Following the defeat of the evil Majin Boo, Goku and his friends came to know peace once again. However, four years after the dreadful events taking place in the Kaioshin realm, somewhere deep into space the God of Destruction, Lord Beerus, awoke from his deep slumber. Wishing to face a powerful opponent, he sought the Super Saiyan God of his dreams. Failing to find the survivors of planet Vegeta a suitable challenge, Beerus decided to destroy the Earth, but he was at that moment stopped by Goku who, in a last-ditch effort, summoned Shenlong in order to find the opponent Beerus had dreamt of. Through a ritual involving six pure-hearted Saiyans, Goku turned into the Super Saiyan God and fought Beerus in the Earth's upper atmosphere. Though his power waned, Goku held on long enough to impress the God and spare Earth's destruction. Wanting to acquire the godly power through his own merit, Goku sought guidance from Whis, the God of Destruction's assistant and teacher. Vegeta, too, found in this predicament an opportunity to become stronger in order to protect the planet he had learned to call home, and so the two Saiyans started training on Beerus' world.
Many months later, the Saiyans had become accustomed to the harsh training regiment that Whis had put them through and finally begun combat training. While Whis would often pit the two against each other in a sparring match in order to analyse their weaknesses for better coaching, teamwork was also an essential component of their training regime. The two would strike, together yet unsynchronized, against the guide, who'd have no issue with dodging or blocking their blows.
"The two of you are still thinking about your actions before you move." Whis explained. "Especially you, Vegeta. You have a tendency to think too much before you act. Ideally, what you would want is for each and every part of your body to react and move on its own. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. Even Lord Beerus hasn't mastered this completely." The Saiyans followed Whis attentively while descending some stairs; the two were wearing extremely heavy training suits, making movement difficult. "Once you're able to this, you'll overcome any threat. Until then, I will teach you. It will take a long time, but we will get there. By the way, Vegeta…"
"Hm, what is it?"
"By the time you first got here, you were several steps behind Goku. Not only in terms of your Super Saiyan transformations, but also in raw power. Do you know why that is?"
"I've been trying to figure that out my whole life."
"It's because you over-train. You are a prodigy in combat, yet you are constantly straining your senses, never taking the time to relax and rest."
"Tsk, you think I haven't thought about that? But as a Saiyan, I can't just stand around doing nothing." Vegeta sharply replied.
"That's no good. You need to learn how to relax, like Goku does. On the other hand,…" Goku paid attention, while Whis turned to him. "Relaxing too much is also a problem. You can't be overconfident and slack off on your training."
"I know, I know. I got a sharp reminder with Lord Beerus that I ain't the strongest guy around, and there are still a lotta strong people out there in the universe!"
"You weren't even the strongest guy on Earth." Vegeta interrupted.
"Oh c'mon Vegeta, that's dirty. Y'know Gohan isn't a fighter, he doesn't count!"
"On that note," Whis resumed. "Why do you seek to become stronger?"
"None of your business." Vegeta answered, though glimpses of Bulma and Trunks flashed in his mind. Goku sighed.
"Ho, come now, no need to be so hostile. Fine, I won't pry. What about you, Goku?"
"Me? Like I told ya, I ain't the strongest guy around, and now that I know this power o' the Gods exists, I gotta know how much stronger I can get. What if someone stronger than Lord Beerus shows up?"
"I guess that's our cue, Vados." A burly purple cat resembling Beerus stepped up to the Saiyans, accompanied by a tall and slender woman with a ponytail, sporting the same otherworldly garments as Whis.
"You're not exactly stronger than Lord Beerus, Lord Champa."
"Shut it, Vados!" Champa barked, Vados laughed. "Long time no see, Whis."
"How unusual, I didn't expect to see you here, Lord Champa. What brings you to our planet?"
"Get Beerus."
"A moment, please." Whis flew off into the large tree that stood at the planet's centre.
"Hey, who are you?" Goku immediately took the opportunity to ask. "You look like a fatter Beerus."
"How rude! This is Lord Beerus' twin brother, Lord Champa." Vados explained. "Choose your words carefully, he's the God of Destruction of Universe 6."
"There's another God of Destruction?" Vegeta was shocked.
"By the way, Whis and I are also siblings, though I happen to be quite a bit stronger than he is."
"Sister, I must disagree with that." Whis' voice could be heard from afar, a sleepy Beerus lazily strolling behind him. "It's been a millennium since we've last trained together."
"Enough bickering, you two." Beerus spoke after yawning. "Champa, why are you here?"
Champa sneered and whispered to Vados. The guide immediately materialized soft, boiled, rectangular eggs with her staff. Beerus realized what his brother was hinting at, and nodded at Whis. He, in tun, materialized cup noodles. All from universe seven tasted Champa's eggs, which he swore were the most impressive delicacy universe 6 had to offer, but nobody could distinguish them from regular boiled eggs on Earth. Champa then ate Beerus' noodles and was immediately enticed by their flavour, not being able to put the cup down until he was finished. The gastronomical match had ended on a win in Beerus' favour. Asked where the food came from, Beerus replied with Earth, a planet that no longer existed in universe 6 due to humans' constant war-mongering.
"By the way, what's this universe 6 he keeps talking about?" Vegeta asked Goku.
"Oh yeah, I remember Lord Beerus sayin' something about multiple universes or somethin'."
"There are twelve universes in total." Whis interrupted. "Ours is universe 7. Universes 6 and 7 are alike, much like twins. Universes whose numbers add up to 13 are twins – 1 and 12, 2 and 11, and so on."
"Too bad for you, Champa." Beerus was roaring. "There's no Earth on your universe, you can't taste these delicious delicacies the Earthlings have concocted!"
Gritting his teeth, Champa had an idea: "Beerus, let's have a match." The idea sparked everyone's interest. "A hand-to-hand fight between warriors from our respective universes. If I win, your Earth is mine."
"A tournament?" Goku asked. "That sounds fun, but I don' get it, why don't they just fight it out?"
"Gods of Destruction are forbidden from fighting amongst each other. Once, several thousands of years ago, Champa and Lord Beerus nearly wiped out the universe in one of their brotherly quarrels. I think it was because Lord Beerus ate their birthday cake in one bite. They destroyed several galaxies in the span of a few seconds."
"Woah, how did ya fix that?"
"Vados and I turned back time right before the moment where they started fighting and knocked them out cold before any damage could be done."
"You can do that?" The Saiyan prince chimed in. "What exactly are you?"
"We're angels." Vados answered in place of her brother. "Deployed in order to guide and train our respective Gods of Destruction and prevent them from doing any unnecessary damage."
Vegeta was about to ask "Deployed by who?" but he was interrupted by Whis, who proceeded to explain that due to the frequency of their disputes, Champa and Beerus started channelling their energy into other competitions, such as rock-paper-scissors and food show-offs. "It looks like a tournament is this year's competition." Vegeta couldn't help but find the idea of two Gods fighting over food childish and even Goku was slightly annoyed at the ridiculousness of the situation, though simultaneously excited at the prospect of fighting warriors from a different universe.
"One-on-one battles, whoever wipes out the other team first, wins. What do you say Beerus, you in?"
"I don't see what I get out of this. Besides, how would you even move my Earth to your universe?"
Champa then explained he had been collecting wish orbs that once united would have the power to transfer the Earth from one universe to the other. He had found six so far. Goku asked, intrigued, if he was talking about the dragon balls. Champa explained that the namekians scraped off fragments of the balls he was collecting, which were the size of a planet: "They are super dragon balls! They don't have a limit to what wish they can grant. How about it, Beerus? If you win, you can make any wish on these balls."
"You've only collected six, right? There's one missing."
"Bulma's radar can find it." Vegeta chipped in. "If finding the last ball is the issue."
"Oh, I see you two want to fight in this tournament…" Beerus contemplated for a second before agreeing to Champa's request. "Alright! Let's do this!"
With everyone's consensus, together they agreed on the rules of the tournament. The tournament would function with the rules of the Earth's Tenkaichi Budokai: once knocked out or thrown out of the ring, the fighter loses. Killing is prohibited, and so are drugs and weapons; Vegeta also suggested a written test in order to avoid any mindless, bloodthirsty monsters joining the tournament and disregarding the rules; fights would be one-on-one, with no rests between matches; teams would be composed of seven members each, with a predetermined line-up. The tournament would take place on a nameless planet floating in neutral space between the two universes, in five Earth days.
"Hey, Beerus!" Goku shouted, removing the heavy equipment Whis had forced them to train with. "There's gotta be seven of us, right? Who are ya choosin'?"
"Anyone you have in mind?"
"Boo, for sure! He hasn't been trainin' but he's still incredibly strong!"
"That tub of lard that stole my pudding cup? I'm not happy with it, but if it's to beat Champa, I'll allow it."
"Piccolo should be up for it as well."
"What about Gohan?" Vegeta interjected. "It's obvious he's got the greatest potential out of all of us."
"Hm, he's been workin' a lot lately, but I'll give him a call."
"That leaves us two."
"I got it, #18!"
"The android? Yes, I see, that's a good idea, Kakarotto. In a stamina-based tournament, she'd be a good pick."
"Alright, we'll go to Kuririn's place and ask. That leaves us with one last choice."
"Enough." The God of Destruction cuts in. "I know who the last member is. I told you before you're the second strongest I've fought in my long history of fights. I'm choosing the strongest one."
"But, Lord Beerus…" His guide asks: "Isn't the strongest one dea-"
"I'm choosing Monaka!" Whis is purposefully interrupted before he could finish his question. Confused, he decides not to press the issue any further. Luckily for Beerus, Goku and Vegeta didn't pick up on Whis' implication. "Go back to Earth and get that Bulma girl to find the last dragon ball. Listen, you lot absolutely can't lose this tournament. Not to universe 6!"
"Even if we lose, it's not like it makes any difference to us." Goku opines cheerfully. "All we gotta do is move to another universe and train under a different God of Destruction."
"What?! If I see you slacking, I'll destroy you!" But the kind-hearted Saiyan just laughed off the threat.
A few hours later, back on Earth, Goku asked Bulma to make them a new dragon radar in order to find the last super dragon ball. Hearing that the two universes are twins, Bulma posited that perhaps there are super dragon balls in universe 7 as well. Goku tried out the new radar but couldn't find a single reading. The scientist explained that the radar could only pick up a signal from a limited range, so they had to move throughout space in order to find the remaining ball.
"Why don't ya ask Whis for help?" Goku naively asked.
"Because I don't want to. We don't have any idea what they're using the dragon balls for, doesn't that worry you?"
"Hm, no, not really."
"Jeez, you can't afford to be this carefree!"
"It's fine, if they do anythin' bad, we'll fix it with our own dragon balls."
Bulma sighed and took out a phone from her pocket. She proceeded to call her sister, Tights, who, in turn, called up the galactic patrolman, Jaco. The alien was annoyed and shocked by Bulma's request to take her to the centre of the universe, but then an idea struck him: they could ask lord Zuno, a mysterious man that seems to know everything there is to know about the universe. With that objective in mind, the two embarked on a trip to Zuno's planet.
Meanwhile, Goku took the opportunity to collect the warriors needed for Champa's tournament. Piccolo agreed immediately; the Namekian was glad there came a lucky break to the monotony of his days, and running wild against a new and unknown opponent for the pleasure of combat didn't sound like a terrible idea to his martial artist sensibility. Goku hoped convincing Piccolo first could also help convince Gohan to join in.
"Dad! What are you doing here?" As Goku explained the circumstances surrounding the universe 6 invitational tournament, Gohan sunk into thought.
"Now I know ya gotta be busy with ya studies an' all, but listen…"
"I'll accept." Goku, Piccolo and Vegeta were all shocked at the scholar's words. "I love what I do, but I need a break right now, it's too much! You know, I've actually been sneaking some training in sometimes when I'm feeling overwhelmed with work."
"Oh, so you've gotten stronger?" Goku's interest piqued.
"Well, I think so. But I'm hoping I can test out where I'm at in this tournament."
"Great! Only two members left."
Flying to Kame house, Goku and Vegeta asked artificial human #18 next. Hearing Goku's proposal out, she refused, arguing there was no incentive to participate without monetary compensation.
"Oh, c'mon! If we win, we'll get a wish on the dragon balls. Ya can wish for money or somethin'!"
"It's not our wish, though, is it?" #18 was as perceptive as ever. "It's Beerus'." She took a sip from a glass of water she was holding. "Sorry, but I'll pass."
"Oh, well… What about you Kuririn?"
"Sorry, Goku, but I've retired."
Goku turned to Vegeta. "How are we gonna find our last fighter? Anyone you have in mind, Vegeta?"
Vegeta considered their options.
"What about Tenshinhan?" Kuririn asked.
"Ah, I see! Good idea! We'll ask Tenshinhan next."
"No way." The Saiyan prince refused, turning to Goku. "He hasn't been in a real fight for decades. Besides, he's not even the strongest Earthling, even that guy Kuririn is stronger than him."
"I'm right here, you know…"
"Oh, c'mon, Vegeta! Tenshinhan isn't weak, he can handle himself."
"I'm still not sure." Vegeta thought the Earthling wouldn't be able to contend with the kind of opponents they'd possibly be facing. "Let's get Boo while we think about our options."
Explaining the situation to Majin Boo in Mr. Satan's mansion, the pink blob didn't fully grasp the situation but after Mr. Satan explained it to him more carefully, he accepted to participate; it seemed fun to fight strong people. However, Goku noticed something strange about the djinn.
"Do you feel it, Vegeta?" Goku whispered.
"Yes, his ki…"
"He's gotten stronger, hasn't he?"
"But how? All he does is sleep all day."
Goku grinned. "Boo, can we go outside?" Boo, confused, indulged, and as the two stepped into Mr. Satan's lawn, Goku turned Super Saiyan 2 immediately, causing strong gusts of wind that sent Mr. Satan flying into a nearby wall. "Mind if we spar for a bit?"
Without waiting for a response, Goku vanished and appeared in front of Boo, knocking him upwards with a kick to the chin. The majin immediately recovered and, as the Saiyan was flying towards him, extended his arm out in order to punch him in the face. However, Boo's hand was met with a Ki blast, disintegrating it. Goku smiled, but Boo's arm then expanded in all directions, shocking the Saiyan, and apprehending him in a tight cage-like construction. "Boo!" The majin squeezed tight, making the Super Saiyan scream, and then threw him into the ground, forming a small crater. Mr. Satan shed a tear: "My lawn…"
As Goku collected himself, Boo launched a barrage of Ki blasts in his direction. The Saiyan sparked his aura and begun deflecting the blasts into the air, where they'd explode and hopefully not cause any more property damage to Mr. Satan. By the time he had deflected all of the blasts, however, Boo was gone. Before Goku could pick up his Ki, a pink ball burst from the ground beneath him and hit him in the gut. In the following second, multiple other balls had burst from the ground and started hitting him from multiple directions; Boo had taken advantage of his Ki blast barrage to split himself into pieces and hide underground for a surprise attack.
The Saiyan grit his teeth and crossed his arms. He charged his Ki and extended it in every direction, creating an outward explosion that blew Boo's body parts away. As Boo regenerated himself into one singular being, he looked below to find cackling electricity clearing through the smoke, revealing that Goku had radically transformed: his hair longer, his eyebrows gone, a resolute look in his eyes barely visible through the thick golden aura covered in lightning; it was Super Saiyan 3.
"That's enough, Kakarotto!" Paying attention to Vegeta, Goku powered down to base form.
"Ah, I didn't think ya'd force me to go Super Saiyan 3!" He delightedly shouted at Boo, who descended in order to greet the Saiyan. "I swear ya'd gotten weaker after splittin' into two Boos!"
"I guess he gets stronger over time due to his body's unique physiognomy." Vegeta came closer, looking at Buu. "If you're not careful, Kakarot, he may overtake you again." The two Saiyans smiled, though Vegeta was secretly concerned over the possibility of Boo unleashing another evil Boo, more powerful than before if his strength keeps growing.
"That'd be great! I always wanted to fight Boo if he was a good guy." He turned to Boo again. "But you're still a little weaker than the small one!"
As the two Saiyans left Mr. Satan's house, Vegeta had to reluctantly admit Tenshinhan was the last option they had left. They searched the planet for his Ki and flew over to mount Paozu, where Ten had created a dojo for the purpose of teaching martial arts to those who seek strength.
"Son, what brings you here?" Tenshinhan greeted his old-time rival, ignoring Vegeta.
Goku, slightly excited, asked: "So, you've opened up a dojo, huh?" And he proceeded to explain the details of the tournament once again.
"Ridiculous." Vegeta muttered.
"I see. I had no idea multiple universes existed. This seems like the perfect chance to test out a new technique I've been working on. I'll accept."
"Great!"
"Oh?" Vegeta was intrigued. "A new skill? Hmph. I hope this means you won't be dead weight."
Sensing the hostility, Tenshinhan sternly asked: "Want to test it out?"
"We both know Earthlings like you can't compete with us Saiyans." Vegeta answered plainly, but proceeded to smile: "But at least you've got the right attitude. Save your new skill for the tournament." As Goku sighed and Vegeta walked off dismissed, Tenshinhan glared at the Saiyan's back, reminiscing about all the horrible things he had done and how he couldn't bring himself to be on friendly terms with Vegeta even despite the Saiyan's attempts at redemption.
"Finally, we have all our fighters!"
In the meantime, deep in neutral space, on the nameless planet, now surrounded by dragon balls just as large as the planet, Vados had just finished constructing the arena for the universe 6 invitational tournament. The stage was the same size as the Tenkaichi Budokai's, with four pillars surrounding it, and pyramidal stands covering the four sides of the stage. A spherical barrier covered the whole arena, providing safety and oxygen for those unable to live without it.
"Have you chosen your fighters yet, Lord Champa?"
"Those two on Beerus' world looked like Saiyans." The God grinned. "This means we have to get Saiyans too."
This is, of course, a retelling of the universe 6 tournament arc of Dragon Ball Super. In this version, the events of Battle of Gods transpire exactly like the movie with the differences outlined in the opening paragraph: Goku never loses the SSG power throughout the fight, its power only progressively weakens, and he never "absorbs" it into his being; instead he asks Whis to train him so he can tap into Super Saiyan God again. Vegeta goes after him. The events of Resurrection F have not happened (yet). This first chapter was expository but the next will get right into the tournament itself and major changes will start showing up.