~Age 1961~
A high school girl wearing a winter navy blue sailor uniform with a red tie, whose name was Chiaki Sanjou, was walking in the empty hallways of her school along with her two friends as she laughed about their classmate, Himawari Maeda, who was just sent to the clinic earlier due to a bleeding wound she got on her forehead after Chiaki had pushed her into a nail stuck on the wall of an old library. The foolish 'slave' of hers defied her orders, invoking her ire greatly, this caused her to do such a cruel thing. Chiaki just couldn't get over the wonderful image of a bleeding Himawari as she cried in agony.
Her laughter only died out when she noticed the sky had suddenly turned dark and she took a peek at the window to see the black thunderclouds looming on the horizon. Chiaki shuddered when she felt the cold wind blow past her and she told her friends, "Hey, is there a typhoon?" She asked, only to see that her friends had disappeared when she turned her head.
Her thin, arching eyebrows furrowed in confusion, wondering if her friends decided to play hide and seek with her all of a sudden. She turned around to look for her friends when she noticed that the wind suddenly got strong. She saw the leaves being blown by the wind in the window and how those leaves got reduced to black dust particles. Her brown eyes looked down to see the numerous cherry blossom trees in the yard of the school which bloomed beautifully this morning were all wilted, rendered limp, and lifeless. Their astonishing pink color was replaced with the ashen pale of death. And before her eyes, the other trees surrounding those dead trees were gradually withering one by one.
She found a man with hair that looked like a burning black flame standing in the middle of that spine-chilling phenomenon. Chiaki saw that the mysterious man was staring right at her with his cold, dark gaze as if he had been waiting for her. And as soon as her eyes met his, she abruptly felt something jolt within her chest and a shudder ran up her spine. She gasped in surprise and she staggered backward in fear, her confused and terrified mind told her to run.
Run for her life.
Run for her existence.
Chiaki followed her instincts. She turned to flee. She had no idea who that creepy man was but she knew she had to escape away from him because she felt that he was inhumanly dangerous and frightening.
For the first time in her life, she was terrified. She finally understood how it felt to become the prey when she used to be the predator of those she deemed as weaker and lower than her. Chiaki had prided herself to be one of the richest, most beautiful, and most elegant girls at her school, enough for her to declare herself as the 'queen' of her class. She also led the most fearsome clique in her batch and she enjoyed torturing the weaklings who would get in her way.
Now she would learn what true fear means.
Chiaki cried out for help, for anyone to save her from that stranger, but she eventually realized that the school was oddly empty. How is the school so devoid of anyone when it's still the lunch break? Confused about the lack of presence of any teacher or student, she tried to find a place to hide, just to be safe.
Chiaki ended up back in her classroom. She was planning to hide inside the locker that kept the cleaning materials in the corner of the room. As she slid the classroom's door close and turned around, she let out a surprised gasp when she found the man with the flaming black hair earlier standing in front of the window. His narrowed, slanted, deep raven eyes stared at her with such an intense, spine-chilling gaze.
"Who... Who are you?!" Chiaki demanded him, stepping backward. She eyed the strange clothing of the man, which reminded her of what pharaohs wore in Ancient Egypt according to their World History textbooks.
"I am Vegeta Yonsei, the God of Destruction," the man responded in a cold voice.
"God of Destruction?"
Chiaki heard some rumors from her clique about the urban legend of a ritual in which one can summon the God of Destruction during the witching hour and ask him to destroy the subject of your hatred in exchange for a heavy price. Is this man the God of Destruction pertained in that urban legend?
"I know you've heard about me," he said, still with his icy tone.
"But I didn't do the ritual! I didn't summon you!" she denied.
"Of course, you didn't," Vegeta responded. "Himawari Maeda did and the contract between us has already been made. I appear before you to destroy your pitiful existence."
Chiaki's eyes widened in the realization that she was his target. "No, stop... You... You can't... You can't do this! Please... Don't," she started to beg.
"When Himawari begged for you to stop, did you do it?" Vegeta asked her in a bored tone. "You didn't, did you? So what makes you think that you have the right to beg for me to stop this? You got some nerve, mortal."
Chiaki squeaked and jumped back when her back hit the chalkboard. It was true that she didn't hear out any pleas from Himawari when she begged for her to stop bullying her. She swallowed as if to summon the courage to shoot back at him haughtily, "So what? She's nothing but a weakling fool! She cries a lot, makes those pathetic ugly faces, and is weird too! I hated that kind of girl! Such trash in society! Just one look at her makes me want to puke!" Chiaki retorted. "That kind of vermin is the one who should be destroyed!"
"And what made you think you are way better than her, hm?" Vegeta asked her. "Money? Fame? Beauty?" he eyed her disgustedly as if he didn't find her beautiful at all. "Do you pride yourself on these temporary things? Do you think you are high and mighty because of it? Believe me when I tell you these things meant nothing against what true might is. Money? Spend it all and you'll lose it. Fame? If your bullying case gets blown in this place, do you honestly think you'll still be popular? Your beauty? Hmm..." Vegeta shook his head in distaste, snickering.
Suddenly, Chiaki started to scream in agony as she felt her face burn until blisters appeared on her once beautiful face.
"Now take a look at yourself in the mirror and see if you can still call yourself beautiful."
Chiaki turned to see her reflection in the mirror and she cried out in terror at her grotesque image. Vegeta cruelly grinned at her.
"Now, do you realize the foolishness of your actions, mortal? Too bad, though. It's too late for you to repent."
Chiaki didn't realize that her body was being engulfed by a purple light as Vegeta announced his divine punishment catchphrase.
"You have incurred the wrath of the God of Destruction and now you shall receive divine punishment for your unforgivable actions. You have been judged and therefore, your existence shall be destroyed. Before creation, comes destruction! To keep the balance of this Universe, one must be destroyed for the creation of another to happen. Now, receive the consequences of your wrongdoings!"
Vegeta's black irises glowed a bright magenta light as he held up his palm towards her and uttered, "Destruction!"
Chiaki felt something within her jolt and she screamed a lengthy 'No!' as she gradually got reduced into dark particles.
The door of the classroom slid open and another girl with a medical patch on her left temple entered, finding the last of her bully disappear to nothingness.
The girl, Himawari Maeda, stepped forward to reach out her hand to the last particles of Chiaki before she fell to the floor on her knees, sobbing. She had never felt this terrified in her life. What the hell did she just do? And what kind of evil monster did she summon into her life?
Vegeta turned his glowing magenta eyes to her and said in a cold tone, "There's no use regretting your decision. You've made a contract with me and I have destroyed her existence for you. Someday, you will meet the same fate as her when I come for you. So you better prepare yourself, for you will not know when that time would come."
And with that, the God of Destruction, Vegeta Yonsei disappeared, leaving the poor Himawari Maeda to live the rest of her life in regret and fear of the consequences of her rash decision.
Chapter 18: You Cannot Stop Me
~ Present Day ~
A man in his late thirties was browsing his smartphone about the devastating news of the pileup on the highway yesternight. According to the news, the vehicle that accidentally hit the fuel tanker truck had no passengers at all, which is strange and mysterious. As he read comments below the article, some people were talking about how the passengers could be a target of the God of Destruction because there's no way the bodies could have just disappeared like that.
"Mom, did you know that the urban legend about the ritual to summon the God of Destruction is trending on the SNS again?" he asked his mother who was leaning back on her pillow on the hospital bed right in front of him.
His mother, Himawari Maeda, who's already a frail, seventy-six-year-old woman by now, nodded absentmindedly in disinterest, "Ah... I see."
Her son put his phone down and asked, "Mom, why won't you let me write an article about your experience? It would surely become a trending topic and will make us a lot of money for your hospitalization!"
Her son, Jun Maeda, was a famous content creator on social media. He did several blogs and vlogs about every trending topic that comes out of the internet for a living.
Except for one his mother wouldn't allow him.
Himawari glared at her son, "Jun-chan, what did I say about minimizing the people like me? That ritual is dangerous. If anything, you should find a way to stop it."
"But mom, didn't you say that so long as people feel hatred, bitterness, anger, and other negative feelings towards one another, this vicious cycle won't stop?"
"That's right. But, if one would think of the things that they might regret in the future, like what I did, and simply hold on and forgive their enemies, this cycle will be put to a stop and nobody has to pay the price of his or her foolish actions. The rush decision I made that day is something I had regretted my entire life. Since I made the contract with the God of Destruction, I couldn't sleep very well, knowing that he might come to destroy me anytime, anywhere, and in whatever way, he wanted to. I wonder if others who made a contract with him were as paranoid as I am. I do not want others to suffer just as I did. That's why I wanted for you to put a stop to this so-called 'urban legend', Jun-chan."
"I will try to find the source of this stupid thing and debunk it to the internet. It would be easy to do so without the lack of evidence that he truly existed. If only there were a few people like you who dared to do the ritual itself, the majority would think it's nothing but a mere urban legend after all." Jun said. "Mom, what did you say about what he looked like? The God of Destruction, I mean."
Himawari tilted her head, thinking of the times she had met the God of Destruction after she summoned him, made a contract with him, and the last time she saw him after he destroyed the girl who had been bullying her during her high school days- which, by the way, she couldn't remember by now.
"He had a terrifying charisma to behold. A cold, malevolent air around him. He had the darkest eyes I had seen my entire life, a piercing gaze that could penetrate through the soul. His jet black hair stood like the burning flame of hell, with a receding hairline and a prominent widow's peak. A perfectly muscular physique that belongs to a deity like himself. He wore something akin to what ancient Egyptians wore. The wesekh and the golden bands of jewelry he wore around his neck and arms. He also had a strange, monkey-like tail. He's inhumanly handsome, dangerously handsome, but that beauty of his is as poisonous as a deadly flower."
"A true monster hiding in the face of beauty, indeed."
"Yeah."
Suddenly, Jun felt thirsty. "Mom, I'm going to get a drink. Do you want some soda?"
"Sure."
"Okay, please do wait for me and tell me more about this God of Destruction."
"Okay."
Jun went out of the hospital room to get some drinks. As he was walking through the hallway, he accidentally bumped into a man who was talking to a blue-haired woman he recognized to be the former heiress of Capsule Corporation, Bulma Briefs, asking him what they're doing in the hospital. Jun mumbled an apology, but when he saw the face of the man, his jaw dropped in complete astonishment.
Those eyes were the darkest pair he had seen his entire life. He found the man's receding hairline, the widow's peak, and his flame-shaped hair, those clothes he wore, and that tail waving lazily behind his legs were the same as what he imagined the God of Destruction looked like while his mother described him.
This man... Could he be the God of Destruction his mother was talking about? What is he doing in here?
"Hey Vegeta, why are we in the hospital?" Bulma asked this to him, confused as she walked side by side with him through the hallway of Sun Wukong Hospital. Vegeta told her to come with him if she dared and she thought that he would show off his powers to her again just to prove what he meant. So what are they doing in the hospital?
"I will be fetching an old contractee," he told her.
"Fetch?"
"I'm sure you humans believed that when you are going to die, someone will be fetching you to assist you to the afterlife."
"You mean like a grim reaper?"
"A Grim Reaper is nothing but some sort of a mythical creature created by human imagination to represent a god of death. I am the actual God of Destruction responsible for death and devastation, so let's just say that I am indeed the grim reaper. You'll see what will happen to those who made a contract with me when it is time for me to take their existence as mentioned in the contract they made with me. I'll show you what I meant when I said that I am an evil, ruthless god. Just watch."
Somebody bumped into Vegeta's left side and he turned to glare at the pathetic man who after mumbling an apology, stared at him in shock as if he recognized him. Vegeta read his thoughts and understood that this man, Jun Maeda, is Himawari's son. She told her son things about him but Vegeta was greatly displeased about it.
He roughly grabbed Jun's collar, pulled him closer to him, and snarled venomously at his face, "Watch where you're going, you bastard. The next time you would dare get in my way, I will make sure that you will not exist to see the next day."
It was a warning.
Vegeta pushed the terrified and stunned Jun off him and he proceeded to walk in the direction where Jun came from. Bulma, who was confused by Vegeta's sudden behavior, apologized to Jun awkwardly before she followed him.
Vegeta slid the door open to the hospital room where Jun left his mother. As soon as he did that, the lights within the room abruptly went off and the surroundings became dark. When Bulma thought there was simply a blackout, Vegeta broke through the room's reality and transported them into another dimension. Himawari was already having a heart attack after she felt a surprising jolt in her chest as soon as her soul sensed the presence of the God of Destruction coming right towards her.
The room was lit by occasional purple lightning coming from the dark clouds swirling on the horizon outside the window.
When Himawari realized what happened and found Vegeta staring down at her with his cold, narrowed, and slanted gaze, her eyes widened in utmost fear.
Bulma's first instinct when she found an old woman suffering from a heart attack was to call for a doctor. But before she could turn around to call for help, Vegeta grabbed her wrist.
"It's no use. She's mine," he told her with a cruel smile. "Stay here and watch how I fetch my contractees and put an end to our contract. To see is to believe for you after all."
"No!" Himawari coughed out, desperately as she shook her head in denial. "It can't be!"
He didn't change at all. He looked exactly as how she first met him sixty years ago.
The God of Destruction, Vegeta Yonsei.
Vegeta's lips crooked up into a cruel smile as he let go of Bulma's wrist and sauntered forward next to her bed. Bulma watched at him with an angry gaze.
"Yo. It's been a while, Himawari. Did you miss me?" he greeted. "You know exactly why I am here. It's finally time for you to be destroyed! By the way, I brought over a friend in here, I hope you don't mind. She had doubts about what I truly am so I was hoping I could demonstrate my powers right before her eyes.
"Oh, and I happened to bump into your son on my way here. What's all this plan about trying to stop me? Do you honestly think you mortals could stop me from causing destruction?"
Himawari's already widened eyes grew more terrified when he mentioned her son. "No! No! Please stay him out of this!" She begged.
"Of course. I have already given him a warning. But if he tries to get in my way again, I will destroy him just as how I will do to you."
Himawari turned her frightened eyes to the girl who was with the God of Destruction. "You... You are Bulma Briefs, aren't you?" she recognized, "What are you doing with him?" she asked in disbelief.
Bulma's glare at Vegeta soften as she turned her eyes to Himawari. At first, she had no idea what to answer the old woman's question. She opened her mouth to say something, a lie to deny her acquaintance with this crazy man. "I-," but her words were cut off when Vegeta replied in her stead.
"-She summoned me when she wished for this world to be destroyed," Vegeta responded to Himawari as if he was introducing an achiever friend he was so proud of.
"What?! Is that true?!" Himawari gasped, unable to believe what she just heard.
Bulma was about to deny, to say it was an accident, but Himawari turned to her to berate her for what she had done.
"You foolish woman! Do you know what you have done?! You just placed our world in great danger!" She roared. "I've heard about what you've been through and I can understand why you felt that way. But think about your wish well. By all means, do not ever make the contract with him! He is evil and extremely dangerous! You will regret it if you do! Please! Promise me that you will find a way to stop him!"
Vegeta rolled his eyes off of her. "Hey, I am the God of Destruction. There's no way a mortal could ever stop me. Anyone who would dare ends up suffering an agonizing death."
As if to prove his words, Himawari felt her heart being squeezed so hard inside her chest as her life force rapidly gets depleted by the power of the God of Destruction.
"I just can't believe how ungrateful you are to me. I fulfilled your wish to rid of your bully and this is how you repay me? This is completely unforgivable," he said icily.
Himawari writhed against her bed and choked, pleading for his mercy, "Please, stop! Please have mercy! At least let me say my goodbye to my only son!"
Not in the mood to show any mercy this time, Vegeta refused. After all, he had a ruthless reputation to prove Bulma. Plus, he was infuriated by Himawari's ungratefulness so he had to make her suffer.
"When you made a contract with me, did Chiaki Sanjou ever get the chance to say goodbye to her family and friends?" Vegeta told her coldly as if to repeat the question he asked Chiaki before he destroyed her. "She didn't. So what makes you think that you have the right to beg for me to stop this? You got some nerve, mortal."
Himawari screamed in agony and she writhed in excruciating pain on the hospital bed as she felt her heart get squeezed real hard inside of her by an invisible force. Bulma, who couldn't watch it anymore, quickly grabbed Vegeta's shoulders, "Vegeta! Stop it already!"
Vegeta ignored Bulma's pleas, saying to Himawari that his plans about the Earth's and humanity's destruction were already in motion, "It's too late. You foolish mortals won't be able to stop me any longer. In fact, the destruction of this world is about to come soon."
Himawari slumped back lifelessly to her bed, with her eyes and mouth wide open.
Vegeta turned his glowing magenta eyes to glare at Bulma's horrified blue eyes and he roughly pushed her hands off him. He raised his right hand, snapped his fingers and a small, whitish-blue ball of flame came out from the chest of Himawari's body. Bulma's eyes widened in awe at the appearance of that thing.
"Everything that exists in this Universe has its core. For mortals like yourself, your core of existence lies on your very soul," Vegeta told her.
The ball of flame that came out of Himawari was her soul, the core of a mortal's existence.
"Now watch this carefully and see how I destroy a mortal from its existence."
He turned his hand over, his palm facing the ball of flame. It pulsed and changed color into purple as he focused his divine powers of destruction on it.
"As stated in the contract made between myself and Himawari Maeda dated November 6th, Age 1961, I, the God of Destruction, Vegeta Yonsei, is finishing this contract by destroying the contractee's existence. Before creation, comes destruction! To keep the balance of this Universe, one must be destroyed for the creation of another to happen. All terms stated in this contract have been completed.
"Destruction!" Vegeta commanded as he squeezed the empty air, closing his hand into a tight fist.
The soul pulsed again, stronger this time, then it shrank a little before it burst into heaps of energy. Himawari's body was reduced to the same energy in the form of black dust particles as well until it dissipated completely, leaving no trace behind.
Bulma stared at Vegeta's evil-looking eyes as its magenta glow faded back to its normally ebony hue.
"What have you done?" Bulma asked him breathlessly, her eyes wide with terror.
"Hm? What do you mean?" Vegeta responded nonchalantly.
Bulma gritted her teeth together, shaking. "Do you realize what you've just done to that poor old woman?!" she shouted at him.
Vegeta's cold glare widened slightly in his surprise, "You remember her?"
"Of course, I do!"
Vegeta was suddenly confused. Any mortal, aside from a god's apprentice, shouldn't be able to remember the existence of something a God of Destruction had destroyed with his godly power of destruction. In any case, Bulma should only remember the act of destruction he did and the feeling of absolute terror upon witnessing his power, not anything related to what Himawari Maeda was.
"I just killed and destroyed a mortal. So what? I am simply doing my duty," he said nonchalantly.
"But that woman... Himawari-san, wasn't it? She's-."
Vegeta's expression shifted into annoyance.
"Innocent? Do you honestly think so? Did you know that she made a contract with me 60 years ago to get rid of the girl who had been bullying her? Anyone who makes a contract with me is no different than the target themselves. They are too weak to handle their own emotions, and as such, they are judged and shall be destroyed as well. That kind of trash does not deserve to exist within my universe."
Bulma was screaming at his face the next moment, "Who are you to judge?! No matter what your reasons are, you are in no position to judge, kill, or destroy anyone, or anything just like that!"
Vegeta gritted his teeth in irritation and he argued, "Woman, I am the God of Destruction. I decide what to exist in this universe or what should not. Of course, I am also the judge of mortals and tthe divine punisher as well. As I've said before, I am an evil, ruthless god. Death and destruction are necessary and inevitable. This cycle keeps the balance of the universe. For birth and creation to happen, death and destruction must come first. I am simply doing my job as a God of Destruction."
Bulma's angry scowl deepened as she realized that he wasn't remorseful of what he had just done. "You don't feel anything, do you?"
"A God of Destruction does not need to feel any emotions aside from his anger. And to tell you frankly, I am getting angry at how you are trying to question both my existence and my intentions. Have you forgotten that you were the one who wished for this world to be destroyed?"
"That's-!"
"Unintentional? What exactly were you thinking that night you wished for this world to be destroyed? How life was unfair to you? Your miseries? Your self-hatred? Frustrations? Do you honestly think those feelings and your thoughts were unintentional? What made those thoughts and emotions different from hers or anyone contracted to me? The answer is none. Every single one of you simply wanted everything painful to you to end in an instant, and I came here to fulfill that desire. I will kill and destroy anyone, anywhere, anytime, and however I want it to be. This is my duty and nobody in this universe is capable of stopping me, not even you."
"You lie," Bulma said. "You told me your story. You mentioned that you were only forced to become a God of Destruction to protect this Universe from being exterminated. I'm sure you feel these things as well. There must be another reason why you didn't want to become one in the first place, aside from your pride. You said you were supposed to be a crown prince born to protect and save your people from Freeza and when you failed on that-."
"The story I told you about my mortal life happened a long time ago. I've changed since I became the God of Destruction of this Universe and I learned to accept and enjoy what I have become and so as my duties in this Universe. Whatever reason I had back then had disappeared along with my mortal heart. Now, I couldn't care less about anything at all."
Vegeta turned to walk away from her. He halted his footsteps by the doorsill. "Do not assume that you know everything about me just because I told you about my mortal past. It doesn't change the fact that I am now an evil, ruthless god and you should never trust me. That's just who and what I am."
He turned his head over his shoulder to give her a smirk, "Perhaps, you should take her advice and think of a way to stop me if you can. But then, no matter what your decision is, I will be destroying you just as how I did to her," he challenged.
Bulma gave him a determined glare. "We'll see about that," she told him.
Vegeta's sinister smirk widened, "Heh! I shall look forward to it, woman. You may do your worst but I shall warn you that it won't be easy to stop a God of Destruction like myself. Mortal resistance is futile against the divine powers of destruction I held in my fingertips."
The next moment, Bulma's breath was sucked into her throat and she stared breathlessly and wide-eyed at Vegeta, who abruptly appeared right in front of her. Below her chin, she could feel two of his fingertips, those of his left index and middle fingers, lightly caress the smooth skin under her chin.
Within the center of her chest, she felt something pulsed powerfully. Was it her mortal soul, the very core of her existence?
This foreboding and spine-chilling feeling. It was the same as when he told her that he was destruction itself earlier this morning.
Vegeta's eyes were dark and ominous as he said this, "But before you do that, you should think well and think twice before stepping out of the line. Else, you'll be facing your destruction by my hand."
Bulma simply stared at his eyes, wondering what caused this change to him. He did mention to her that he never wanted to become a God of Destruction but now he had changed his mind about it and he's saying he's enjoying his job? Does he believe what he was trying to tell her?
She tried to look for that slightest bit of hope in his dark eyes. Those cold eyes were as black as vantablack, deep and endless like a black hole, sucking her into a pit of darkness. Is he really this evil, ruthless god as he believed himself to be?
No, she could somehow tell in her heart that he still has a good side within him. There was something within those eyes. She could tell the hate, the bitterness, the desire for blood and destruction, the cruel glint of a sadistic and bloodthirsty monster within him. But aside from that darkness, there was something else, something familiar, something she could also feel deep in her heart.
It was...
Loneliness.