X Chapter 23 X
Warning: Language, Dark themes, Heavy Violence
On the world of the destroyer god... The purple trees were eternally bathed in a mysterious light... Several planets and planetoids loomed in the sky as they orbited the pyramid-shaped world…
Pinach was alone in one of the many fields of Beerus' planet. The saiyan hovered above the teal-colored grass while in a state of meditation. There was a calm aura about him. Not a single blade of grass was disturbed by the ki that kept him afloat.
His black jumpsuit, which had been ripped up from his battle with Cooler, was once more in pristine condition. The garment hugged his muscular frame tightly, caressing his sculpted abs and arms, and leaving little of his body to the imagination.
A gentle breeze swept past Pinach, as he floated there, statuelike.
Despite his outward serenity, inside the mind of the saiyan, a tempest was brewing. His thoughts lingered in the past, concentrating on his failures...
In spite of his best efforts, Pinach had failed to levitate above that cup of piping hot tea without disturbing the vapor. Each time he tried, the vessel either shattered, or was sent away at supersonic speeds in a random direction. Pinach's frustration mounted with each attempt, and after many consecutive days of nothing but resounding failure, the whole spectacle began to become quite tiresome for Whis to watch.
The angel stroked his chin while eying the saiyan lad.
"Hmm... I think it would be best if we took a break here. You seem to be lacking a calm spirit. To practice this level of ki control, it is necessary to keep the mind free of conflict... I want you to spend the rest of the day meditating. We will pick back up tomorrow."
Saying this, Whis abruptly turned and started off towards the palace, leaving Pinach to glower furiously at his back.
"In the meantime, I will prepare dinner for us. I'm sure that, being a saiyan, you've worked up quite the appetite after a long day."
"Wait!" The boy shouted after him. "I can't afford to take a break now! I have to get back to my people! They're too young to be left alone! And-"
Whis stopped and interrupted him without turning around "We discussed this, did we not? Conch will look out for them."
Pinach's frustration mounted. He opened his mouth to object, but was cut off once more by the angel "I read your thoughts while you rested... I'm sorry that you lost those two... I know for mortals that it isn't easy to accept the deaths of those closest to them. But there is something you must understand: As long as you remain the way you are, you will be an existential danger to those around you."
The young saiyan bared his fangs in anger and roared "If you think I'm such a danger, maybe you should just put me back where you found me! This 'existential danger' ought to rip your head from your shoulders! It would serve you right for kidnapping me!"
Whis finally turned to the boy, while looking cool as an ice cube. "You're still missing the point." he said, glaring neutrally at Pinach.
"Look at me, Pinach. Do you remember? Was it not I who put you and the others on that world so that you could live your lives free from Freeza?"
Pinach growled annoyedly. He remembered.
"How old was Ginge then? A little over ten, yes? And how old are the eldest among your people now?"
The saiyan pictured Celle, who was ten, and the oldest, barring he, Iseber, and Ginge. Celle was every bit as assertive and hot-headed as Ginge, and she liked to be the 'leader' in her absence. Pinach understood where the divine was going with this, but that wasn't enough for Pinach. Celle wasn't Ginge.
"Ginge was a different kind of saiyan." sighed a reflective Pinach. "She was a rock for all of us. We needed her. She fed and protected us... And with her dead, I just don't see any of the others stepping into that role…"
Pinach clenched his gigantic fist, reasserting to Whis "They need me!"
Whis did not immediately reply. He just stared ever apathetically at him. After a few seconds, the angel turned around and began walking off, saying "You need to put more faith in them. Afterall, they have an ally in Conch that Ginge never had."
Pinach remained silent as the divine attendant slowly put ground between them. Whis' answer left him stumped as to what to say. However, this feeling of awe did not take long to subside, giving way to anger and grief once again.
He shouted after Whis as he was just leaving out of sight "I won't be kept here forever, Whis! Someday, I'll find a way back!"
From around the bend, Pinach could hear the angel's prim voice "I will have dinner ready shortly! When you are ready, come join me!"
In the present...
The words of their discourse rang endlessly in Pinach's head. It had been two hours since Whis had retired to the palace of his lord.
"What kind of sick game is he playing at?!..." thought Pinach. "...A clear mind?! How can you expect me to keep a clear mind when you've abducted me, and taken me away from my people?!"
That thought ate at him. It whittled away at his peace of mind to the point of restlessness. Pinach lost his composure; A wave of rage came over him. His fists clenched, and his eyes shot open. His once calm aura sharply intensified, becoming so violent that it cut a perfect hemisphere beneath him in the ground. The more he thought about never again seeing his brethren, the only other survivors of Planet Vegeta he knew, the angrier he got. He thought about Ginge and Iseber, and how they had been killed. As far as he was aware, they were dead.
Heavy winds picked up around the saiyan, which threatened to rip away a great swath of the woodland around him.
While Pinach had been given a vague warning by Whis about the nature of the place where they stood, a cryptic warning from a strange alien mattered little to him in that burning moment. The young man released his power with a deafening roar. The trees, which were already bending like toothpicks, snapped with equally deafening cracks.
Pinach let the maelstrom rage on for a long while before reining himself in and calming his energy. In the aftermath, for a mile around him, the woods, which had stood so tall with their purple canopies, lay flat, having been leveled. The vandal saiyan scanned the scene of destruction around him. He bore a malicious smirk as his eyes sized up the mark he had made on the land.
Whis walked quietly towards him from behind. The angel's eyes were laser-focused on Pinach as he approached. The boy turned around to see Whis, standing tranquilly behind him, and without the slightest expression. His face turned stark white.
"Oh dear…" said Whis, while surveying the damage. "What a mess. This would take weeks for a mortal to clean up!"
Pinach sneered at Whis, angry that the angel did not seem genuinely bothered. The attendant saw this and smiled, but did not say a word. He simply twirled his staff and threw it up in the air. The staff soared far above the two; both of them watched its ascent. When the staff reached the apex of its journey, the crystal head began to glow brilliantly. Its light shone like a sun upon the entirety of Beerus' planet.
The light became so brilliant that Pinach had to look away. Yet, as quick as he did so, the light was gone. The staff fell from the sky and Whis elegantly caught it in his right hand. Pinach looked around in shock. The land was completely restored, woods and all, as if nothing had ever happened.
The saiyan trembled, aghast from such a display of divine power. "W-what is he?!"
Whis heard his thoughts. The angel replied dryly "I am that I am."
Pinach began sweating. He fearfully took a step back.
"I have finished preparing dinner for us. Would you care to join me?" said Whis, then turning and motioning for him to follow.
The saiyan gulped, and uneasily obeyed his terrifyingly powerful host, shuffling after Whis towards the palace. Their walk lasted several minutes, during which not a word was uttered between them.
As they came up the steps to the grand front entrance, which were loomed over by the massive, decrepit tree of Beerus' castle, Whis whispered something unintelligible, and the great stoney doors opened as if someone had pulled them so. Immediately, the smell of peculiar foodstuffs hit their nostrils.
They continued for a while into the palace, down the vast and mighty crystalline halls, then rounding a corner into the dining hall. The great aquariums that lined the walls of the room teemed with bizarre fish of assorted shapes and colors, ranging from the puny to the gargantuan. A great chandelier loomed over the long, stoney dining table. It was made of a kind of glowing purple crystal.
None of the epic architecture mattered to the saiyan. His eyes locked firmly onto the columned heaps of food spread out upon the table. There was an abundance of choices before him, none of which he had ever seen before in his life. From the strange looking 'mutton' and fish-like filets, to the red colored banana-like fruits and exotic salads, his eyeballs could not decide what was most appealing, though it all smelled appetizing to him.
Pinach had gone years of his life eating nothing except onions and whatever scraps of wild game that could be wrested from the land, and because of this, the bountiful spread in front of him was breathtaking.
The young saiyan's mouth watered to the point of drooling. He clutched at his stomach as it rumbled violently. One giant foot of his inched in front of the other. However, as he executed this motion, the crux of Whis' staff came crashing down on top of his head.
"Yeowwwwwwww!" shrieked the saiyan, holding a grapefruit sized knot on top of his head. "What the hell was that one for?!"
Whis poshly cleared his throat, stating "I've decided that from now on, it is necessary to teach you proper manners, as an extension of your training."
Whis began making his way to the opposite end of the long table, continuing "That includes table manners. While you are here, you will not be making a mess out of my Lord's dining hall."
Both he and Pinach took their seats at opposite ends of the table. Pinach stared down the angel resentfully from across the table, while still holding his throbbing head with one arm.
"Manners my ass! He did that for shits and giggles!" he thought, while fuming and lashing his tail behind his chair.
Apparently unaware of the swirling cauldron of rage, sitting several chairs down the way from him, Whis planted his staff on the floor next to himself, where it stood up on its own with no aid from his hand. The divine servant then elegantly picked up a fork and knife, with which he sliced off a piece of the 'mutton' and brought it to his plate.
Pinach kept observing Whis from across the table. He scoffed at the prim and proper angel eating with those prissy utensils. The saiyan's interest, however, quickly shifted from Whis, and instead settled on the prime banquet before him. With a stomach that growled like a tiger, he reached over with his bare hands to grab a teal 'lamb chop' from a nearby platter.
WHAM
Something was smashed over Pinach's head yet again.
"SON OF A BITCH!" cried Pinach, while launching out of his chair.
He looked over to see Whis still sitting in his seat all the way across from him. Bewildered, Pinach spun around. Directly behind his chair, Whis' angelic staff hovered. The tall saiyan stared at the artifact in confusion.
"Ahem!" sounded Whis from his spot at the end of the table, drawing Pinach's attention back to him.
The angel proclaimed calmly, while not looking up from his dinner "I've made it clear that you will no longer behave like a savage during your stay here. You will use proper dining etiquette when eating at my Lord's table, which means using the appropriate utensils."
Pinach looked behind at Whis' staff, then back to the angel himself. He switched between these perspectives a few more times before taking a seat in his chair once again. The young man's brows furrowed harshly as he stared ever angrily at Whis, who was still tending to his food.
After some time, Whis finished what was on his plate and addressed Pinach, saying "Watch, and do as I do."
The angel wiped his mouth with a napkin before reaching with his fork and knife, slicing off another piece of space-mutton from a nearby platter, and bringing it to his plate.
The huge saiyan lad followed his lead, taking fork and knife in his massive hands, which made them look comically small, like utensils for toddlers. His contempt-filled eyes never left Whis, even as he stabbed those teal 'lamb chops' with his fork, skewering two of the hefty hunks of meat. He brought them over to his plate with as much elegance that one could expect from an angry saiyan; Pinach slammed them onto the plate with enough force to rattle the crystal chandelier above.
Whis chuckled into his hand as he watched the mighty saiyan cut forcibly, and rather clumsily, into his food. Pinach looked up from the plate and glanced at the angel with an 'I hate you' glare, before unceremoniously going back to eating.
It took what seemed to him to be an eternity to finish the first 'chop', though it was really a couple minutes or so. Still, if he had eaten them the saiyan way, with his hands, it would have taken him 10 seconds tops to shear the flesh from the bone and have it down his gullet. Pinach stewed to himself as he swallowed. Everything about the whole 'etiquette' business seemed redundant to him and a massive waste of time.
"What the fuck is the point of all this?! I could be done and training by now if it weren't for this moronic bullshit!..."
He again eyed Whis, who had gone back to eating as well, once more seemingly oblivious to the anger coming from the other end of the table. Pinach became restless.
"...I can't fool around here anymore! I have to hurry up and get back to training! It's the only way this- freak is going to let me go home!"
The young man put down his cutlery and got up abruptly from the table, launching his chair backwards. Whis glanced up from his food, raising one brow.
"I'm tired of these games, Whis!" exclaimed Pinach. "If you won't let me eat quickly in here, I will just take my food outside!" He took the platter of 'chops' in his hands and started off towards the door with them.
Whis watched the saiyan's back as he neared the exit. Pinach anticipated Whis' staff to strike him at any moment. He clenched his jaw, bracing for the inevitable impact. But it never came.
Instead, Pinach heard the angel call behind him as he opened the stone double doors to leave. "Please leave the dish next to the steps when you're done."
Without acknowledging Whis, Pinach shut the doors behind him. As soon as he was out of sight from Whis, the large saiyan dashed down the hall towards the exit at supersonic speeds, rattling the walls. He reached the great entrance doors within a fraction of a twinkle of an eye. Pinach tugged on them with one brawny hand, and carried the platter with his dinner in the other. They did not budge.
He placed the platter of food down next to his feet. Since he did not know the prayer to open them like Whis, it took considerable strength from him to manually pry the massive things apart. Veins appeared on his strapping arms, and his muscles rippled as he yanked with all his might. Slowly but surely, they slid towards him, revealing the vast expanse outside.
Pinach picked up the platter and stepped forward, though he paused. The air felt warm on his skin, and smelled like summer. He had not stopped to think about the climate of Beerus' world since he had arrived. Just days ago, the snowfall was just beginning to wane back home, as the harsh winter transitioned into spring. The young saiyan pictured the river; within a week, it would surely thaw and flow with muddy-green water. Memories of that place weighed heavily on his heart.
He continued past the threshold. But as soon as he did so, those great stone doors slammed behind him with a powerful thundering, causing the herculean saiyan to jump off of the front steps in excitement.
"I hate this place." he muttered, while glancing narrow-eyed at the doors.
Pinach shook off the fleeting vexation and started making his way down the paved path that led to the lake. After a couple minutes walk, the saiyan arrived at the water's edge. There, he picked a stump from out of the many that surrounded the lake and sat upon it. Pinach wasted no time shearing the meat from the bones of his dinner, swallowing the stuff by the pound. In no time flat, the platter was empty, and the bones discarded to the side.
The young saiyan belched and rubbed his still-aching stomach. Even a gigantic mound of meat was hardly enough to sate his appetite. Yet he preferred to go hungry than to return to Whis for anything.
Pinach took the empty platter in his hand, remembering that he was supposed to bring the wretched thing back. An imputent grin stretched across his face as Pinach cocked his arm behind his head with the tray in-hand. The mighty saiyan then threw it with great force. The tableware was sent flying towards the palace, cutting through the canopies of any tree in its way. Pinach heard a far-off, but loud bang, announcing the arrival of the dish at the palace. Inside, Whis too heard the tray embed itself in the stony doors of the building. He felt it as well; The floor beneath his feet trembled.
Still sitting at the table, Whis cut into a piece of steak and stiffly remarked to himself "He had better be careful…"
Back at the lake, the saiyan sat down on his stump and looked into the sky. It was eternally day on Beerus' world, and so there were no celestial objects in the sky aside from the many moons and planetoids that orbited the world of the destroyer. As beautiful as this horizon was, he still reminisced about the starry nights of his home… and of Vegeta.
Most of the planets looked barren and devoid of life, however, one stood out to him. It was a light green color, unlike the others, which all had a tan-rocky coloring. Aside from its appearance, he could feel a faint life-force coming from the sea-green planetoid.
Pinach thought to himself "I never noticed that before… I wonder who- or what could be living there..."
Judging the distance between the two worlds, he concluded that it would take perhaps 30 seconds to fly there. Yet, he was hesitant, because space was not a kind place to organic beings like himself, and he did not wish to die an agonizing death in the vacuum. Pinach gulped at the thought of his lungs being pulled out through his mouth.
Still, he was dying to know what was living on that planet. What if it was someone with a spaceship?
"I might actually have a chance of escaping this dump!"
He took a gander towards the great tree behind him to see if Whis was coming. The coast was clear.
With nervous-laden seriousness on his face, the mighty lad prepared to make the jump. He crouched down and focused a massive amount of energy in his feet. The land buckled, and the trees cowered as Pinach gathered the force necessary. Thinking about the aftermath of the launch helped put his mind at rest. This would be his final parting gift to Whis, his final 'middle-finger' to the one who abducted him.
The saiyan released his ki, which exploded like a bomb, and propelled him at unfathomable speeds towards his destination worlds away. The explosion rocked the castle, and obliterated everything on the surface for miles upon miles. Inside, Whis was finishing up at the table when everything suddenly flew off and ended up on the wall, creating a giant mess; The great chandelier made of crystal swayed violently and threatened to detach from its moorings. The angel just gazed at the pile of ruined food in the corner, looking more disappointed than upset.
He bowed his head and spoke hushly "I did warn him..."
And it then happened that Whis heard a coarse, authoritative voice erupt from deep within the palace, calling out to him.
"WHIS! WHERE ARE YOU?!"
"I'm in the dining room, my lord!" responded the angel, wasting no time.
The walls shook like paper in the wind as footsteps boomed throughout the place; it sounded as though a huge monster was loose in the palace. Moments later, the purple cat-deity, Beerus barged through the doors at the far end of the room. He was wearing a gray nightgown, which was part of a matching set, complete with a furball-hat and house slippers. His face broadcasted nothing except pure, unyielding rage.
"Whis! I want to know what hell is going on! You know better than to wake me up before my alarms go off!"
"I didn't wake you, m'lord." replied Whis, while getting up from the table.
"Then what in King Zeno's name was that noise?! That sounded like a supernova going off! Did you forget to change the sun again?"
"It's possible, I suppose. Forgive me, Lord Beerus."
Beerus growled and beckoned with a finger to the angel, saying "Come on, Whis! I want to go see the damage you've caused this time!"
The cat-god stomped away towards the entrance, with Whis following far behind. When he got to them, the doors opened for Beerus without a prayer, as though they dared not to be in his way. He stepped outside, and Whis joined him shortly after. Beerus stared wide-eyed at the scene outside.
The landscape before them was more like a hellscape. It was completely unrecognizable from what it was before, with the trees and gardens having all been blown away. Not even the lake remained. A gargantuan crater lay in the center of all the devastation.
The destroyer grinded his teeth and shook, teetering on the brink of exploding.
Whis attempted to calm his lord down. "Now now, m'lord. I can easily reverse the damage done here."
"I don't care about that!" snapped Beerus. The destroyer pointed to the obvious crater. "…It would seem that someone has the gall to attack my home and deface it!"
"Perhaps it was just a large meteor, m'lord?" Whis offered. "They have hit your world many times. Do you remember that time when one came crashing into your room and I had to restore the upper-half of the palace?"
Beerus turned his head towards the attendant and gave him a sideways glare, ripe with suspicion. "Whis. Are you hiding something from me?"
Whis, in an uncharacteristic bout of panic, stuttered out "N-no Lord Beerus! Of course not!" The angel turned from his lord and averted his eyes from Beerus'.
The destroyer gazed at Whis inquisitively for a moment before something peculiar brought his eye upwards. It was the dish that had been thrown by Pinach earlier. The tableware was firmly embedded in one of the doors of the palace. It had gone unnoticed by both of them because of how tall the great doors were, and the platter was stuck towards the top.
Beerus squinted at it. Under his fur-ball hat, the gears were turning. "What's that doing out here?…"
Whis turned to look at what the destroyer was fixated on. His heart dropped when he realized that he had neglected to cover all his bases. The angel turned back to Beerus, and prepared to fabricate an excuse for the inevitable question that would be asked of him.
But Beerus had turned back towards the devastation. His eyes were laser-set on the gigantic crater in the midst of all the destruction. "...This is clearly battle-damage. No object short of a small world could have caused such a blast. And yet, it is impossible that a body that size would have fallen into my world's gravity-well without having been pushed there by someone…"
There was a tense silence between the destroyer and his servant, which for Whis, seemed to stretch into the better part of an eternity.
"...There isn't even any debris that would be typical of such a mass."
Finally, Beerus made an about-face and started back towards the doors, ordering Whis as he did so. "Whatever. Get this mess cleaned up! As soon as I'm dressed and I've put something in my stomach, we're leaving on a business trip!"
"I-I see. As you wish, Lord Beerus… Wherever are we going?" pried a relieved Whis.
The destroyer-god stepped through the great doors of his castle, which again opened for him without any work on his part. After crossing the threshold, Beerus turned to Whis and replied.
"I need to ask something of that blasted Kai."
As Beerus finished his sentence, the stone doors closed between them, leaving Whis outside alone.
The angel sighed a relieved sigh. He promptly called his staff to his side, peering into its crystal head. After a few seconds of searching, Whis obtained a lock on Pinach's location. Upon realization of where the saiyan had gone, Whis furrowed his brow in worry and looked up at the pale-green planetoid that hung in the sky above the world.
"You poor fool." uttered Whis.
There wasn't any time to rescue Pinach from his doom. Whis knew that if he tried to leave now, Beerus would come looking for him, and as a result, find out what he had done. And even if he were to somehow get Pinach and bring him back in time, there was no guarantee that Whis could successfully hide him while his lord was up and about.
Pinach would just have to hold out until Whis could find an opportunity to leave his lord's side.
A few minutes earlier…
The explosion rocketed Pinach upwards towards the distant planetoid. As he ascended higher and higher, the faint red atmosphere faded out, and was gradually replaced by the blackness of outer space. The adolescent saiyan, for the first time since he had been brought to Beerus' world, could see the innumerable stars that were out there in the universe.
Before crossing the edge of the atmosphere, he put up a ki-bubble around his body, to shield himself, if only a little, from the harsh climate of space. Bits of rock bounced off the shield, as Pinach rocketed through space. Though the start of his journey was explosive enough, the saiyan continued to pick up speed, and the frequency of rocks picked up until he left the gravity-well of Beerus' world, where they ceased completely. From the point of view of other distant worlds, he appeared as a blinding streak of light across the sky.
Upon reaching the half-way mark, Pinach ceased accelerating. This was the critical part of the journey. If he approached the planetoid too fast, he would be unable to stop himself from crashing through it, obliterating the planetoid and himself along with it. On the other hand, if he approached too slowly, the vacuum of space would surely take him before he could reach the atmosphere. Any air that had been within his ki-shield had already jettisoned out at this point.
A nervous Pinach soon neared the gravity-well of his target. He began throwing on the brakes, softly at first, but more firmly as he got closer to the atmosphere. Pinach could feel the air leaving his lungs, as the imperfections in his energy-bubble prevented pressurization. He was close to passing out when he at last reached the atmosphere.
Pinach gasped, welcoming the cold air into his body, and rejuvenating himself. As he continued to slow his descent, his eyes searched the approaching surface for landmarks that would help him orient himself once there. However, as he came closer, it quickly became obvious that there weren't going to be any landmarks. In fact, there was no land in sight.
The saiyan came to an abrupt stop just a few hundred meters above the surface. In all directions, for as far as he could see, there was an endless ocean of pale-green water.
"W-what the… What kind of place is this?!" he remarked, completely caught off guard by the environment. A world consisting of purely water was unheard of to him.
He had noted that the entire planetoid was uniformly colored like this ocean. Yet, surely it was impossible that the whole surface should consist of purely sea. Acting on this theory, Pinach shot off into a random direction, hoping to find any sign of land.
The bewildered saiyan searched for an unbroken hour without finding so much as a hint of solid ground; he circled the planetoid several times. About three quarters into the tenth trip around the world, Pinach finally gave in. He came down to the surface of the water and hovered there.
"Damn it all! There's nothing here!" cursed Pinach, while lashing his tail.
Below his feet, the green water lapped and crested. The towering saiyan stared coldly at the waves around him. The dancing water seemed to be mocking him. This whole trip had been for nothing. His hopes were betrayed.
Fury started to build within Pinach's soul. As it occurred to Pinach that he would have to return to Whis to have any hope of returning home, his rage came near critical mass. In a fit, he gathered all his frustrations in the palm of his hand and tossed them into the sea. The glowing energy detonated with such force that the ocean warped several thousand feet in the air. A great tsunami wave raced out in all directions from his location.
As minutes passed, and the waters calmed below his feet, the powerful lad gazed into the sky. It was tinted green-blue, not too far off from the color of the sea, which produced a sort of disorienting effect when one looked upon the horizon. There were a few white clouds that lazily floated along, but their wispy forms were hardly noticeable. Aside from the colossal explosion that he had just caused, the whole planet was strangely serene for an ocean-world; there was barely a breeze.
Pinach hung his head in defeat. The saiyan began to accumulate altitude, slowly at first, but then picking up speed as he soared above the scarce clouds. Moments later, he reached the edge of the atmosphere, where he stopped so that he could peer into space.
His heart skipped a beat when he realized that he could no longer tell which direction Beerus' world was. He had expected to see it in the void with ease; the very planetoid he was on should have been illuminated by the brilliant light coming from above the great tree-palace. Instead, there was simply space, and all the stars looked the same. Not even any of the other planetoids that orbited Beerus' world were visible to him.
Pinach started to panic. The thin air wouldn't allow him to breathe easily, let alone think clearly, so he let himself fall back to the surface. Once there, he levitated above the waters, stewing to himself. "This was a terrible idea… What am I going to do now?! I'm stuck here!"
Thirty minutes earlier, on Beerus' planet…
Beerus stepped out of the great bath located deep beneath his castle. Whis, who had been standing nearby, averted his eyes away from the dripping-wet deity as he dried off with a towel.
The destroyer called for his outfit. "I'm ready for my clothes, Whis."
And Whis gave them to Beerus via a wave of his staff. The outfit materialized on a rough stone stool that was next to the destroyer's feet. Beerus promptly uncovered himself and threw his bath towel aside, dressing himself in the godly regalia.
"Shall we be off then, my lord?" asked Whis, as his lord pulled his boots on and stood up.
Beerus simply grunted in agreement, and the pair casually walked towards the doors that led out to the rest of the castle.
They reached the grand front entrance after a short stroll. Once again, the doors opened for the god of destruction without so much as a tug or word. Whis and Beerus stepped outside. The devastation that had been everywhere was gone, as if there had not been a colossal explosion just minutes earlier. Beerus scowled upon seeing his freshly restored world, but then suddenly smirked, as an idea came into his head.
Before they continued down the steps, Lord Beerus turned to Whis and said "Excellent work as always, you've spruced up the place quite nicely, Whis… I can hardly tell that my garden was vandalized."
Whis looked at him and smiled, replying without thinking. "Thank you, Lord Beerus."
Beerus stopped walking and turned to the angel, who also stopped. Whis then realized how bad he had just screwed up. The smile on Whis' face evaporated as Beerus' steely eyes met his.
"Just as I thought. You lied to me." growled the destroyer-god, whose eyes squinted narrowly at him.
All facades of cool coming from Whis completely disappeared. The normally stoic angel gulped and ever so slightly trembled in his shoes. This was it. After all these years, the jig was up. His father would find out what he had done, that he had broken the law of the angels, and he would subsequently be erased from existence.
The horror of that scenario, having to face his father, raced in every synapse… until Beerus's voice came crashing into his reality. "It was that tubby-tabby Champa, wasn't it?! You're just covering for Vados, because she was the one who brought him here. You know that destroyers aren't supposed to cross into other universes!"
Whis nearly fainted from relief. The divine attendant quickly regathered his composure, saying "Your peers are not allowed to cross universes, yes. However, me and my brethren are allowed to go where we please, and if a destroyer happens to tag along, then it is not seen as a transgression."
"Bah!" snarled Beerus. "He's got another thing coming if he thinks I'll just let this slide on the account of a flimsy technicality! Once I've finished my business with the Supreme Kai, you're taking me to Universe Six and I'm going to obliterate his holy world entirely!"
Beerus' attendant nervously chortled and rebuked him. "I'm not so sure that would be appropriate… or allowed, my lord." He had to somehow get his lord to forget all about this little fiasco, or it would certainly mean the end of everything. "Perhaps I could come up with a legitimate reason to travel there, though sometime later. Then you could have your revenge without worry!"
The destroyer put his hand on Whis, as the towering angel prepared the necessary energy for their departure. Beerus mused, and his throat rumbled. "Hmm… I suppose you're right. The last thing I want is for that lumpy sack of dirt to go crying to the Grand Minister, and bringing his attention here."
The two godly beings disappeared in the flash of multi-colored light of Whis' fast travel technique. As they made their way through the stars towards Supreme Kai's planet, Beerus closed his eyes for a nap, while Whis stared forward into the void with a troubled expression. He knew that with each lie he told in defense of his hidden 'activities', it would just create more problems than it would solve. The sooner they could get back home, and his lord went to sleep, the better.
His thoughts snapped to another point of concern: Pinach. How long could the saiyan survive on that world of only ocean? Whis knew full well that once the gravity-field of his lord's world was crossed, it was no longer possible to see it with mortal means. It would be nearly impossible for someone to make a random jump and somehow make it there from any point outside.
Sooner or later, the saiyan would run out of energy and drown; even a powerful person like him could not fly forever. Whis dwelled on that scenario for the entire forty-five minutes that it took to reach the world of the kais.
On the world of the Kais…
The lavender-skinned Supreme Kai was standing next to his pink-skinned assistant, Kibito underneath the shadow of a giant rocky pillar in the middle of a wide-open plain. Like the world of destroyers, many moons and planetoids hung in the soft-violet sky. The taller Kibito lorded over Shin as he was teaching him some of the history of the kais. A quaint wooden table stood between them. Upon it, sat a white clay vessel, with two tea cups made of the same clay.
In the middle of the lesson, Kibito gestured up to the huge rock pillar. "-and it was said that its creator possessed immense power. Such was their power that no one since, not even your late predecessor was able to remove-"
Suddenly, a blinding light struck the ground next to them from the serene heavens, accompanied by a weak blast. Both Shin and Kibito fell backwards in a shock, dirtying their blue and red outfits.
"What in your name was that?!" asked the shaking Kibito of Supreme Kai.
"I haven't the slightest idea… but get a hold of yourself, Kibito!" shot back Shin, who arose and dusted himself off.
The pink kai looked dazedly at his student who was also his master; Shin was squinting disappointedly at him. He then remembered who he was, and what his station was, and that his craven conduct was not fitting of the Supreme Kais' bodyguard and teacher. Kibito got up in a frenzy, hurriedly brushing the dirt from his red shoulder pads and pants, in an effort to put up a semblence of gracefulness.
Shin swiveled his head back towards where the blast had been. They heard bickering from below them as the dust settled.
"You didn't have to put us at bedrock, Whis!" shouted one, harsh voice.
"It was just so I could wake you, my lord. You know how sleepy you get!" retorted a softer one.
"And you know damn well that a simple shout in my ear would have done the job!" said the first.
"Ho ho ho!" laughed the second. "My throat just isn't feeling all too well today, my lord. I'm afraid this was the only option!"
"Excuses! All I've heard from you for the past two hours is excuses!" lauded the rougher voice.
Two silhouettes came into Shin and Kibito's view. The two stepped out from the dust cloud as it dissipated entirely, revealing a narrow, but deep crater behind them. Upon seeing who they were, Kibito stepped back behind Shin, while losing his grasp on his composure once again. Shin stayed put and just stared cooly at the pair.
"Supreme Kai. It's good to see you." greeted Beerus, in the most ominous tone he could muster. He and Shin stared each other down.
"...What brings you to my world, Lord Beerus?" asked a hesitant Shin.
Beerus smiled nefariously. "Skipping the formalities are we? I'm fine with that." The God of Destruction shifted his predacious eyes to Kibito, who was almost ready to pop in the presence of his overwhelming power. "A fine retainer, you have. You sure know how to pick em'." quipped the sneering deity.
"Kibito has served me well, and he has taught me almost everything I know about the role of the Supreme Kai." replied a cool Shin, not wanting to throw Kibito to the buzzards in front of his peer deity. His words boosted the larger kai's confidence, who looked abashedly at his master. Kibito stopped trembling.
The destroyer-cat grinned as though he had just been told a very humorous joke. "Anyway. I've come here because I forgot to give you a report on my activities since I last slumbered. You do know that you're supposed to replace the worlds that I destroy, right?"
Shin continued to stare neutrally at him. Though, a shred of disgust was in his gaze.
"Of course, I know that." he whispered.
Beerus' sharp ears picked up on it. He snarled "In the past millennia, you have only created 130 new worlds with life on them… out of the 507 that I've destroyed! Our universe will fall far behind if you don't get off your ass and get to work!"
Beerus looked towards the table with the vessel and tea cups on it. "Just what have you been doing all this time, kai? Having tea-parties?!" The destroyer snapped his fingers, and the table turned to cosmic dust, along with the tableware.
The Supreme Kai saw what Beerus had done, and glared resentfully at him for a time. Then, his demeanor abruptly changed, and he smiled. "We were having a lesson about my ancestors. Kibito was just telling me about the Z-sword, and its legendary power."
Beerus looked puzzledly at Shin, then at Whis, then back to Shin.
"The… what-sword?" he inquired, while cocking his lengthy ears.
"The Z-sword." declared Kibito, without so much as a twitch. "It is a relic from time immemorial. As I was telling the Supreme Kai just before you arrived, the sword was said to have been put up on that mountain by its creator, whose identity has long since fallen into obscurity. They were said to have possessed immeasurable power."
Everyone turned to face the pillar as Kibito continued.
"The ancient kais were unable to remove the blade from its place in the rock, on the summit. Since those days, many legends have come to be about the blade. However, the most told of them all is the blade's mysterious ability to magnify the wielder's strength and power by countless fold. It has been every Supreme Kai's dream to someday remove it from that rock…"
When Kibito finished, he turned to the rest of them. There was silence initially.
Shin gazed up at the mountain in awe, having heard the full tale at last.
Beerus just scratched his head with one of his claws, while drawing a blank about what he had just listened to.
Whis, who had been quiet up until now, raised his hand to his mouth and snickered into it. Noting his lord's forgetfulness, and the irony swirling in the air at that moment, he found the whole situation to be quite comical.
The destroyer-god lazily gandered up at the peak of the pillar. After studying the summit awhile, the forgetful cat saw an image of the sword in his mind; a memory! As it clicked inside his head, a vast, malicious grin stretched across his face. Honing his senses, Beerus focused on the latent energies in the sword, up on the summit.
He could see within. There was an old, decrepit kai inside, banging his frail arms futilely on the walls of an ethereal prison-cell. The venerable kai was ranting and screaming down at Beerus.
"BEERUS! YOU NO GOOD HAIRLESS FELINE! Someday I'll be let outta here! And when that happens: YOU'LL BE SORRY! I'll create an ARMY of warriors who EACH rival your power! YOU HEAR ME, COWARD?! AN ARMY!"
Beerus dipped his head, while still displaying an evilly gleeful grin. No one had picked up on his scrying of the high-up blade. He turned to the Supreme Kai's attendant, though he suppressed his grinning to a smirk.
"That's quite the story, kai... uh… and what was your name again?" asked the destroyer.
"Kibito." firmly responded the attendant.
"Riiight." said Beerus, dismissively.
He then shifted his attention to the Supreme Kai. "Well. I believe my business with you is at an end, Supreme Kai. As short as it was…" The purple deity beckoned for Whis to come. "Come on, Whis. Let us be on our way. Before going back to bed, I'd like to go for a bit of… sightseeing."
He cast one more threatening glance at the Supreme Kai. "And I'm sure the esteemed Supreme Kai of Universe 7 is going to be very busy with his work for the next fifty years or so. You'd better hop to it, kai."
Whis approached Beerus, who grabbed onto his back. The swirling energies of the angel's transportation technique lit them both up, all as Shin and Kibito looked on. They both shared a mutual feeling of hopelessness and powerlessness, having been disrespected and coerced on a fundamental level. The Supreme Kai and his attendant stared indignantly at the destroyer god and his angel.
As Whis finished gathering the necessary power to propel them through the universe, he thought about how this was the worst case scenario that could have happened. With Beerus up and about, there was no way for him to leave and retrieve Pinach. He dreaded what might happen if his lord would stay awake for too much longer. But there was nothing he could do now for him. He would just have to hold out until Beerus got bored. With a colorful flash, they left for space, leaving Shin and Kibito standing alone in the fields of their world.
On the mysterious planet of only seas and sky…
Pinach rested by letting himself float on the water. The saiyan giant had his arms folded behind his head and his feet crossed, as he lay afloat on his back. He had all but given up after many hours of pointless hovering. Knowing Whis, the saiyan had a hunch that he would be along to collect him eventually, so there was nothing to do but laze around and wait for rescue.
Several more hours passed, during which the burly lad spent the whole time skygazing. There was hardly anything to gaze at, however. The pale-green heavens were almost completely inert, save for a few wispy clouds crawling by. Still, it beat laying face down with a mouth full of brine.
Time kept passing, and the skies grew dim, though there was no visible 'sun' that could be seen setting. Pinach became sleepy; his mouth opened at full gape, letting out a monstrous yawn. The sea-born saiyan closed his tired eyes and tried to get some sleep. At first, the calm water allowed him to drift into a light sleep. Yet, after more than a few minutes, his body would relax too much, and his head would submerge, flooding his nostrils and mouth with salty ocean water. He persisted for hours in trying to sleep this way, before being thwarted each time by the sea.
"Gah! *spit* *spit* …This damned water!" he seethed, while spitting and choking on the brine from his last failed attempt at rest.
The infuriated Pinach hurled himself from the ocean with his ki. He laid with his back to the water, and tried to sleep while holding himself up with energy. This too proved to be a fruitless errand, because maintaining lift meant staying awake. He awoke as his body dropped from the air and crashed into the sea.
Pinach swam up to the surface, sucking in a lung full. When he had finished catching his breath, he went deep into thought about his options: of which there were none. Panic started to set in.
"What now?! If that bastard never comes for me, I'm screwed! I'll eventually run out of power and drown!" he exclaimed, sharing his worry with no one around to hear.
Just then, he heard a low rumble from far away. It sounded like thunder. As he turned to see, he was smacked in the side of the head with a small wave. The sudden blow startled him, because the environment had been so calm for the entirety of his stay. He fully spun around to look in the direction that it had come. His jaw dropped at the sight of a gigantic wave cresting in the distance. It was at least one hundred meters tall and hauling ass directly towards him. What seemed to be a great storm loomed over in the direction that the wave was coming from. Lightning danced between the distant clouds.
Pinach shot up from the water in an effort to evade, however, the titanic wave caught him and swallowed him, dragging the saiyan into the fathomless depths. Trapped in the spiraling water, he tried to open his eyes to get his bearings, but the salt stung them, forcing them to shut. Only through sheer determination and luck was he able to fight the current and break through to the surface, gasping for air.
The storm was uncaring, nonetheless. He was hardly able to get a breath in before yet another wave, albeit smaller, came along and dunked him deeper into the water. The swirling currents again thrashed him around beneath the surface. Their merciless churning wouldn't allow him to escape.
At the moment he was about to lose consciousness, they relented, and he was allowed to surface once again. This time, he ejected himself from the water, to great altitude. As he looked all around, and absorbed his surroundings, he saw that the once peaceful sky had changed into a tumultuous, stormy overcast. It was raining very heavily. Lightning flashed everywhere and high winds blew the heavy rain almost horizontally. They whipped at Pinach, trying to carry him away.
This tempest seemed to stretch on forever in all directions, which baffled the saiyan, given how calm the place had just been. Darkness also surrounded him in almost every direction. Except one. Pinach noticed a little sliver of faint light that stood vertically in the distance. The whole storm seemed to be rotating around it. Using his keen saiyan eyes, he was able to make out an object in the water, which sat directly in the middle of the light. It looked almost like…
"LAND!"
Pinach bolted faster than the lightning that zig-zagged around him, heading directly for the eye of the storm. Even the beyond hurricane-force winds which wrapped around the eye, were no match for him. As he approached, Pinach saw that the island had trees of a tropical variety and other greenery. Perhaps there was nourishment to be found on the island. However, that was on the bottom of the list of priorities for the saiyan. The thing that mattered most to him in that moment was shuteye. He crashed violently and ungracefully into the island with a great thud, where he immediately went to sleep in the sand, underneath a palm tree. Everything was quiet on the island, in stark contrast to the hurricane that raged around it. Through the eye of the storm, the dark-green night sky peered down upon Pinach, who snored like a sawn log.
A/N: The Legendary Super Chapter. I was planning to release this one in two parts, but I was unsatisfied with some of my work, so I held on to it and released it like it is. Hope it was worth the wait.
