A/N: This chapter starts after that great scene in chapter 67 of the DBS manga.
Chapter 11: Godly Rage Uprooting Trees; Things Return to How They Were
"Take. Me. Home," Beerus demanded, gripping Shin's shoulder tightly.
He had held it together in front of the Grand Zenos, mostly out of fear, but now he was free to express himself a little more, he could feel the anger rising up.
Shin looked to Whis, but Beerus simply gripped him tighter. "Now."
There was a moment of hesitation as Shin waited for Whis to join them, but the angel didn't move. Beerus was staring daggers at his attendant, and, in order to preserve some dignity, Whis decided to remain where he was. It was clear that Beerus would attempt to stop him if he tried to join them.
After they disappeared the Grand Minister looked up at him. "Would you like a lift home?"
"Thank you, but perhaps it would be best to give him a little time alone."
The Grand Minister inclined his head in agreement. "The offer is still there, however long you wish to wait."
"Thank you, Father."
The pair of gods appeared at the base of the castle on Beerus's planet.
"Leave," Beerus said.
"Lord Beerus –"
"LEAVE!"
Shin didn't have to be told again, disappearing without another word. In the moments that followed Beerus let out a furious roar and made a spectacular mess of everything except his castle.
By the time Whis arrived, about 15 minutes later, most of the trees lining the edges of the planet had been pulled up and thrown over the edge. There were several new craters deep enough to serve as lakes, and one side of the skyline no longer had any decorative planets. Whis sighed as he considered the repairs.
Moments later Beerus flew towards him and they fell into sparring. Whis found it very amusing; it wasn't often Beerus tried this hard to hit him, and he wished the destroyer could be this enthusiastic about training more often.
It didn't take too long for Beerus to run out of steam seeing as he'd already expended a lot of energy on destroying his planet. Whis blocked his fist one last time and Beerus hovered there out of breath.
"Fuck you, and fuck him. And fuck them." He wasn't really angry at Whis, but it was his fault in a way.
"I apologise, it was my fault."
"I know. If you hadn't have brought Merus back here, none of this would have happened! You should have just handed him over to the Grand Minister and washed your hands of him."
Whis shrugged. "If I had done that, who would have intervened to help our dying heroes? Certainly not you or I, or we may still have faced the consequences."
"We?! You just stood there with a stopwatch while me and Shin did the shit job of playing horsey!"
"It was very important to give their majesties accurate times."
"I had the least involvement in all of this! I should have been the timer!" Beerus growled.
"I think the pair of you provided the kind of entertainment the Grand Zenos were looking for. Something I probably wouldn't have been nearly as good at." Whis looked around. "Where is the Supreme Kai?"
"I sent him away."
"Good. Promptly, I assume?"
Beerus ground his teeth. "Oh yes, immediately. I really could have strangled him today. He just –" He could feel that anger rising again, just after he was feeling it begin to subside a little.
He turned around and stormed away, eventually breaking into a run before flying up to the window nearest his room. There was no need to talk to Whis about this – anyone could see why he was so mad, and for the moment he just needed to be alone and simmer. The idea of Shin offering his life for another was perfectly kai-like, and back when there were 5 of them he wouldn't have batted an eyelid, and neither would the other kais. But today it was completely different – no apprentice in sight and that guy just offers his life like it wouldn't leave their universe in a godless shambles. Hadn't the two of them being trying to improve their universe recently? What was the point of it all if he's going to offer himself up like that?
He face planted into his pillow and growled his frustrations away. Did the guy not think? What was all this anyway? He'd kiss Beerus one minute and kill him the next? Any kind of feelings Beerus thought he might be having had certainly been squashed today. He was sure he'd have a hard time keeping his hands to himself next time they saw each other, but not for reasons he would have said yesterday. The only reason he wasn't yelling all of this directly at the kai was because he was pretty sure he'd be beating him to a pulp.
Ooo
Beerus was still mad. Shin had brought food to butter him up a little, but he was still clearly seething. At first Beerus had tried to ignore the kai, intent on fishing, except fishing was not a very interesting activity, and it didn't take much to draw the destroyer away.
Beerus strode over, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides until he decided to grab Shin by the front of his robes, pulling him up off his feet. "You -!" He had so much to say, but no idea where to start. For starters he couldn't believe the audacity Shin had to just turn up like this. Wasn't this guy the type to call first after such a massive faux pas?
He swapped his hold, instead grabbing Shin by the neck, slowly increasing the pressure. "Is this what you want?! Do you have a death wish, or is it me you're trying to get rid of?!"
Shin grabbed Beerus's wrist, pleading for him to stop, but Beerus wasn't leaving him room to speak. The pressure on his neck stopped increasing for a moment as Beerus considered how far he actually wanted to go with this. Should he really keep going until Shin passed out? Would that make him feel better? Or would he just feel bad?
In the end he decided to go with one last painful squeeze to demonstrate his frustration, and as he did so, he felt pain in his own neck, causing him to drop Shin prematurely. He massaged his neck as he whipped his head around, wondering if Whis had come to intervene before he killed them both, but Whis was still a distance away, giving them space.
Beerus pulled Shin up again. "I would ask you to forgive me, but honestly, fuck you, and this is for science." He grasped Shin's neck again, going in hard and fast, and there it was again! A pain in his own neck, as if he was feeling the same hurt he was inflicting on Shin.
There were legends about life-links sharing a bond like this, but very few were stupid enough to test it. Your life-link could be beaten to within an inch of their life and you'd feel nothing, which was rather good considering some destroyers knocked each other about pretty badly sometimes and it would probably come as quite a shock to their kais. But if you beat your life-link it was clearly a different story. Over the years Beerus had had his disputes with kais, but violence was never something he resorted to. In fact, the last time he'd been this angry with a kai, he'd simply sealed them in a sword. Which, in retrospect, was not a great solution.
This is why you shouldn't get so involved! Beerus berated himself. There were a lot of other factors involved in his heightened anger, but he really felt their close relationship was the one that contributed most.
Shin was kneeling on the ground, massaging his neck. "Lord Beerus, please hear me out." He looked up, eyes red-rimmed. "That's all I ask."
Beerus said nothing, still rather fascinated by what he'd just learned. Shin took it as silent assent.
"I looked into Merus's role in our universe," Shin began. "I saw the good he had done on behalf of mortals. And then I watched the end of Moro's reign of terror, and Merus's role in that. He gave up his own existence to save the universe from Moro, and to save the people he believed could defeat him. I was touched by such a being. Most mortals would struggle to be so selfless, and although I have only met 13 angels in my time, none of them would have done what he did and break their laws for such a noble cause." Shin looked away. "I went to the Grand Minister… It was impulsive of me, I realise now, but I couldn't just sit and watch as that angel faded with no recognition for what he had done. Whis had already done everything he could to try and save him, so only you or I could step in and ask for something more for him. I know you probably wouldn't have done anything, so it was down to me. You know the Grand Minister, he's… He knows everything you want to say before you can say it. He knew I was trying to ask for Merus's life to be restored, so what do you think he said to that?"
Shin paused, but Beerus had no interest in answering. "Of course he said I would need to trade a life for a life – balance must be maintained! Whose life was I going to offer? A random mortal? Even if I did stoop so low as to offer a mortal's life, do you think one mortal could match the price of resurrecting an angel? Naturally I offered the only life I thought was right, which was mine."
"Ours," Beerus corrected him without hesitation. At least Shin knew he was listening.
"Please understand, Lord Beerus, I had to take the gamble." Shin could feel the intensity of Beerus's gaze. "If I offered a random mortal's life I might offend the Grand Minister by implying an angel was only worth that much. If I offered a more valuable mortal, one that might match Merus's worth, it would probably be one of the Tournament's participants. That might offend Grand Zeno if he found out. I really had no choice once I was there."
"See, this is why angels are limited to high speeds and not instant transmission techniques," Beerus said. "It stops destroyers from acting so impulsively. Gives us more time to think. Time to reconsider. Time to stop." Beerus paused. "And yet kais are allowed such privileges because they're supposed to be able to act less impulsively and not get into such ridiculous situations. Why do you appear to be so meek and yet always end up doing something so courageous?"
"I…"
"It's because you don't think before you act sometimes. It drives me mad. Buu, Zamasu, Merus. All within the past decade, a mere blink of the eye to us." Beerus rubbed his temples. "The Grand Minister could easily have taken you up on that offer. And I'm telling you, you better not do it again, because next time, he will! They can't be seen to be handing out freebies like this more than once, or everyone will go asking."
"I understand."
"Do you?" Beerus clenched his teeth as he thought about what he wanted to say next, not sure if he really wanted to say it. In the end, he felt it needed to be said. "And did you think about how I would feel? What if he had taken up the offer, but arranged it so that only you died, and there was a new Supreme Kai ready to take over the link to spare me?"
"I was under the impression you didn't care that much," Shin said. "To me it has always seemed I'm only as valuable as my life-link is, and if there were to be another Supreme Kai, I would be as worthless as I was when there was five of us."
"Yeah, well, times have changed, haven't they?" Beerus turned away. "Recently it's come to my attention that I might hate to lose you." The words felt strange in his mouth, and he decided to leave it at that, lest he say something really embarrassing and sprawling. Because he knew it definitely wouldn't be succinct.
Shin hugged him from behind. "Please forgive me, Lord Beerus. I know I acted rashly, but I really was trying my best to fix it when I made that offer. And look, we got a really good mortal out of it. Surely he'll be good for our universe's level."
"I want to stay mad at you. For a century at least," Beerus said, placing his hands over the ones around his waist. "But I know we're probably going to have to continue to get along until the saiyans actually go extinct. So, for the sake of our professional relationship, I'm going to… Forgive isn't the word, but I will let it go for now."
"Is there a way I can give you a proper apology?" Shin asked, hands ghosting over Beerus's abs. "Perhaps something I can do for you to show –"
"No." Beerus removed Shin's hands. "I was going to suggest we go back to how we used to be. Seeing each other at coordination meetings and hopefully few times in between, if at all."
"Oh…" The disappointment could be heard in Shin's voice. "Would you like me to leave?"
"I think that would be best."
Shin stepped back, but Beerus still didn't turn around. "Goodbye then, Lord Beerus."
He could feel Shin waiting for him to say something. "Goodbye, Supreme Kai." There was a pause before Shin left, and Beerus knew he'd hurt Shin as intended with such a cold parting.
For a long time he stood there, eyes closed, wondering if that was the right decision. Of course it was. He was no stranger to hardening his heart and cutting ties, it was just difficult when it was someone he was literally tied to whether he liked it or not. It wasn't like he'd heard of a Supreme Kai retiring early – it was a job for life if you were lucky enough to be picked for it.
He would get over this, but gods would it be difficult if Shin didn't get over him too. The way Shin had still hugged him even after strangling him twice wasn't promising. He probably thought he deserved that… Which he did, in Beerus's opinion, but still, a kai should demand better treatment from their destroyer.
As he stood there he felt drops of water on his head and opened his eyes to find it was raining.
"WHIS!" Beerus yelled. "THAT'S NOT FUCKING FUNNY!"
By the lake, Whis could be seen laughing behind his hand. "Sorry, my lord! It's time for the plants to be watered!"
"Like hell it is!" He zipped over to where Whis stood, sitting on the ground and pulling the bottom of Whis's robe out to act as an umbrella.
"Would you like to talk about it?" Whis asked.
"No."
"Would you like me to stop the rain?"
"No."
Whis smirked at his childlike denial. "Would you like to eat?"
"No."
Whis's brows furrowed. "Is it that bad?"
Beerus didn't answer, and they stood out in the rain until it stopped.
"Perhaps you don't want to hear it," Whis said, "but I've found a new teacher for the Supreme Kai."
"I know," Beerus said.
"I can arrange it all. You don't have to get involved."
Beerus got up and rung the water out of the part of Whis's robe he'd used as shelter, not that it mattered; Whis was completely drenched, not that Beerus was sure why he'd allowed that to happen. "Can you just wait a few days? Let me have a few days break. I'm sure he needs it too."
Whis said no more, not even asking the burning question of what was said between them.