hours so there's at least another 3 before he finishes this ceremony. It's probably best to settle in."

"I guess."

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Piccolo found himself alone in Hell 'Alright Piccolo, just like Goku said. I've gotta find this missing piece of myself, it's the only way I'm going to have a chance of surviving in this upcoming battle.'

"Hello Piccolo."

As he heard this, Piccolo froze 'That voice… I'd recognize that voice anywhere. Ever since I was created 20 years ago, I had heard that voice every single day. Then came the battle with the Saiyans and I sacrificed myself to save Gohan, and then it just stopped.'

"It's so nice to finally meet you my boy, after all this time. To be honest, I never thought we would actually get the chance to meet."

"So this is what Goku was talking about. To be honest, this is a day I've been dreaming of but I never thought it was really going to come." Piccolo slowly turned and faced his opponent "I've heard a lot about you… father."

Sure enough, the Demon King Piccolo stood in front of him.

"So you're the great King Piccolo aren't you?"

"I can see that my reputation proceeds me, but please just call me Daimao. After all, it's the name that I would've had those feeble humans call me after I had taken over… and it's also the name I expect them to call you my son." the way he spoke was cold and proud, and it was also slightly intimidating.

'If this were me the first time I died then I might have been intimidated, but since then I've faced foes that he couldn't even begin to comprehend. Daimao it is. I have to admit I actually like the name, it's short and to the point and it separates you from the pompous and ignorant fools who create names for themselves. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've seen that."

Now Daimao let out a snicker, which left Piccolo rather unnerved "Of course not my son, though I must say that I'm extremely happy to see that you still choose to wear the colors of the Demon Clan. At least there's a part of you that's still loyal to your tribe, despite your… actions over the past decade or so."

'Loyal to our tribe? Actions?'

"Why have you not killed Son Goku yet?" his eyes suddenly narrowed.

'Okay, now I see why people were so afraid of me back during the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament. I can even feel the sweat running down my spine.'

"I was going to, but I had more pressing issues to deal with. That, and my desire to kill Goku has long since been forgotten by me. The Earth was attacked by warriors known as Saiyans, and yes I did kill Goku in a sacrificial move to kill one of these Saiyans- Goku's brother in fact- but two more showed up a year later and one of them got the jump on me and sent me here. Tell me, what good would there be in letting those fools destroy the Earth if I wasn't able to rule it?"

"...Piccolo my son, explain something to me. I died 20 years ago, and you were born in my dying moments 20 years ago. That's a full 2 decades, am I correct?"

"Yes."

"You mean to tell me that during all of that time, you weren't able to defeat that wretched fool even once?! Dammit Piccolo!"

"What the hell was I supposed to do? You want me to sneak up on him, kill his friends and family, and then butcher him like some kind of sadist? You want me to hand the heads of his friends and family on trees for him to see? That's the coward's way out. If I was going to take him out then it would be in a fair fight, one on one between us both."

Daimao said nothing.

"Yes I teamed up with Son Goku and yes I fought alongside him and his friends against the Saiyans, if you were smart then you would've done the same thing but clearly you're not. There was no way I was going to let those Saiyans destroy the Earth, whether I was going to rule that world or not. Yes I trained Goku's son and yes I sacrificed himself for it, but he showed me that I had a choice, a choice to follow my own path and not become a slave to the destiny you tried to force on me. I'm not you father, I never was and I never will be."

"Don't tell me about the coward's way out and then try to defend it to me Piccolo, you took the coward's way out. You're throwing away your heritage and your legacy, and for what? Some meaningless morals? Are you concerned about possibly dying? I made you with the sole intention of killing that incompetent ape, and you tell me that you won't do it just because I made you to do it? You're an idiot, a weak fool that lacks any sort of brain."

"There's more to it than that. The Saiyans, if you anger them then their power increases to levels one can only imagine. You made a grave mistake in your approach. You and your demons killed several of Goku's friends which only enraged him and turned him bloodthirsty, if you ever truly wanted me to kill Son Goku then I hope you realize that having me repeat the exact same process that you used isn't the answer."

Instead of lashing out again, Daimao chuckled "Fair points Piccolo, very fair points. I must admit, I'm impressed that you've acquired my intelligence and ability to use logic. Your brothers, they never really had either."

"You mean those pathetic excuses for demons that you created? Piano, Cymbal, Drum, Tambourine, all of them were pathetic weaklings and I have to break this to you but they're not my brothers."

"Watch your tongue Piccolo, even if you are the ultimate demon the fact is that they're still your brothers. Looking back I admit that I made a mistake by not making them strong enough, that's on my. But I will not have you talk about them like they're worthless, don't you understand the importance of loyalty Piccolo?"

"Yes I do, but that doesn't mean that I have to be loyal to you. I learned a long time ago that I don't have to live in your shadow anymore. Father or no father you don't control me, you never have and you never will. You want to talk about making a mistake? Your mistake was giving me an actual brain, because I'm smart enough to see just how foolish your ideals and plans really are."

"Is that so? Well if you're not with me then you're against me. You arrogant weak minded fool, you're going to regret your insolence!"

"So what are you going to do then? Are you going to hit me, make me cry and then pledge my allegiance to you? Come on Daimao, you and I both know that talking isn't how our kind settle things."

"How right you are my son, how right you are." Daimao let out a howl and charged in an attempt to land a right hook across the face.

Piccolo suddenly flickered, revealing himself as an afterimage, and the real one quickly blitzed behind Daimao and thrusted his elbow into Daimao's back.

Daimao fell to the ground and coughed up blood 'Now that's what I expected to see all of my sons to in battle.'

"Unlike the rest of your sons, I actually know how to fight. I know every trick in your book, not to mention some more that I learned myself. I guess that's the benefit of having my own brain right?"

"Your own brain huh? Well you see Piccolo…" that was when Daimao fired a Ki blast "If it's a fight that you want then it's a fight you're going to get! Good riddance!"

Piccolo gracefully dodged it "Sorry old man, you missed."

"Did I?" Daimao fired several more Ki blasts as he rose from the ground.

Piccolo dodged the majority of the blasts, causing them to miss by miles "What are you doing? Did you lose your vision when you fell to the ground? Out of 30 shots you barely managed to scrape me with just one, am I supposed to be intimidated by this?"

"Intimidated? Who said anything about intimidated? You keep going on about my attacks missing, but it's you who's missing the point!"

"What-?" Piccolo looked around, only to see the balls surround him 'This is the Hellzone Grenade! No wonder 17 hates this attack.'

"I've been planning this for a long time Piccolo, and now it's time for this to end. Farewell, my son. Demon Grenade!" Daimao activated the final step to his version of the Hellzone Grenade, causing the blasts to all swarm in on Piccolo, covering in a massive explosion that filled the sky.

Piccolo let out a loud ear piercing scream, only to draw from Daimao a cackle of joy.

"See this new generation, they just don't know how things work do they? Defeating the veterans, those who had been there before? It's impossible, completely and truly impossible." he began to walk forward 'If all went well then that means that he's gone and the next Demon King is about to be crowned, and that's enough for us to celebrate the only way demons know how: chaos, fire and anarchy. That's how the Earth should've been under my his rule. For all these years, I had been expecting to one day learn that the Earth was nothing more than ruins where the human race served under the Demon King Piccolo and fought with each other for the scraps. I had imagined a world where they both feared and adored him, mostly the former. But instead the Earth still blossoms, probably in much better shape than it was when I had died. But how could that be? How is it that the son of a malevolent creature like me could not want to rule over the Earthlings? If he was truly my son then he would've taken extreme pleasure in watching the world slowly burn with the flags of the nations being replaced with our colors. What I done wrong then? Had I made a mistake when doing the sacred Demon Transfer technique? Well if this all went to plan then Piccolo will soon be… facing me looking like he's foaming at the mouth.'

Sure enough, Piccolo stood there once the smoke cleared, looking extremely pissed as if the attack hadn't hit him at all "What was that supposed to do?"

Daimao staggered backwards and fell to his knees 'How… How could he have survived that? How… what? I spent years working on the Demon Grenade, how could it have failed so miserably?'

"You want to know something? For a long time I thought that I had to live in your shadows and become the next Demon King." Piccolo flared his white aura "But that was a very long time ago, and now I'm going to make sure the title of Demon King never returns by eradicating it from existence."

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Gohan woke up from napping underneath a tree "So how's Kai doing with that ritual?"

"Well it can't be much longer now." Shin told him.

"Good thing too, that whole thing was so boring I actually fell asleep. Wow, I have a lot more of my dad in me than I thought."

Sure enough, Old Kai finally stopped dancing and sat down "Okay, there we go. Alright, now you can sit down if you want to."

"Oh thank god." Kai promptly sat down after stretching for a little while.

"So son, do you feel that you're any stronger than you were before?" asked Kumiko.

"The ceremony only just ended, it doesn't go that fast." Old Kai told her "We still have 20 more hours of hard work to go before he's ready. Now for phase 2, it's actually a lot easier than the ceremony. You just have to concentrate without moving a muscle, but I'll be able to do the whole thing sitting down this time."

"Do I really have to?" Kai whined.

"Show some respect, I'm using on you amazing powers you couldn't even imagine and all you have to do is sit still! It's a small price to pay isn't it?"

"I guess."

"Come on boy the clock is ticking, let's get this started!"

"Fine, just let me meditate until the time is up." and Kai promptly got into the meditative stance that Piccolo taught him.

Old Kai then got to work awakening his sleeping powers.

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Time passed.

Gohan was doing some push ups while he was waiting "Hey Supreme Kai, we've been waiting for a while now haven't we? Do you really think this ceremony is going to give Kai the power he needs? I mean we're going up against Magatsuhi here."

"I'm not sure really." Shin confessed "But I do have a feeling this is going to work, he seems sure of it at least."

"Well I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

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Kai opened his eyes after finishing his meditation and looked at Old Kai 'That old son of a- He fell asleep! Hey old man, you didn't really fall asleep did you?" he received no response, which only angered him "Wake the hell up!"

Then Old Kai suddenly bolted awake "What happened?"

"What do you think? You fell asleep."

"What? That's ridiculous, I would never fall asleep at a time like this! I was just resting my eyes."

"I sleep during class all the time and I know that you can't snore like that without falling asleep. This is coming from a pro."

"There are a lot of things you don't know ignorant to the mysteries of the universe, surely you don't think an elder Supreme Kai would lie do you? Alright that's enough yapping, you've got a lot more of sitting in silence to do so let's hurry up and get to it." and he fell asleep again.

'...Gohan you are so going to pay for this.'

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"But that was a very long time ago, and now I'm going to make sure the title of Demon King never returns by eradicating it from existence."

"You…" hearing that simple sentence filled Daimao with blind rage 'Does he truly think he can wipe out the demon clan? No, that can't be it. If anything he must be playing a simple trick on me, trying to get me to lose my cool. I'd watch what you say if I were you Piccolo, I'm still your father after all. I don't see why you're so angry, so hell bent on destroy me. Tell me, what did I ever do to you? All I wanted was for you to follow in my footsteps, that's all there is to it."

"If I was going to follow in your footsteps then Goku would've killed me, if I was going to follow in your footsteps like I told before then I wouldn't be ruling Earth because I would be dead."

"I don't see how that would be the case, from what you've already shown me you're quite strong, far stronger than I had expected after hearing about everything you've been through."

"Do you have any idea what's happened on Earth since you let yourself get killed by Goku? I know that I told you about the Saiyans, but do you really know about that and everything I've been through since then?"

"All I know is that you betrayed me by not killing Son Goku, but how about you enlighten me on just what's gone on so that I know why you've put off eliminating the man responsible for killing your father." Daimao waved his hand and summoned two chairs "Here go on and sit, just because I've been in Hell doesn't mean that I've forgotten to be a gracious host."

"I think I'll stand thank you. He has something up his sleeve, I can tell. Tell me, how much do you already know?"

"Well I don't know much to be honest, but I know enough. I know the main things that Son Goku is still alive, the Earth is free, and you died once at the hands of Saiyan warriors but weren't sent to Hell."

"Well then here's the rest of it. After you created me I spent the first three years of my life training until the next World Martial Arts Tournament. There I fought Krillin, one of the ones that your demonic spawns killed, and then Kami. He took possession of some human's body and tried to use the Evil Containment Wave on me, but I deflected it and ended up capturing him instead. Then I fought Goku and I did what you had failed to do, I crippled him and made sure he didn't have a free arm that he could use to defeat me. Somehow though, he beat me by knocking me out of the ring and at that moment I thought I was done for. I thought that now, here we have a man who's facing the reincarnation of the demon who killed his best friend and his teacher, and tried to enslave all of Earth, ,and now he has the demon at his feet. I knew that Goku would find a way to just end it, but instead he healed me."

Daimao said nothing, but his fist clenched.

"For so long I hated Goku and wanted nothing more than to defeat him in battle, but I had to train harder than I could ever foresee myself doing. Then I began thinking, why not just devote my time to practicing a move that would kill Goku with ease? Looking back it was foolish of me to think that and I ended up paying the price for it when Goku's Saiyan brother Raditz showed up and trounced us both like it was nothing. Goku planned to sacrifice himself so that I would be able to kill Raditz, and I can't say that I objected to the idea. After all, it was what I had been waiting for my whole life. But still, as he lay there lifeless it just wasn't what I had imagined it to be like. I found myself unable to hate him for making such a sacrifice. As he lay there dying, Raditz let us know that there were two more Saiyans on their way to Earth and that they would be there in one year. I saw the great potential held within Goku's son and I took to boy to train him in my ways, maybe even use him against Goku later."

"An excellent plan I must admit. Now what, pray tell, became of that plan?"

"Well flash forward about 11 months, the Saiyans come and before I knew it I ended up being killed by one of them to shield the kid. Then I landed in this dimension and met that giant red asshole Yemma, speaking of which when I first showed up there he told me that you were locked up but I don't see any kind of prison."

"He seems to do that often. Is that it Piccolo, is that the story I've been waiting all these years to hear?"

Piccolo's posture tightened up "That's everything you need to know."

'So it seems that Piccolo doesn't trust me just yet. It's a shame, I actually found his story to be quite interesting. Speaking of stories Piccolo, you know the story of how Kami and I splitting from each other don't you? The story about the Namekian with no name splitting into two beings, the good side being Kami and the evil side being yours truly?"

"I have all of your memories old man so of course I do, what about them? Is he going where I think he is with this?'

Well Piccolo, I don't know quite how to explain this to you."

'Oh why not, I'll just humor him and go along with it.'

"I've been doing a bit of research over the years about what's known as fusion, namely the combination of two lifeforms genetically similar like me and Kami. Over that time, after a little bit of experimentation with the demons I realized that if a Namekian or demon can split itself into two entities then two entities can combine to form a single being that's even more powerful than the two of them combined."

"Let me stop you right there, if you think that I'm going to fuse with you and let you try and dominate me then you've got another thing coming."

"Well I don't necessarily think it, I know it and I know what's going to happen Piccolo. The two of us, we're going to form a new Demon King and continue the bloodline. Piccolo, I'm well aware that I can't beat you in a simple fist fight even after all the, not with the training that you've done and the brilliant mind you possess. But if you combine that with my brilliant mind and experience and we'd have the ideal Demon King, we could crush Son Goku like the insect that he is!"

"I already told you, whatever desire I held to kill Son Goku faded over time. At this point killing Goku would be counterproductive, and there's no chance in hell that I'd ever fuse with you of all people."

"No chance huh?" Daimao suddenly punched Piccolo across the face, then smashed his head into that of Piccolo "Oh I know that there's a chance, and I know that you're going to be brought back to Earth by Son Goku and those feeble earthlings. They're going to need your strength for the fight coming up, but once you return to Earth you won't be you anymore."

Piccolo clutched his bleeding head and shot Daimao a feeble smirk "Oh really, and who am I gonna be old man? I'd love to hear this."

"Well Piccolo, you- no, more like we- will be the Demon King."

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The ritual continued.

Old Kai was watching pilotees, but not for the exercise 'Yeah that's right, lift those legs…'

Kai was resisting the urge to beat the old pervert within an inch of his life 'I hope the Earth is okay while I'm sitting here doing this.'

"You were just wondering if everything is alright back on Earth while we're continuing with this process weren't you? When I told you this power up would take 20 hours I meant 20 hours, so just relax and sit still. A Supreme Kai doesn't lie about these things, did you forget that?"

"No."

"Good, so just sit still."

"Fine. We've still got a full 10 hours to go, and I still don't know if this is going to be enough for me to make a difference.'

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Daimao watched as Piccolo stood in silence after the proposition "Nothing to say Piccolo? Then I'm going to make the assumption that you're considering fusing with me. Don't you understand what could come out of us combining our powers? We would be the most feared being that this universe has ever seen!"

'I highly doubt that.' Piccolo resisted the urge to point out the crisis with Magatsuhi and the Kings of Destruction.

"I understand how this must feel, I do, but you must understand that it is necessary. The Demon King line will die with you unless we combine our talents Piccolo, imagine all that we can do my son!"

"I couldn't care less about what we can od. What I care about is the here and now, and that's me walking away as my own self and not some puppet like the other demons that you've created."

"You're making a grave mistake boy, and don't be so quick to insult your brothers. After we fuse, you'll have the pleasure of meeting them and calling them your- or should I say our- allies in battle. I will admit that they're not the most intelligent, but they make up for that in loyalty."

Piccolo promptly slided elbow into Daimao's chest "Listen old man, I want you to get this through your skull: I'm not going to let you even come close to fusing with me. I had to fight for a long time to rid your voice from my mind and I'm gonna be damned if I let you back in, you understand me?"

Daimao coughed up blood 'If I remember correctly then all I have to do is beat him to near death and then remind him that death in this realm means him dying for good. After that he'll have no choice but to fuse with me. Fine Piccolo, this is how we're going to do things then." he lunged and slammed his fist into Piccolo's gut.

Piccolo met the fist with his own counter.

Daimao swept Piccolo's legs and knocked him to the ground, then grabbed Piccolo's leg in an attempt to throw him into a rock plateau.

Piccolo fired an Eye Beam and nearly blew off Daimao's ear.

"You little-" Daimao clutched his ear in pain.

Piccolo jumped at him and buried his fist his gut, then twisted it in order to cause greater pain to him.

Daimao doubled over and desperately gasped for breath.

Piccolo rose both hands above his head "I don't care if you're a Demon King or not, you're making a grave mistake fighting the most powerful Namekian this universe has ever seen and now I want you to see just how much of a mistake you made. Thunder Masenko!" he fired a Masenko enhanced by the Lightning of Namek.

"No chance Piccolo!" Daimao crossed his arms in an attempt to block it but a second too late, leaving him to be knocked through a massive wall of rock.

'That wasn't enough to defeat him, he's too durable for something like that. Come on Demon King, show me what you've got. I want to be able to walk away from this fight knowing that I fought a worthy opponent, not one that was nothing but talk. So come on already, let me see why Goku and his friends were oh so afraid of the great Demon King Piccolo."

Daimao promptly fired a Mouth Energy Wave.

Piccolo dodged it, as expected.

Daimao dealt a powerful uppercut to Piccolo's jaw with maximum precision.

Putting the pain aside for the time being, Piccolo threw his shoulders into Daimao's body in a chest bump sort of fashion, which then escalated into the two of them exchanging punches back and forth, trading curses, blood splattering, and even a flip or two along the way.

"You sure that you wouldn't rather just give in Piccolo?" Daimao grabbed Piccolo's arm and slammed his elbow down on it, nearly breaking it and causing Piccolo to recoil "I mean you're clearly wounded, and they do say that fusion will help bring you to full strength, if I were you then I would be practically begging to just fuse right now to spare me even more pain and suffering. You must understand this, I know how you work."

"Well then that would make you nothing but a coward, all you would be doing is running away from a battle. Speaking of running, I have a feeling you'll have the urge to do exactly that in three…" he grabbed Daimao by the arm and held it firmly "Two…" he punched Daimao in the stomach "One." he threw Daimao into the air and fired a Mouth Energy Wave infused with the Dragonfire of Porunga, hitting Daimao dead center in the chest, resulting in an explosion.

Daimao was sent flying further from the blast, a bit further than intended.

Piccolo was standing on top of a plateau within seconds, getting a perfect look of the result of the blast.

Daimao was coughing furiously, but then began to slowly laugh as he rose from the ground, the top of his uniform almost completely destroyed "I must admit Piccolo, you've fought very well. But I believe that there's one more trick from me that you have yet to see, and chances are that you forget that I could even pull this off! Yes it's my ultimate trump card, the move that will put you out of commission. Now you will taste the true power of the Demon King!" a blinding pure white aura began surrounding him and his size began to double.

'This transformation…'

Daimao was transforming into a Great Namekian.

'Dammit, how could I have forgotten that he would be able to do this? I should've realized it the second he mentioned his ultimate trump card!'

Daimao barked out a deep menacing laugh "Now do you see my dear Piccolo? I am the Demon King, and I always get my way! Now you're going to feel my wrath as I pummel you into near death before I absorb you into my being!"

'Dammit, what can I do? If he finishes that transformation then the entire magnitude of this fight is gonna change and- Wait a second, that's it!' he slammed two fingers to his forehead and began packing as much Ki into them as he could 'It's times like this when I'm so glad I spent all those years honing and adjusting this technique so I don't need 5 minutes to charge it, or as long as it takes to turn into that Great Namekian form because if it did then I'd either be panicking or a bloody corpse at this point. I hope this works… No, I know this will work. It hit Raditz while he was squirming in Goku's grip and that was more than 10 years ago, this should be easy. Special Beam Cannon!" he fired a Special Beam Cannon, leaving a massive hole in the center of Daimao's chest.

Daimao abruptly stopped transforming and returned to his normal form, only now with a gaping hole in his chest spewing blood out like a volcano.

"You mentioned your ultimate trump card and it was a technique that I knew, meaning that I understood its strengths and weaknesses. If there's one thing I've learned with that technique or anything close to it then it's that hitting you as you transformed will normally interfere with it. I never even mentioned my ultimate trump card and I end up stopping your transformation, funny how that works right? The first rule of fighting, if you know that your opponent knows how your technique works then you shouldn't make it so obvious to your opponents. Speaking of techniques working, that's ⅔ times the Special Beam Cannon worked in a battle. I mean first there's the thing with Raditz, then I used it in that fight with Gohan, and now here. Still though, the only reason it worked this time was because he was in the middle of transforming and wasn't able to stop it. It's pretty obvious that this move is a liability in one on one fights.'

Daimao finished shrinking back to his normal form, the gigantic hole in his chest not even close to being healed yet, and began crawling while leaving a trail of blood behind from the wound in his chest "Dammit Piccolo… all I wanted was to recreate the Demon King, and you come in the way of this. Why?"

"Because I understand why Goku and King Kai wanted me to come here, they wanted to see if I had ever truly moved on from my past life and forged a new path for myself. King Kai never was fully convinced, though that's probably because I screwed him over once, and he decided to send me down here as a test. He and Goku wanted to see just what the difference was between the two of us. The difference between is actually pretty simple. You want the power to be the Demon King, I want the power because I know that I'm going to need it. So here's what I'm thinking, I say we do this fusion but only if you agree that I say the host entity."

'Finally, he sees things the way I see them! At long last, I've finally found my key to get back into the realm of the living! Yes Piccolo, I'm so glad that you've at last come to your senses after all of this."

Piccolo remained stoic and gave a simple nod "Yes, it's become quite clear that Goku and King Kai made the right choice in having us meet. Together we'll become a very powerful warrior, one that will be known throughout the entire universe."

"Excellent, I can't tell you how thrilled I am that you've finally realized how much this fusion will benefit both of us. I knew there was an actual brain in that head of yours, even if it took some time to comprehend how important and necessary this move is."

"Yes and before we do this there's one thing that I think you should know, for the rest of time you're going to have to witness your worst nightmare in the form of a Demon King fighting to protect the Earth and more importantly fighting alongside Son Goku." he received a look of utter contempt and hatred "Yeah it's shocking I know, it's okay to be speechless because I would be too. After years of you trying to manipulate me into killing Goku and taking over the Earth, I just brilliantly outsmarted you and it feels absolutely amazing. This was a necessary move Daimao and I'm sure it must make your blood boil to know that you'll be fighting to protect the Earth instead of rule it. You're probably asking why, after telling you for so long that I wasn't going to fuse, that I'm making the decision to go through with this. My answer is simple, Earth is full of both good and bad people, sure most of them are fools but the fact is that it's still a planet that's worth protecting. Besides, it's not like I want to end up back here if you catch my drift."

Daimao let out a snarl and desperately tried to heabutt him.

Piccolo clamped a hand over Daimao's mouth in order to shut him up "Take your defeat like a man Daimao, you were a worthy opponent and on another note it was good to meet you. You're as much of a self absorbed, insignificant moron that I thought you would be and now I get to punish you for trying to control me."

"You'll never… get away… with this! I'll find ways to make you suffer Piccolo, I promise you this! I won't go through with this!"

"That's enough out of you, you've lost this battle and it's only right that you take defeat the way that a true king would. I remember all of those lessons you provided for me through transferring your memories, everything about the honor of royalty and being a man, and now it's time for you to take your defeat like one. Now don't worry, this isn't going to take very long." they were then covered by a blinding light 'It's definitely working, I can feel his Ki signature draining from his body and fast and now all of the injuries that I've sustained in this fight seem to be fading away like they were never there.'

Daimao's body quickly began fading away.

'That's it, go on and disappear forever. There's no way I'm letting even a single trace of you survive this.'

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Gohan's head snapped in a certain direction 'This is…'

"What's the matter Gohan?" asked Shin.

"I can feel it… Piccolo's Ki signature is shooting up way higher than anything I've ever felt from him before, even when we fought before while he was under Magatsuhi's control. I don't know what kind of training he's doing, but he's already stronger than I am as a Super Saiyan 2."

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Piccolo finished the fusion with Daimao, and stared down at his hands as he attempted to grasp his newfound power 'This is…'

"I take it this portion of your training was a success?"

Piccolo looked back and saw Cooler standing behind him "So Goku sent you instead?"

"He asked me to come and fetch you while he was training with his son in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber after I finished meditating due to drinking the Ultra Divine Water." Cooler studied Piccolo for a moment "You seem a bit taller now, and your eyes don't hold any of the same hate that King Kai had expected."

"Oh please, as if I'm enough of a pushover that I'd let that old fool take over my body? You know, like Goku said I actually did find myself in there and I'm pretty sure you have a good idea of how it went."

"I'm surprised that you actually agreed to fuse with him, after all you've fused with Kami and he despised everything your father stood for."

"I don't know if I would go that far."

"Regardless it's truly remarkable, so how do you feel?"

"Pretty good to be honest, this new power is amazing. I figured I'd grow stronger but not to this extent."

"Good to know." Cooler held out his hand "King Kai told me that there was one last thing you had to do to get strong enough to figure in this battle before you could be sent back to Earth."

"I'm listening."

"It involves bringing you to meet the Grand Kai."

"And now I'm really listening."

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Kai was beginning to lose his patience with the whole 20 hours rule "Hey Old Kai, there isn't any chance you could speed up this whole power up thing is there? I mean I hate sounding ungrateful, but at this point I doubt we're gonna be done in time."

"You really need to learn to be more patient." Old Kai told him "I'm working on this as fast as I can."

'Somehow I find that hard to believe, and it's not just because he's reading manga while he's doing this. But we've been at this for more than a full day, by my count we should've finished hours ago."

"Oh sorry, I must've lost track of time. You're right, I should've finished with you by now. Well the ceremony is running longer than usual, so I'll bet that by the time we finish this up your powers will be beyond incredible."

"I've had enough of this crap!" Kai bolted to his feet and unconsciously powered up the first level of his Zen Ryuken, the blue aura now crackling with electricity, the entire planet shaking from the raw power "There's no way in hell your crackpot scheme is gonna help me defeat Majin Buu-" he paused and looked down at his hands, his aura powering down "Okay what the hell was that? That crazy power I felt about to burst inside me, does that mean that this whole thing really worked?"

"Alright now sit down and relax, we've got another hour to go to perfect your control over the power or it might end up destroying you. Don't forget, the more time you stomp around the more time this will take and don't forget that I've still gotta do your Dragon Saiyan friend over there in order to take out Magatsuhi himself."

"Yeah, right." Kai slowly sat down "So we're on the last hour?"

"Oh yeah, we just need to make sure you can control the power."

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Gohan blinked "Well that's a relief."

Kumiko nodded "To be honest, there was a part of me that thought that he was just a crazy old man."

Shin chuckled "Now now, don't forget that Elder Kai is my ancestor from 15 generations before me so he says."

"This hidden power is something that Kai has had dormant inside of him right?" asked Gohan "I mean he's always had potential and been a fast learner, and I guess since his mother was a crazy talented martial artist there's no way of knowing just how much hidden potential he has hidden inside of him. Hey Kai get a load of this, you might end up being one of the strongest warriors in the universe!"

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2 hours passed.

Kai finally ran out of patience 'Isn't this power up done yet? I've been at this for a day and a half and we're still not done yet, this is insane! Hey old man, didn't you say this was gonna be done an hour ago?"

"Yeah alright, you can feel free to run along now. We actually finished up a little while ago."

"...What? So you mean that I've been sitting here for no good reason for how long exactly?"

"Oh I don't know, maybe a half hour or so?"

"Why the hell didn't you tell me that sooner?! I thought you said that I wasn't finished yet because I still didn't have enough control!"

"I was just stalling to make things more dramatic you dolt, don't you know anything?"

"...I am very tempted to throttle you right now. But anyway, you've unlocked all of this hidden power within me right? So what do I do now, how do I tap into it?"

"Well you and the rest of your friends on Earth are always screaming and powering up aren't you? Yeah it's kind of like that, all you need to do is show some spunk."

"So it's basically like powering up but without the Zen Ryuken, okay I think then I'll give it a shot."

"Hold on I think you might wanna step back!"

"Nope!" Kai began powering up, and with a furious roar his aura and power level both exploded higher than ever before, shaking the entire planet from the sheer force. After a moment he stopped to take in the effects "Woah… Hey Gohan, Mom, are you two getting a load of all this power?"

Kumiko nodded "I definitely am, that's amazing Kai. I'm so proud of you."

"It feels awesome, I never even knew it was possible for me to get this strong."

Kibito stepped forward "Remarkable, Kai has been risen far beyond the normal limitations of his power."

"It sure is hard to believe, I'm already slightly more power than Gohan's base form and I'm not even using my Zen Ryuken."

"It is remarkable, you truly are impressive." a new voice cut in.

Kai looked to the side and saw Cooler materialize with Instant Transmission "Cooler, what are you doing here?"

"Wha- Impossible!" Kibito stammered "Yet another mortal here to tarnish our sacred lands?"

"...Ignore him, so what are you doing here?"

"King Kai sent me to find the two you, he just never expected either of you to be here."

"Wait, King Kai is that Other World martial arts master that taught Goku, Piccolo, Yamcha, Tien and Krillin the Kaioken right? Why would he need us?"

"Goku and I brought Piccolo to Hell to train, now he's on the Grand Kai's planet for one final test but he needs a partner for this."

"Well Gohan was about to undergo this crazy ritual with that old Supreme Kai back there, so I'll go. After all, I'm one of Piccolo's students too so it's only right."

"Very well then." Cooler grabbed Kai and they both disappeared via Instant Transmission.

"Well you heard the boy, let's get started." Old Kai then proceeded to start the first part of the ritual, you know the stupid looking dance that would take 5 hours, much to Gohan's horror.

A/N:

So yes, Mirai's new transformation is the Super Saiyan Rage form from the Dragon Ball Super anime.

I'm giving Piccolo a lot of power ups because, to be honest, he's one of my favorite characters and I think he hasn't been given anywhere near enough of a chance to shine. But he's not quite done yet, he's got one last test before he's ready, and it involves two Namekian OC's that I showed earlier on.