Previously on Supplement DB:
As the trip to Bespin, the spa planet, wasn't important, it won't be mentioned. However, Tenchi lost all his powers, leaving him very mortal. What's worse is that Sel is back, and it's unlikely he's going to do an Aki and turn good. Obviously, in the middle of the forest, no one will know he's in trouble, or indeed where he is, so Tenchi is on his own.
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Supplement DB, Part II – Reality Check
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"Sel?" Tenchi exclaimed.
"That's me, Tenchi," Sel replied. "I'm back, thanks to a bit of magic from a very powerful wizard. He revived me just to destroy you."
"Sel, do you remember the last time we fought?" Tenchi asked. "When I became a Super Saiyan, I easily beat you. Even if you're a lot stronger now, I'm even more so. Nothing can stand against my Super Saiyan 3."
"If you're so confident you can defeat me, show me your powers," Sel challenged.
"Hey, your death sentence," Tenchi replied. He stayed still for a second, and frowned.
"Anything wrong?" Sel asked.
Tenchi concentrated more. Still nothing happened. He tried yelling to raise his power, but nothing was happening. What was worse was that he didn't seem to be able to do anything else either. He straightened up.
"I have a feeling this is going to hurt," Tenchi said quietly.
"You're right about that, at least," Sel said. He pointed two fingers at Tenchi. Tenchi crossed his arms to block it, but the defence he put up had the absorbency of a wet sausage. The blast Sel shot went straight through Tenchi's left upper arm. The arm instantly dropped and became useless, even more so than before.
Tenchi yelled in pain and clutched at his arm. Sel took the opportunity to blast a hole through Tenchi's right thigh. Tenchi collapsed on the ground, almost paralysed with pain, and on the verge of losing consciousness.
"You can't win, Tenchi," Sel said. "With these spells placed around you to prevent you from using your powers, you're no more significant than any other mortal being I've squished. It may be true that the spell to stop you becoming a God is permanent, while the one to block the rest of your powers will only last a couple of weeks, but that's more than enough time to destroy you."
"No," Tenchi murmured weakly. "If you kill me, nothing will ever exist."
"This isn't about destroying the universe, Tenchi," Sel replied. "This is about revenge. Twice before you have defeated and humiliated me. Somehow you have always managed to come up with the power to destroy me, even though I once killed you. Can you imagine my shame? My frustration?"
Sel walked up to Tenchi, facing him with the sun behind him. "Of course you can't," he said. "You've always been strong. But now, with no powers to help you, and no friends around, you're helpless. And this is all because of the wizard who revived me and cast those spells on you. I'm going to enjoy this, you mortal."
He pointed two fingers at Tenchi, blocking Tenchi's view of the sun and surrounding Sel's hand with light.
"Only human."
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"Dodge this."
Ryoko blasted Sel straight through his head. She lowered her arm from the horizontal position it was in, inches from Sel's head, and bent down to help Tenchi. Sel's body, minus his head, collapsed on the floor.
"Tenchi, are you okay?" she asked anxiously. She inspected the holes in Tenchi's limbs. "You need to see Washu straight away."
"R, Ryoko," Tenchi struggled to say. "Sel will regenerate."
"Already on it," Aki called. He picked up Sel's body and threw it into the air. He moved his hands to his side and formed a large kameya-meya blast, which he fired at Sel. Sel's body vaporised, as easily as it had done less than a year ago. Aki knelt down beside Tenchi.
"You should see someone about those holes, Tenchi," he said. He picked him up and moved Tenchi onto his back. He then flew home as fast as he could, carrying the now unconscious Tenchi on his back, with Ryoko in close pursuit.
Ryoko sent a thought message to Washu. "Mom, Tenchi's in big trouble. Please help him. He's going to die."
Washu snapped to attention. She quickly opened a hole in space and flew out, to arrive alongside Ryoko and Aki. "What's the trouble?" she asked as she looked at Tenchi. Tenchi looked terrible. Blood was pouring out of his wounds down Aki's back. His face was deathly pale, and his mouth gaped open in pain, even though Tenchi was unconscious.
"He's got huge holes in his arm and leg," Aki replied, still flying along. "They're energy burns. He's nearly dead."
"Quick. Get him to my lab." Washu summoned her laptop and rapidly tapped commands into it. A dimensional hole appeared ahead of them. They flew through and appeared in Washu's lab.
"Activate Emergency Medical Holographic System," Washu ordered to the large room, as Aki lay Tenchi down onto a nearby bench. The air shimmered and a man appeared. He was middle-aged, tall and bald, with a prominent forehead. He wore a tight dark blue surgical gown.
"Please state the nature of the medical emergency," the man said as he looked round.
"It's Tenchi," Washu replied. As the man walked up to him, she explained. "He's got energy holes in his upper arm and thigh. He's lost a lot of blood."
"Give me a neurological diffuser, now," the man said sharply, holding out his hand. "We need to stop the patient's brain from receiving permanent damage. Then we need to regenerate these holes."
As the doctor got to work, Washu approached Ryoko and Aki. "You'd better leave now," Washu said. "You probably shouldn't hang around to see this."
"Washu, what is that?" Aki asked.
"He is the EMH I created," Washu replied, as she led them out of her lab. "After the heart disease incident, I decided to create the best doctor ever, to cope with anything else that might occur. He's a hologram, and he has the instant knowledge of everything medical, biological and a good deal of other stuff too. He's also very busy. Please leave now."
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I woke up. I was in a white room. I lay on the floor next to a small desk with a bit of paper on it. That was the only thing there with me. I stood up and tried to step forwards, but the room suddenly rushed around me. The walls receded and everything grew bigger. I managed my way over to the desk and leaned on it for support. I happened to glance at the paper. It had some writing on it, and my name. The handwriting was strangely familiar. I read the note.
"You are in a fanfic based on a television show, Tenchi."
It all made sense. The important events all being played up, the parts in between sketchy and vague. The feeling that someone was telling me what to do, of being in a million different situations at once.
And that's when it hit me. I was in a fanfic based on a television show.
I felt dizzy, and collapsed.
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I woke up. I was in a white room. I lay on the floor next to a small desk with a bit of paper on it. That was the only thing there with me. I stood up and tried to step forwards, but the room suddenly rushed around me. The walls receded and everything grew bigger. I managed my way over to the desk and leaned on it for support. I happened to glance at the paper. It had some writing on it, and my name. The handwriting was strangely familiar. I read the note.
"You are in a cartoon, Tenchi."
It all made sense. The fundamental lack of depth of my surroundings. The black outlines of every object and person I interacted with, the other stuff fading into the background. The impossibly large eyes everyone had.
And that's when it hit me. I was in a cartoon.
I felt dizzy, and collapsed.
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Tenchi woke up slowly. The pain in his arm and leg had gone.
Tenchi was in Washu's lab, stretched out on a table. Washu, now in her adult form, was busy monitoring a dozen things at once. The doctor had done his job, and was now deactivated.
"Washu?" Tenchi managed.
"Relax, Tenchi," Washu said. "You need to rest. You nearly died."
"Sel?"
"Aki managed to destroy him." Washu looked directly at him. "Tenchi, what happened?"
"My powers," Tenchi said quietly. "They've gone."
"What do you mean, gone?"
"A wizard cast a spell on me," Tenchi said. "It stops me from using my powers. All of them. I'm only human."
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"So now you're mortal?" Mihoshi asked.
"Yes," Tenchi told the crowd, gathered in front of him in the main room. "There's no way to reverse the spell. I'm never going to be God again."
"Tenchi, have you created the Multiverse yet? What about life?" Washu asked.
"I was going to get round to it, but now I can't," Tenchi said.
"But don't you see? You will do. You will do because we're still here. If you truly aren't going to become God again, the entirety of existence would have immediately never have existed in the first place. But here we are. You are going to create the Universe, Tenchi," Washu said. "But the question is when?"
"Hey, that's right!" Tenchi said, cheering up. "The no God spell has to end sometime, so I can create everything." He sagged down again. "But how? The only way I can think of is to get the wizard to end it."
"If only there was some other magic we could use, to counteract this spell," Sasami said. "Then you could be God again."
"Yeah," Tenchi nodded. "Something like the DragonBalls. You wouldn't understand," he added when he saw their confused faces.
"What are those dragon balls?" Ayeka asked.
"The DragonBalls are in an animé show," Tenchi said. "I watched a few episodes. It gave me some ideas for a couple of attacks. Anyway, these seven orange Balls each have a different number of stars in them, from one to seven of them. When brought together and a spell is chanted, they release a magical dragon called Shenron. Shenron can grant three wishes to whoever brought the Balls together."
Tenchi sighed. "Unfortunately they don't exist. They're only in a cartoon. If they were real, I could use one of the wishes to end the anti-God spell on me."
"Bummer," Ryoko said.
"Yes, it is," Tenchi replied.
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Tenchi went to his room, to think in private about what had happened. Some unknown wizard had cast a couple of spells on him, and then brought back Sel to kill him. Why, he didn't know.
Tenchi bolted upright on his bed. There were two spells on him. Sel said that the one removing everything but his God form wasn't permanent, but would wear off in a couple of weeks. At least now he had a chance.
Something on his desk started beeping. There was nothing normally on his desk that did beep, aside from his alarm clock, so whatever was doing so shouldn't be there. He got up from his bed and wandered over, and nearly choked when he saw what it was.
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Tenchi came rushing down the stairs, nearly tripping up over himself, and waving a piece of paper and something like a large white stop clock.
"Hey, what've you got there, Tenchi?" Ryoko asked.
"It's the Dragon Radar!" Tenchi exclaimed.
"The what?" Ryoko obviously didn't realise what it was.
Tenchi tried to calm himself down. "This thing here," he said, holding up the white thing. It had a green display. On it was a flashing star and a timer, counting down to zero. "This is the Dragon Radar. Remember when I was telling you about the DragonBalls? Well, this thing can detect where they are. It also shows how long they're going to remain here, before disappearing."
"Does that mean they are real, then?" Mihoshi asked.
"Yes, they are," Tenchi replied. "Isn't it great? The DragonBalls do exist! I can collect them and wish my God powers back!"
"Is that Radar detecting one now?" Ayeka asked.
"Yes," Tenchi said. "Washu, you need to take us there now. Can you use this to find out where it is?"
"I think so. I can probably also get you there as well," Washu replied.
"Do it. Do it now. We only have about half an hour," Tenchi said.
"You're in a bit of a rush for half an hour," Aki said.
"You don't understand. When I found the Radar, I also found this." Tenchi slapped the piece of paper he was holding onto the table. It was a letter.
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'Tenchi,
'I know about your inability to use any of your powers. I know because I was once you. That's right. I am you from the future. I came back to give you this Dragon Radar. You can use it to find the DragonBalls you were going on about. However, there are some differences between the animé and the real world.
'The DragonBalls each represent a different element, out of fire, ice, thunder, wind, light, earth and psyche. They do contain within them a powerful dragon called Shenron, and you will get three wishes from him. However, to prevent these DragonBalls from ever being used by anyone except you, I created them to phase between dimensions. They will only be fully aligned on Earth for at most a couple of hours, and their locations are random, and change every time. They come round on a cycle of eight months, so there is more than one opportunity to get them. They do not exist fully on Earth until they come into contact with a living being. But just knowing where they are isn't enough. You need to touch them as well, or they'll just continue on their cycle. The timer on the Radar shows how much time you have left before the Balls disappear. The DragonBalls will also go back to phasing through the dimensions after one year after the first contact, so you'll have to collect and gather them all within that time frame.
"PTO for the password to summon Shenron.
'The first Ball, the one that has just appeared, is the four-star DragonBall. Go get them, and happy hunting.
'Tenchi Masaki,
'P.S. Tell Washu to hurry up with the portal.'
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"Washu, you read what I'll write," Tenchi said. "Create the portal now. It's vital."
"Okay, okay," Washu huffed. "I'm making it now. I'll just extrapolate from the readings and find a suitable exit point."
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And she did. The red portal opened up somewhere in a remote grassland. In the distance was a river, winding its way through the land. A large patch of grass was in front of the portal. In roughly the middle of this patch was the four-star DragonBall, about the size of a person's hand.
Surrounding the Ball were about fifty elephants.
"Hey, those elephants are pretty closely packed," Tenchi observed. This was a slight understatement. There was no room for anyone to get in, not unless they were willing to crawl under an elephant. The complete consensus was that they weren't.
"Hey, I can fly over them," Aki said. "Give me the Radar. I'll find it."
"Okay," Tenchi said, handing him the Radar. "I'd guess it's about in the middle. But hurry, there's only ten minutes left, thanks to Washu."
"Hey, if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be here at all, and you'd have to wait eight months for it to come back," Washu said.
"Sorry, Washu."
"Little."
"Anyway, I'll just go then," Aki said. He lifted off and flew towards the centre of the herd.
"I'm going with him," Ryoko said, setting off too. "I hope there's a reward for the person who finds it first," she added, winking at Tenchi.
"Yes," Tenchi said. "The person who finds it brings the Universe one step closer to still existing."
Aki was hovering over the herd. According to the Radar he was right above the Ball. Unfortunately he was also right above an elephant. He lowered himself down slowly between it and another one, and bent down. He could see it.
"Hey, Aki, is it there?" Ryoko called.
"Yeah, I can see it," Aki called back. "I'm having a bit of difficulty getting to it though."
"I'll take care of that," Ryoko called. There was a loud explosion, and the herd began to stampede.
Just as Aki was reaching for the Ball. He hadn't experienced having his hand crushed before, and with any luck he never would again. Having a hand stepped on by a fully-grown elephant is not an experience one would soon want to repeat. Aki just sat there holding his broken hand while elephants moved around him.
The herd had moved on, leaving an open path for the others. They rushed towards Aki, shouting words of concern.
"I'll look at that when we get back," Washu comforted.
Ryoko meanwhile had landed next to the DragonBall. She was about to pick it up when she heard Tenchi talking to her.
"Now look what you've done," Tenchi was saying. "Aki's hand is crushed. You shouldn't have done that."
"It was only a small explosion," Ryoko said.
"That's not the point. I'm sure that Aki could have got it without your help," Tenchi said. He walked over to her and bent down, picking up the DragonBall. It was perfectly smooth, aside from a few lumps of dirt that had stuck to it.
"Come on," Tenchi said. "Washu, take us home."
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In the next episode of Supplement DB:
Two more DragonBalls appear, and Tenchi goes off to get them. With the help of the Dragon Radar and his newly returned powers, Tenchi has nothing to worry about. It's a fairly boring episode, "Return to Power". Well, there are seven DragonBalls, and they all have to be collected before anything really interesting can happen, but believe me, it does.