Author's Note: For whoever asked for a Goten x Note story, that will eventually happen in the civil war story which I am planning to resume after I finish this story and this story will only have one more chapter after this one so hopefully that won't be too long from now.
Chapter Two: Death Doesn't Like To Be Cheated
They couldn't believe it, they didn't want to believe it, but there it was. Death itself staring at them dead in its inhuman otherworldly eyes. All of them have had nightmares about him in some form or another sporadically throughout their lives but it was always as one of their many foes or some tragic event or accident. Never did any of them imagine that Death would ever show itself physically in its purest state. "N-n-no w-way...the grim r-reaper?!" Yamcha stuttered in sheer shock and fear at the prospect of having his soul reaped from him directly. Death raised one of his hands which caused all of the partygoers to flinch yet the entity spoke instead of attacking. "No need to fear me people...today... I'm only here for them" Death said menacingly his skull face grinning slightly as it lowered it's raised hand and pointed at Piccolo and Dende. Gohan hesitatingly stepped forward and asked "are you here to kill them? Is there time up?". Even though Gohan would normally have not wasted a second in defending his first mentor and best friend, this time was different. For one thing, this wasn't your ordinary foe, it was a force of nature, arguably the most powerful of all of them so he wasn't sure if there was really anything he or anyone could do. He wasn't sure if even gods like Beerus would be effective against Death. Second was that his whole family was here and again he didn't know what to expect from Death, for all he knew insulting the reaper could lead to him and/or his loved ones higher up Death's list. Death laughed sinisterly sending shivers down everyone's spines. "Not quite...little Dende here was supposed to continue for about another five hundred years, however...I've decided to cut their time short" Death answered connivingly. "Huh?! Why?!" Gohan screamed angrily wanting to know why Death was essentially breaking his own rules and taking two of his closest friends away from him. "Because they've broken the rules thousands of times over and now I'm here to collect!" Death barked back his ghostly green eyes briefly turning blood red shocking Gohan as the reaper apparently could read his mind. "Wha? What are you talking about?! What rules did they break?!" Vegeta questioned using anger to mask his own fear of Death. "Does the term, "Death doesn't like to be cheated" ring a bell to any of you?" Death answered cryptically cocking one of his nonexistent eyebrows up. "These damn dragon balls have been messing with my schedule for a long time now! Every few years or so you lot use them to revive the dead! The dead are supposed to stay dead! That's how it works! But you slug people keep cheating my design again and again and again! You even go as far as granting some eternal life! Grrr! That's your biggest insult to me!It might sound worthless to your short sighted mortal minds but there is a balance of life and death in the universe that needs to be maintained!" Death ranted in a fury. Trunks's face frowned and he straightened himself out. "Well clearly you're doing a terrible job skeleton man! A lot of people die whenever we face another big bad guy! If you're supposed to be keeping everything balanced then how come you let all those people die?! If you were really good at your job you'd have reaped the bad guy before he or she killed too many people!" Trunks argued intensely which earned him a proud smirk from his father. "Oh I most certainly could have stopped those evil beings at any time and I was going to eventually, however I let them go as far as they did because most of whom they were killing were about due to die anyway so I just laid back and let them do my work for me until they started killing too many people who still had a lot of time left" Death answered smugly. This final statement left the group aghast. Baby Pan and Bulla, even though they were mere infants seemingly understood the reaper's words and they cried hysterically. "T-that's not fair..." Goten said tearing up himself hugging onto an equally emotional Marron. "Neither life nor death is fair kid" Death stated coldly turning to look at Goten. Dende hesitatingly stood up from his seat. "Why our dragon balls specifically? Namek has a set and there are the super ones" Dende inquired the reaper. Death laughed smugly at the smaller the Namekian and said, "the super ones are not usually used, in fact the past two times they've been used recently were the first time they had been gathered in eons and one time was because of Grand Zeno so I don't mind them too much. As for the ones on Namek, heh heh I stopped by there before coming here and... I took care of it" Death revealed. The truth of the matter stabbed Dende and Piccolo's hearts and Dende collapsed out of grief. "No...noooo!" Dende wailed out in despair. "Stop your whining little one...you'll be joining him soon" Death stated creepily his eyes seeming to glow brighter with anticipation. Majin Buu in his child like innocence was growing more and more pouty with this creepy stranger. "Bone man bad! Buu gonna kill you!" Majin Buu screamed out gaining every person's attention including the reaper. Majin Buu launched himself at Death going in for a punch. Seconds before the punch could connect however, Death's body morphed into a black mist vaguely shaped like his previous form. Majin Buu flew right through the mist and once on the other side, his entire pink gum like being was turned to stone. The remaining guests gasped in shock and horror at the sight. "No! Buuuu!" Hercule Satan cried out in despair as Death reverted to his physical form. The entity then reached into his cloak and pulled out a scythe and with one swift strike he swung and shattered the stone statue that was once Majin Buu. Goku and Vegeta nodded at each other and powered up to their highest levels, Goku Ultra Instinct and Vegeta Super Saiyan Blue evolution. Most of the crew ran away further from the soon to be battleground with only Piccolo and Gohan not moving. Vegeta put out one of his hands and concentrated to make a medium sized electrical ball of energy that was barely controlled. "Big Bang Attack!" Vegeta calls out as he fired the ball. Death took scythe into both of his boney hands and right when it was about to hit, sliced the ball in half causing the two halves to explode in between him. "Wha?!- ahhhh!" Vegeta couldn't finish as Death teleported to right in front of him and slashed his shoulder open with his scythe and then sent the prince flying to the Gohan and Piccolo's position barely conscious with an invisible burst of force. "My turn!" Goku shouted out excited for the challenge. Death turned to face Goku and actually sighed as if he was bored with their efforts. "You know this little stand up of yours is meaningless right?" Death asked Goku knowingly. "Pfft I don't care if you are death or not! The way I see it, your just another strong but rude guy I gotta beat!" Goku bit back with his usual fighter gusto. "I can see that Son Goku, but you see, the problem is that I'm not just...strong" Death said cryptically. Goku, angered by the reaper's taunts simply flew towards it and aimed for a kick only for Death to grab it. Before Goku could get over his shock, Death rapidly let go of Goku's leg but then grabbed his face and violently slid his body across the field and threw him into the air with ungodly strength despite his skeletal body. Finally while Goku was peaking in the sky, Death snapped his boney fingers and with the snap, a lightning bolt from out of no where struck Goku electrocuting him midair and falling to the ground unconscious. "Enough!" Gohan screamed enraged powering up to his max mystic form. Gohan cupped his hands together got into a signature pose. "Ka...meh...haa...meh...ha!" Gohan chanted has the famous blue orb of energy built up in his hands and fired the legendary beam. The head hit its target without issue, Death not even putting up a hand to stop it. Gohan kept the beam roaring hoping that he would at least incapacitate the reaper, if an being like him could even be incapacitated. To his utter shock and horror, the reaper had phased through the beam and was now right in front of him. The oldest demi Saiyan didn't have any time to move before Death suddenly zoomed its head just short of hitting his own. "I'm...inevitable" Death whispered to Gohan as a red mist came out of its mouth and onto Gohan's face. Ending his Kamehameha wave, Gohan covered his mouth as he coughed from the mist. His coughing fit came to a halt and Gohan started breathing heavily to relax his throat. However, as the pain in his throat faded, another one started in his chest and it was quickly growing worse. Within seconds it grew intense to the point where Gohan let out a bloodcurdling scream of agony and clutched his chest with one hand. "Gohan?! What's wrong?!" Videl and Goten from a distance away yelled out, extremely confused and worried for Gohan as he continued writhing and spazzing in pain, even starting to spit out some blood. Piccolo and Chi Chi however recognized what it was remembering years ago when it attacked Goku. "Is that...?" Piccolo asked weakly his voice drifting off in realization. "Yes indeed, it's the heart virus that Goku here dealt with thirteen years ago...only I supercharged it to me faster acting, I suggest you take him to the hospital now...he's time is not quite up yet..." Death confirmed leaving everyone shook to their cores. "Bu-but-but that's i...impossible...no one can just summon a virus?!" Bulma yelled exasperated, her scientific mind unable to comprehend what just took place and how it was happening. "Heh heh heh...what part of I'm Death do you not understand? I wasn't being metaphorical, rhetorical, poetic or theoretical about it to any degree, I'm Death, straight up!" Death explained laughing at the world's greatest scientist racking her brain to come up with some other explanation for his abilities. Piccolo had enough, now Death had afflicted Gohan, his first and best friend that he saw almost like as his own son with a deadly disease that could very well kill him and in a way that wouldn't allow him to be wished back with the dragon balls since death at the hands of a virus would count as natural and the mystic orbs couldn't undo those types of deaths. "Leave them alone!" Piccolo shouted out turning Death's attention towards him. "I'm the one your here for! So come and get me! I'll probably lose to you, but I'm not gonna spend my remaining time in this realm watching you torment them!" Piccolo roared out getting into a fighting pose. Death turned his whole body to face Piccolo and his skull face smiled. "Good I was hoping you'd fight or run away, makes it more fun for me..." Death thanked the former demon king, standing tall and re positioning his bloodied scythe to hold it like a sword. Krillin and Tien rushed in and grabbed the bodies of Goku and Vegeta and immediately turning tale and running back to the others.
Will Piccolo be the first one to beat Death, will death get the final say like always or will the two possibly come to an understanding?