Chapter 7: A King must Ascend
Yugi's heart filled with joy at the sight before him. Goku was standing right next to him. "Hey kiddo," he eventually spoke. Yugi was just about to respond when Chi-Chi came bursting out the door, running to embrace Goku, and the two shared a moment together. Later, inside Kame House, Goku mentioned his plan to get even stronger than a Super Saiyan. This confused not only Chi-Chi and Master Roshi, but also Yugi and the Pharaoh. They didn't know of any level beyond the current Super Saiyan transformation, but when they voiced their opinions about that, Goku just replied that they haven't participated in any major battles that forced them to go Super Saiyan. This, in a way, was true: so far Yugi hadn't been fighting against anything that required him to use his own fists; the battles had been fought through card games, especially of the Shadow Game variety.
Goku eventually told everyone (including Yugi) of a place where a year of training could be acquired in one day. Needless to say, everyone was confused, but afterwards, Goku told Yugi to hold his hand. Then, his index and middle fingers were pressed to his forehead, and all of a sudden the scenery changed: now they were in an aircraft with Krillin, Gohan, Tien, Yamcha and Piccolo. After the reunion with everyone, Yugi finally found the answer to where Goku was going to train: a place called the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Gohan was then told that he would be training with his father and told to hold his hand with Yugi. The scenery changed again afterwards. They were in barren wastes with Trunks and Vegeta, the latter of whom was quite confused as to why 'Kakarot' was keeping with him a "pathetic low-level human". Both Yugi and the Pharaoh were disgusted by this remark, but the latter was just able to hold the former back from attacking, explaining that he could currently sense that Vegeta was too strong for them at the moment.
After getting Vegeta and Trunks on board with Goku's training plan, the scenery then changed to something that neither Yugi nor the Pharaoh had seen before: a large flat circular floor with a few small buildings located on top. The caretaker, Mr. Popo, then led all five Saiyans to the entrance of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. First to enter was Vegeta and Trunks, and the rest were to wait for a day. Yugi spent quite a bit of time conversing with and questioning Gohan, Goku and Mr. Popo about many things, like their current location (revealed to be Kami's Lookout), and what was going on below. Yugi was a bit worried; he knew he also had to enter the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, but with who? Goku and Gohan were going to go in, but Yugi couldn't join them as the Chamber could only provide for two people at a time.
As the day went on, things got a lot tenser, as all three of the Saiyans could sense Piccolo fighting, with the monster now known as Cell joining in later. A couple of minutes after that, Cell's energy increased drastically, and Yugi could sense the Namekian and Tien, the former of which could barely be sensed a few moments after Cell's increase in energy and the latter diminishing in energy for quite a bit before hitting rock bottom. After this, Goku teleported away from the Lookout and a moment later reappeared with both combatants, one in each of his arms, healing them with Senzu Beans. They later informed everyone that Cell's energy had increased due to him absorbing one of two Androids, Android 17.
The next day, Vegeta and Trunks emerged from the Time Chamber. Everyone could sense how much stronger they had become, and Vegeta unwittingly answered one question Yugi had always had but never really thought too much about: Why did he never need a haircut? Even though he wasn't a pure-blooded Saiyan, the explanation made sense: their hair does not change once they are fully grown. This answer given after Bulma arrived bearing Battle Armor, supposedly similar to old battle armor that Vegeta possessed, and asked why Trunks' hair had grown but not Vegeta's. All five Saiyans changed into the Battle Armor, and Yugi found it quite strange, although he had never worn such armor before, it felt extremely comfortable, like he had some past experience in it.
Vegeta and Trunks left, after which Goku requested a meal, which was promptly devoured by him and Gohan, all twenty or so dishes of it. Those two then entered the Time Chamber. As that day went on, things got hopeful for a bit as Yugi could sense Vegeta dominating Cell. However, Piccolo was worried, as was the Pharaoh, both of whom could sense that Vegeta's arrogance and pride would be his downfall. Soon, they could sense the energy of Trunks flaring up. The Pharaoh immediately assumed that Cell must have somehow bypassed Vegeta, and considering it was in no way due to his strength, he must have talked Vegeta into letting him absorb Android 18, the second one he required.
Soon the unthinkable happened. There was a colossal energy spike from Cell. Yugi and the Pharaoh immediately knew what happened: Android 18 had been absorbed. As the day passed, Vegeta fell, as did Trunks even though he had summoned enough energy to eclipse Cell. After a while, Piccolo informed everyone that Cell planned to host a fighting tournament and, considering Trunks' surprising defeat, he made plans to go into the Time Chamber after Goku and Gohan with Yugi, as, like it or not, that child needed to become an Ascended Super Saiyan as well. The next day, Gohan and Goku exited the Time Chamber and enjoyed another particularly large meal made by Mr. Popo, who also invited Yugi to partake as he was going to go into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber next. Yugi, unlike Goku and Gohan, tried to go easy on the food, but as much as he didn't want to admit it, he, like them, had a very large appetite and had to eat as much as possible.
After the meal and a handover of a note from Goku, who knew of his Namekian friend's intentions, Piccolo and Yugi went inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. At first, Yugi was almost overcome by the gravity, but spent the day trying to adapt, and by its end, he seemed to be standing fine. The training began immediately, Piccolo was sparring with Yugi, and as the days went by he was issuing new instructions to him via the list handed over by Goku, one of which involved trying to maintain the Super Saiyan form for a whole day. Eventually, after what seemed like two or three months of constant training, Yugi not only became an Ascended Saiyan, but could push the transformation even further, heavily bulking his muscles. However, as soon as he accessed the transformation for the first time, the Pharaoh spotted a weakness: the bulked-up form heavily damaged the speed of the user. Piccolo also spotted this weakness, and per the instructions on Goku's list, proceeded to try and teach Yugi ways of overcoming this weakness. Upon request, Piccolo revealed to Yugi that Goku drew up the list based on how he and Gohan had trained, knowing that he would need to go through the same training.
As the days marched on, Piccolo wondered how Yugi would cope with the extreme environments in the Chamber, and when the result did come, he was truly amazed at his charge's willpower. Be it scorching hot with huge wildfires or bone-chilling with huge amounts of ice forming, Yugi always refused to give up. He would stand there, and try his best to not only survive, but improve. There were also times when Yugi's persistence in training resulted in him collapsing in the training area and being quickly healed by Piccolo's intervention, which always seemed to result in massive power increases after each recovery.
When the time came to leave, Yugi had just hoped that he had done well enough. Piccolo admitted that he actually liked training with him, as although at heart he was still gentle and good-natured, he knew what was on the line and what had to be done. He had also made a very good sparring partner for Piccolo. Yugi had learned to maintain his Super Saiyan transformation and, like his mentor for that time, he had gotten much stronger. When they opened the door that would take them back to the lookout, they were met with a dumbstruck Vegeta. "How… how can that brat be a Super Saiyan?" he questioned.
"It's rather simple Vegeta, this child is also a Saiyan, like Gohan, like Trunks, like Goku, like you," Piccolo responded.
"How? How can such a little insignificant child be a Saiyan in the first place?"
"I am surprised at your inability to come to terms with this fact Vegeta. He has the tail, so he either is another Saiyan who survived the destruction of Planet Vegeta, or has at least one Saiyan parent."
"But who? Kakarot and I are the only pure-blooded Saiyans alive. This kid clearly has no relation to Kakarot, and I definitely do not recall fathering such a child as this! Also, the only Saiyan child sent to this rock was Kakarot, and this runt was clearly born after the planet's destruction!"
"Maybe someone else survived."
"But who? Boy, who are your parents?" Vegeta boomed at Yugi.
"That's what I'd like to know," Yugi spoke.
"We're wasting time here Vegeta," Piccolo interrupted. "If you are going to use the Hyperbolic Time Chamber again you need to go in now."
Taking these words to heart, Vegeta shoved the two of them out of the way and entered the Chamber. Yugi, still a bit unsure of how much time had passed as it had felt like a whole year, asked Mr. Popo how long he was in there, and it turned out it was only for a day. Saying farewell to Piccolo for the moment, he left the Lookout, and after sensing where Gohan's energy was, flew straight to him. After a while of flying, Yugi landed at Goku's house, meeting Super Saiyan Goku and his son there and proceeding to just relax with them.
Yugi was also there to celebrate Gohan's eleventh birthday, his present being a pack of Duel Monsters cards from his Game shop, which Gohan really liked. Yugi also was quite amused when Gohan accidentally blew the birthday cake all over him with a single breath of air meant to put out the candles, asking jokingly if that meant he could have it all
As the days counted down to the start of the Cell Games, the fighting tournament held by Cell, Yugi got to meet the Namekian Dende, and he also trained with Gohan and Goku, everyone being in their Super Saiyan forms the whole time, with him even learning the Kamehameha wave. As the morning of the Cell Games came, he awoke on Kami's Lookout, where he had spent the last three days that were not spent training. Goku appeared, and after a few words involving the created Dragon Balls not being able to restore people back to life who have already died and a few assurances that nobody would die, he, Yugi, Gohan, Trunks and Piccolo all flew towards the Cell Games, the tournament that would decide the fate of the world.
End note number 1: I'm probably going to update this story again later in the month, as it contains one event I kinda looked forward to writing, and if I am excited about that, what right have I to keep you waiting? Besides, I would prefer to get to the good bits as soon as possible and there's still a lot of ground to cover. Like I said though, it will probably be near the end of the month.
End note number 2: I had an idea to try and add a bit of humor in one scene, specifically the birthday cake scene, but the scene was deleted from the final draft in the end because, were I to insert it, I would probably have needed to upgrade the rating of the whole story and doing so just for one tiny little scene isn't worth it in my opinion.