It would be some time before King Kai's guests would be fit to return to their discussion.

First, of course, there was the matter of repairs to be made, both the relatively minor repairs that needed to be made to the planet itself and the more substantial repairs to the two combatants, especially Master Roshi. Fortunately, Kibito was humble enough in defeat to sacrifice some of his own depleted energy reserves to heal Roshi's injuries before tending to his own, leaving him quite exhausted. Whether due to some lingering divine pride or simple pragmatism, the godly servant didn't devote any time towards a verbal apology, hoping that his actions would speak for themselves. What's most important, at least in his estimation, is that they actually accomplish something by the end of this meeting: Kais above knew he had wasted enough time already.

"Well," he began in a rather clipped tone, once everyone was fit to talk once more. "I believe it only proper that I resume our discussion by pledging to bring this particular matter up with the Supreme Kai at the earliest possible date, with the understanding that this may be a considerable period of time after the initial request was made." Roshi regarded the much taller man for a moment before nodding his head and shrugging, figuring that this was about the best he was going to get.

"That sounds reasonable enough to me," he remarked simply. Kibito nodded in turn as King Kai glanced between them, ever-vigilant to the possibility of another breakdown in negotiations. Seeing none, he allowed himself to relax, only for Kibito's gaze to shift towards him.

"Excellent. However, per my understanding, there was one other matter which our host wished to speak with me about," he remarked, causing King Kai to tense up again. "It seems only proper that you make your case now. I will...endeavor to be more open-minded about it than I may have been otherwise, given recent events. Be that as it may, however, I would suggest keeping things as brief as you possibly can." With this, he crossed his arms and waited for King Kai to speak, which he did with slightly less hesitation than he would have done before.

"Ah, yes, well. Um," King Kai began, stumbling over his words even more than usual before he took a calming breath and continued with a renewed sense of urgency. "Ever since the deaths of King Cold and his son, I have investigated the mortal known as Jamba, one of the few survivors of Kasia's destruction who deceived my disciple, Son Goku, in service to both their interests and his own." Kibito's expression remained unchanged, and King Kai sensed that his patience was growing thin. "Ah, i-it would seem, however, that Jamba had been playing both sides of this interstellar chess game the entire time. His reasons for doing so are simple: he desires revenge for the destruction of Kasia at the hands of the Destroyer. To that end, he has devoted the bulk of his natural life towards nothing less than the destruction of the natural order as it currently stands, which he intends to accomplish through orchestrating the demise of the Destroyer...and therefore orchestrating the demise of the great Supreme Kai as well." This time, there was a noticeable pause, followed by a long sigh and an expression that was bemused, yet also masked a certain degree of concern.

"Rather lofty ambitions for such a small mortal, wouldn't you agree?" Kibito remarked. "Of course, if he were not somehow capable of it, I do not think you would be bringing this to me as a matter worthy of my superiors' attention," he added, more as a reminder to himself than anything else. King Kai nodded, grateful at least that his concerns weren't being immediately dismissed.

"Indeed. I would remind you, Lord Kibito, that the Kasians possessed the ability to duplicate themselves without limit, and from what I have discovered, Jamba has made liberal use of this ability to travel throughout the universe and collect martial arts knowledge from dozens of different cultures. Although relatively weak on their own, enough of his duplicates-"

"Could be dispatched in an afternoon, no matter how many or how widespread they are," Kibito argued promptly, speaking as if he were already thinking about leaving already to do just that.

"I would have been inclined to agree with that assessment at first, Lord Kibito, but as I mentioned, Jamba has gone to considerable lengths to account for his current weaknesses. I do not believe it wise for us to interfere just yet, not until we have a better idea of what he is truly capable of," King Kai said, speaking with a desperation which gave Kibito pause.

"What sort of lengths?" he asked pointedly. King Kai sighed and turned his back.

"It's...easier to explain if I show you," he said, and both parties understood readily enough. With Kibito and Roshi each placing a hand on his shoulder to see what King Kai could see, they were suddenly greeted in their minds' eye with a somewhat familiar sight: the lobby at the entrance of Other World, where King Yemma sat and judged all mortal souls upon their passing. The vision soon drifted away from the impressive being and his equally impressive mahogany desk, and the trio now found themselves looking within a small room tucked away behind both of those things. Within this space no bigger than a janitor's closet (owing to the fact that it was most likely a janitor's closet) sat a most unusual soul left mumbling incoherently in the corner. Rather than being left alone to his forcibly imposed madness, this individual was thankfully being attended to by a few Other World denizens who resembled Mr. Popo in appearance and dress, but were all dark blue with bright pink lips instead of their friend's unique pigmentation. It wasn't until King Kai's telepathic view shifted closer towards the figure that both of them realized something, something which Kibito already suspected while Roshi was left surprised. The figure wasn't simply mumbling incoherently, but was in fact speaking very clearly and articulately about what seemed to be utter nonsense to Roshi's ears: lots of random factoids about alien planets he'd never heard of and people he'd never met. However, what stuck out to him was not the unusual nature of this information, but rather how terrified this poor soul was, as though the words were being forced out of him against his will.

That, and Roshi didn't know just how long the dead man had been left sitting there for.

"That's Zuno the All-Knowing," King Kai explained, to which Kibito nodded in recognition while Roshi was left stewing in confusion. "Around five million years ago, he was blessed, or perhaps cursed, with a kind of limited omnipotence by a mysterious sorcerer whose name even he has been kept ignorant of. The ability gave him total awareness of all things in the universe, but it forced him to divulge everything he knew that was even remotely relevant to a question he was asked. For that reason, he limited how many questions he'd answer on a yearly basis, simply for the sake of his own health and sanity." Roshi couldn't help but wince at the description of the poor man's plight.

"Certainly couldn't imagine living with that sort of burden on my shoulders," he remarked before chuckling in spite of himself. "Maybe that's part of why Baba charges so damn much for her services," he added, but the others' silence made the severity of the situation even clearer.

"From what I discovered after Goku came back from space, Zuno came under the power of Jamba and the Frieza Force shortly after Frieza died, giving King Cold complete insight into Goku's plans and capabilities in anticipation of their inevitable battle," King Kai explained, mostly for Roshi's benefit. The old man had idly wondered how it was that the trap they had set for Goku had been crafted so seamlessly, and it was rather unnerving to think that knowledge like that had even briefly been in the hands of their greatest enemies. King Kai seemed to agree, judging by the reticence with which he continued. "Apparently, Jamba took advantage of King Cold's trust in him to use Zuno for his own ends, holding him prisoner until he eventually blew up his planet around the time Cooler took over Frieza's empire, ensuring that Zuno's knowledge couldn't be used by anyone else." Roshi nodded, beginning to connect a few more dots.

"Let me guess: somehow, Jamba messed up Zuno's abilities because he knew that he'd tell your people all about his plans as soon as he died," Roshi reasoned. King Kai nodded gravely.

"Indeed. From what we can tell, Zuno is compelled to utter everything that he knows until asked to stop by Jamba and Jamba alone," King Kai continued. "None of our magic has been able to help the poor man, and until we can find a way to thwart his compulsion, we know nothing about how Jamba plans to accomplish his goals other than what I have observed so far of his activities. Although it isn't the full picture, what I have seen so far...it is nothing short of terrifying."

At this, the scene projected into the others' minds suddenly shifted, and they found themselves looking down from orbit upon an idyllic planet covered in orange flora and dotted with purple oceans which ordinarily would have been the only things one could see. Obscuring the picturesque view, however, was a sight which Roshi at least concluded was well worth King Kai's nervous apprehension: millions upon millions of identical humanoid figures with blue skin and three eyes, all of them moving about the lush planet with purpose as they ran a rudimentary civilization. Much of the flora had been carefully sectioned off and converted into farmland, tended to by thousands of copies. Others were busy gathering water or cooking to keep them all fed and healthy, while a handful of especially muscular copies were sparring with each other in a roughly constructed training ground. The vast majority of these countless copies, however, were simply standing in a field and making even more of themselves, doubling and quadrupling and so on until each one seemingly couldn't make any more, then trading places with their fellow laborers so that they could do the exact same thing. Roshi wasn't even sure if he could count how many copies were down there, even with the benefit of being able to faintly sense them through King Kai's telepathic connection.

There were just so many of them.

"Oh my lord," Roshi muttered, in awe at what he was witnessing.

"Hm. Now that is rather troubling," Kibito conceded, to which King Kai nodded.

"Quite, but unfortunately, I still have yet to make any sense of it all," King Kai remarked, furrowing his brows. "It is as you said, Lord Kibito: not even an army of billions could defeat The Destroyer or the Supreme Kai, not when Jamba's copies are as weak as they are individually." At this, Kibito nodded, likewise confused by this upstart mortal's plan. King Kai was no fool, so he was presently inclined to think that there was in fact more to the story, but as the facts currently stood...

"I must admit I am at a loss as well, but I suppose it makes little difference in the end," Kibito remarked. "To be frank, I am uncertain that you would have much success in convincing my superiors of the threat that this man poses, particularly given how little we know about how exactly he plans to threaten them in the first place."

"Believe me, I am well aware," King Kai replied dryly before sighing. "I just wish there was something we could do to at least get more information, but as long as Zuno's curse continues to be a hindrance, I'm not entirely comfortable sending anyone after him, certainly not you," he said, gesturing to Kibito and ruffling his feathers somewhat, so to speak.

"Excuse me? I recognize that I have been bested, but I am still more than capable of dealing with a man like this Jamba-"

"-If he is not yet ready to execute his plans for the Supreme Kai," King Kai finished, cutting off his superior with the slightest of huffs. "He's too outwardly weak for the Supreme Kai to view him as a credible threat, and yet I also don't feel confident sending you or Goku or anyone else after him until I'm certain that he doesn't have any tricks up his sleeves! I...I don't know what to do," he admitted, slumping forward dejectedly. "That seems to be my lot in life as of late. First with the Saiyans, then with Frieza, and now this...the chaos of your mortal world defies my millennia of wisdom," King Kai admitted, turning towards Roshi as the old man was left thinking. "King Vegeta at least is a fairly simple problem to deal with, but this...there are too many unknowns, and the only person who can shed some light on all of this is in no state to offer up anything useful. I just...don't know what to do," he repeated, continuing to wallow in self-pity for a moment while Roshi idly attempted to cheer him up by patting him on the back consolingly. After a time, however, Roshi ended up getting an idea of his own, one which just might be the break they'd been looking for.

"Maybe not for long," he said cryptically. "Come with me," he added quickly, putting two fingers to his forehead and tightening his grip on King Kai as he locked in on Zuno's ki signature.

"Hang on, where the heck are you-?!" was as far as King Kai got before they were both whisked away to a not-so-distant locale. Kibito took a moment to search for the pair before realizing where they were and chuckling to himself, now that there was no one to observe him.

Whatever that strange old man was planning, it was bound to be rather interesting indeed.


When King Kai finally got to finish his sentence, he was suddenly in King Yemma's hall.

"Oh, finally, they found someone who can heal the-hm," King Yemma said in his bellowing voice, glancing down at the sudden arrival of King Kai and Master Roshi right next to the ongoing line of souls that was an ever-present fixture of his space. Sitting across from them was the large, huddled figure of Zuno the All-Knowing, still mumbling to himself in a terrified stupor as he had done for months without stopping now that he was no longer bound by mortal limits to his speech. King Yemma spared a glance between the three of them before shrugging. "Well, not sure what you hope to do about it, but I'll take anything at this point, Roshi. NEXT!" he said, not even looking up from his work as he sent some random human stockbroker to Hell.

"Oh, I think I've got a solution you never would've thought of," Master Roshi replied cryptically, leaving King Yemma confused while King Kai only caught on once he had a second to read the old man's mind and discover what it was he was planning to do.

"Oh, come on, do you seriously believe that-?"

"Wawawawawawawawa..." Master Roshi chanted in a mystical fashion while waving his hands in front of his face, extending his ki such that he could reach directly into Zuno's mind and trick him into seeing things that weren't there. King Kai could only watch in exasperation.

"He's Zuno the All-Knowing, he'll see right through that-!" he began, only to be cut off.

"Behold! I, Jamba, command you to stop what you are doing at once, Zuno!" Master Roshi said in an exaggerated voice, as though he were a cartoon supervillain. King Kai was about to berate him even further for his foolishness when, to the shock of everyone but Roshi...Zuno fell silent. After a moment of him simply staring off into space as though half-awake, he startled upright and looked frantically around at his surroundings before sighing loudly in relief once he realized that he had been tricked and that the brief vision of Jamba he had experienced was only an illusion.

"Oh! Oh, thank the Kais, it's finally over!" he exclaimed joyously, grasping Master Roshi's hands with his own and shaking them over and over again. "Thank you, Master Roshi! Thank you! How can I ever repay you for saving me from such an existentially nightmarish predicament?!" As King Kai and King Yemma both looked on in stunned disbelief, Master Roshi chuckled to himself.

"Huh, I guess now I can say that if I had a zeni for how many times I helped someone using hypnosis, I'd have two zeni. Isn't a lot, but it sure is amazing the things that can happen twice," he said with amusement in his voice, which Zuno heartily laughed along with after a second.

"Ah, yes, this is much like that time with Man-Wolf, isn't it? Good show, jolly good show!" he said, mostly unprompted, which Roshi supposed was what you get when you talk with someone with the kind of knowledge he possesses. King Kai, meanwhile, finally managed to eek out a response to the unprecedented event he had just witnessed firsthand.

"You just tricked a nearly omniscient being with a backwoods magic trick," he said simply, as if to confirm that it had indeed happened. Roshi chuckled again.

"I told you it was a good idea," he argued playfully before turning to Zuno. "Anyway, as much as we'd all like for you to finally get started with your afterlife-"

"Tell me about it, you've been a bump in the line for months," King Yemma grumbled, making Zuno somewhat nervous until he spoke again. "Still, I could use an assistant..." he muttered mostly to himself, thinking over the possibility as Roshi got back on track.

"-I'm afraid I have to ask you one more question," Roshi finished, giving Zuno a moment to contemplate the request before he gave the old man a somewhat shaky smile of affirmation.

"Well. I can't say I'm especially eager to answer questions like that - ha! - ever again, but after a favor like this...I would say you more than anyone is owed a freebie, Master Roshi," Zuno replied, taking a deep breath he didn't strictly need in order to prepare himself for what was coming.

"What are Jamba's plans for the Supreme Kai and The Destroyer?" Roshi asked with a firm intent behind his words, sending Zuno back into his trance once again.

"Jamba used my knowledge of all things to learn how to perform a ritual that had been violently erased from his people's history shortly before The Destroyer wiped out Kasei," Zuno began. "This ritual, which can be loosely translated from Kasian to English as the 'Rite of Reunion,' requires the user to sacrifice the life force of every one of their copies, dramatically shortening the user's overall lifespan in order to exploit the bond between copies to its fullest extent. If performed correctly, the ritual makes it possible for every copy of this individual from that point onwards to redistribute the ki used to create them upon their deaths, increasing their power to a potentially limitless degree given enough time. Jamba completed this ritual shortly after blowing up my planet, and has been steadily increasing the number of copies at his disposal until he can sacrifice them all via self-destruction, creating a massive burst of ki which will utterly destroy Planet Quinoa and serve as a beacon throughout the universe. Based on a rough estimate of the Supreme Kai's level of power which I was forced to give him, he has carefully calculated exactly how many copies he will need to sacrifice in order to kill him, and he planned it out such that he will be able to acquire this god-like power as soon as the Namekian Dragon Balls recharge. He is currently en route to the planet Namek now, with his intentions being to crush any and all resistance which you and your allies may offer him so that he can become immortal and ensure that he succeeds, leaving no room for error."

Needless to say, it took more than a moment to process all of that.

"My word," Roshi muttered. "It sounds impossible, but-"

"It should have been," Kibito remarked gruffly. "And yet, through this man, he has brought back something that even the Kasians themselves deemed too dangerous to be known. And he thinks he is avenging his people by sinking to such depths," he added, scoffing at his hypocrisy.

"Well, we can debate his actions and his reasons for doing them all day long, but right now, what we need to be asking is-"

"Is there any way to stop him?!" King Kai asked first as soon as Zuno was given a moment to pause outside of his trance, the anxiety in his voice evident.

"Yes, but not without difficulty," Zuno replied, shifting back into his trance. "Through the Rite of Reunion, Jamba has made himself virtually unassailable by conventional means. Unless one could somehow dispatch all of his copies at once, every copy one killed would only add to his power and accelerate his plans even further."

"And there are too many of them, anyway, and spread too thin to boot. Even you and I can't be in two places at once," Roshi said, glancing towards Kibito as he nodded gravely in response.

"Still, it is possible that he has not yet gathered enough copies to exceed one of us," Kibito suggested, and while it wasn't phrased as a question, one look from Zuno told him the odds of that weren't great, causing King Kai to bite the bullet.

"If we tried to stop him now, how strong would he become?" he asked with a worried lilt in his voice, sending Zuno back into his trance.

"At his present numbers, he would become powerful enough to exceed all but Son Goku, Android 16, and the cyborg Android 18 as they currently are," Zuno replied promptly.

"So stronger than either of us," Roshi theorized, ruffling Kibito's feathers a bit more, although he noticeably didn't deny the assertion.

"Making matters worse," Zuno continued, "He has also mastered the Metamoran Fusion Dance, allowing him to increase his power exponentially if he were allowed to create a copy at his full strength." At this, Roshi cocked his head while King Kai and Kibito hung their heads.

"Is there truly no other way?" Kibito asked, the question clearly causing him pain on an emotional level, if not a physical one. Luckily, both Roshi and Zuno had one potential answer.

"It is possible that, through Master Roshi's 'Mafuba' technique, Jamba's soul could be extracted through an isolated copy somewhere else in the universe, of which there are currently twenty-three to choose from," Zuno proposed, causing the others' eyes to widen as they registered the possibility. "Should this effort be successful, the technique would seal this isolated copy away while all of the others would be left soulless and effectively dead. From there, the isolated copy could be easily disposed of. The only issue with this course of action is-"

"It would most definitely kill me," Roshi correctly guessed, causing Zuno to pause as he was abruptly pulled out of his trance, only to assume a somewhat put upon expression.

"It's rather impolite to interrupt someone when they're talking," Zuno said in a huff, tempered by his earlier gratitude. "But yes, given the enormous magnitude of trying to ensnare a soul simultaneously occupying millions of separate vessels at once through a single body, the effort only has a mere 22% chance of success given your superior degree of power. Unless extraordinary efforts are taken to supplement your own energy reserves, you will die if you attempt this." At this frank evaluation of his chances, Roshi sighed before making his decision after a moment of thought.

"It may not have been our fight to start with, but the way I see it, Jamba made himself a problem for me and my students when he played on Goku's trust just to take him off the board in his cosmic chess game. If I've gotta kick the bucket a third time to try and make sure he doesn't do the same to everyone else I care about...then so be it," he said resolutely, ready to put two fingers to his forehead before King Kai held him by the shoulders.

"Let's not be too hasty, old friend!" he said hurriedly. "I think it's my turn to offer you an unorthodox solution," he added, initiating a telepathic conversation with as many people as he could reach, and causing Roshi to nod along after a few seconds' worth of explanation.

"Heh," he said with a chuckle once King Kai was done. "Y'know...that just might work."


Jamba wasn't sure why he felt the hairs on the back of his neck bristling all of a sudden.

For the first time in a long time, his copies weren't in any particular danger. Most of them were simply milling about through the mundane tasks necessary to keep them alive and multiplying long enough for his plans to come to fruition, and his specially chosen copy had been out in space for months without running into anything unusual. Even his lone, isolated copies weren't getting into very much trouble at this point: his one copy had learned all he could from the Metamorans, even if their Fusion Dance was largely a worst-case maneuver at this point, and his other copies were safe and sound in their respective safe havens. Only the copy he was focused on presently could be said to be in any real danger, and even that one was simply monitoring how events on Planet Chilled were progressing in the wake of recent developments.

A part of him was, unfortunately, relieved that there was no clear proof that Goku was killed. The rest of him, unwilling to examine that nagging regret any further, instead chose to focus on the problems posed by the surprise return of Vegeta, who apparently had become a Super Saiyan as well. Based on the satellite footage he'd accessed, the evidence suggested that Vegeta had indeed killed the rest of the royal family like he claimed, and yet...something was off. This copy had been discreetly monitoring the rogue king's distant ki signature whenever he could, and yet, he never displayed a power level sufficient to have accomplished what he claimed. Perhaps he was hiding his true strength for whatever reason, but even if this was the case, it still didn't explain why no effort was being made to pursue the Dragon Balls at this time. Was he simply focused on consolidating his power first, knowing that he would have a harder time maintaining control than Cooler did? Or was there some other reason as to why he'd momentarily dismissed his quest for revenge?

Jamba shook his head to dispel such idle speculation. As much as a part of him would have been willing to tolerate more of that insufferable oracle's grating voice for the sake of information, Cooler's rise to power had necessitated that he abandon that cretin before anyone else could make use of Zuno's knowledge for their own plans. He tried not to think about how satisfying it had been to place Zuno in that same tortuous trance right before he destroyed everything, but he would be lying to himself if he said that this was not a factor in his decision. Doing his best to bury that line of thought along with his pointless worrying over Vegeta, he chose to focus on the positives instead. As far as he could tell, nobody was aware of his plans, or if they were, they weren't doing anything about them. With any luck, Zuno was stuck in that trance even now, useless to anyone who might try to get information from him. Unless somebody in the Other World thought to investigate personally, nobody would be able to stop him until it was far too late-

"Hello, Jamba," an older man's voice suddenly said behind him in a sinister tone, the only warning that copy of Jamba had before he was suddenly whisked away to another realm entirely.


When Jamba could look around himself again, the first thing he registered was the unusual environment he had found himself in. He was standing on a bridge that snaked along in a zig-zag pattern out towards the horizon and beyond in both directions, spiked ridges along both sides providing a rather poor guard-rail for anyone who sought to avoid falling through the yellow clouds surrounding it. And from what he had gathered through Zuno, yellow clouds could only mean-

"NO!" he cried out, frantically trying to come up with some kind of plan to deal with this unexpected situation. He didn't fully understand how the man now standing a good distance away from him - Master Roshi, his brain frantically supplied - had managed to capture him and bring him to the Other World. However, if he was here, then that meant that either Goku and friends, or the gods themselves, knew about his plans, and were prepared to stop him by any means necessary. And he wasn't ready to deal with them, not yet. He needed more time...but it would seem time was something he no longer had on his side.

In a matter of seconds, Jamba came up with the best plan he could manage: blowing up his copy immediately to try and disrupt whatever Master Roshi's plan was, then following suit with all but a few of his other copies in order to dramatically increase their power levels to the point where he could suitably defend himself against all but the strongest of the universe's warriors. It wouldn't be enough if the Supreme Kai himself intended to kill him, as unlikely as it was that the aloof creator god even knew of the danger he was in. Still, based on Jamba's calculations, it should give him just enough power to stand up to Goku and his allies should they come after him, provided there weren't any more dramatic increases in their strength that he didn't know about. The self-destruct technique wouldn't do anything to Roshi, not with the vast gap in power between them, but it would at least stop him from falling victim to whatever Roshi intended to do.

Or at least it would have, had those handful of seconds not been exactly what Roshi needed.

"MAFUBA!" Roshi called out, reaching out to grab Jamba with his ki in a way that the three-eyed warrior had never experienced before, and certainly would never like to experience again. Every single copy of him stumbled and fell to the ground as a pain unlike anything they had ever felt wracked all of them at once. His self-destruction technique completely fizzled out before it could even begin charging, and Jamba suspected that if it weren't for just how many bodies his soul was embedded into, he would have already been sucked into what he could now see was the material focus of this technique: a long jade vase with an elongated bottom and a piece of paper stuck to it, with characters from a language which Jamba didn't recognize written in deep black ink. As it stood, although he found himself unable to destroy the vessel with a set of eye beams for the same reason he couldn't complete his self-destruction, he at least had enough control to slowly lurch towards Master Roshi and take note of how this sealing technique was taking its toll on the old man's body the longer it went on. With each step Jamba took, the pull upon his soul seemed to weaken, until he was finally able to walk towards the man with only moderate difficulty. His confidence grew as his opponent's strength diminished, and although he was still in agonizing pain, the same part of him that took pleasure in Zuno's death compelled him to give the man a sardonic grin as he finally got close enough to try and kick the vase down beneath the clouds.

"I applaud your ingenuity, Master Roshi," he remarked snidely. "But I've been on this path for almost a hundred years, and I certainly didn't make it this far...to be derailed by a feeble old man like you." The words seemed a bit harsh, even considering the situation, but he wasn't exactly in the mood to be charitable to the man who was trying to suck out his soul. He was just about to kick the vase off the bridge and end Roshi's desperate efforts when he sensed something unusual far too late: the appearance of a new ki signature faster than he could react, carrying more power than this tiny little blue man could possibly gather on his own.

"How about a feeble old god?" King Kai asked sardonically from the opposite site of Jamba, levitating a small, yet still impressive Spirit Ball directly above his hand. Before Jamba could even get out an exclamation of shock, King Kai thrust his other hand out and shot a beam of blue ki which flew past Jamba to hit Roshi right in the chest. Rather than pierce through him like a traditional attack, the energy beam instead appeared to bring new vitality to Roshi's body, and Jamba suddenly felt the pull upon his very soul grow stronger than before.

"AGGGHHH!" Jamba cried out in unparalleled agony as he was once again brought to his knees, allowing King Kai to subtly slide the jar between Roshi's legs and out of Jamba's reach using telekinesis through his antennae. As King Kai chortled in his usual way, Roshi could only grimace in concentration as he poured all of his energy into sealing Jamba away. However, for all that Jamba had done to put Goku into harm's way, and for all that the man intended to do to those he cared about if they got in the way of his plans...there was a part of Roshi which couldn't help but pity the man left screaming on the ground.

From what Roshi had been told by Goku and now by King Kai, Jamba had lost everything when his planet was destroyed, and he'd spent decades trying to mount whatever kind of haphazard effort he could to get his revenge on a literal god. A "Destroyer" that, for all that he was touted as a necessary evil, didn't seem altogether necessary so much as he was just plain evil, at least in Roshi's lowly mortal opinion. Perhaps it was hubristic of him to assume he knew better than the gods, but as he had the chance to pierce into his opponent's fracturing mind and get what bits of the story he could from Jamba's perspective...it all seemed like such a horrible waste.

"I'm sorry," he said solemnly, throwing his hands up so that Jamba would fly above his head and using what little strength he had left to guide him slowly towards the vase as the Spirit Ball began to run out. Although he doubted that the man would appreciate his apology in the state that he was in, he still felt compelled to give him that much anyway. "You've done a great many horrible things...and I can't let you drag my students down with you," Roshi continued, voice growing raspier by the second. "But for what it's worth...it wasn't right, what that man did to your planet. It isn't right...that he can just do as he pleases...with so many lives." Roshi said, and that simple, genuine acknowledgement of his pain caused Jamba's eyes to widen ever-so-slightly. "I can't do much, but I promise you...I'll do what I can...to get you the justice you've been denied."

He wasn't able to hear how or even if Jamba had a reply to any of that before the Mafuba reached its apex...and everything went black.


"Can I go one week without having to save one of you from the brink of death?! Just one?!"

As Dende vented his frustration to no one after doing his best to restore the incredibly drained Roshi for the second time that week, King Kai felt compelled to pat the youngest Guardian he had ever sponsored on the head to calm him down, while Mr. Popo gingerly held onto the jade vase that now held Jamba's soul. To say that the other two had been surprised by King Kai frantically calling them to Snake Way in the late hours of the night was an understatement, but even that shock had paled in comparison to hearing the summarized version of what had just happened over the last few hours. The lives that their companions led already seemed chaotic enough without the introduction of some new danger every few days, and yet-!

"Their borderline suicidal recklessness defies all understanding," King Kai said in agreement, reflecting on the sheer panic he had felt when Goku and Piccolo decided to go after Frieza of all people, not to mention when Goku almost died trying to prove a point to the wretched dictator. If he weren't an immortal god, he was quite certain that he would have found an ulcer or new gray hairs or something by now. And he didn't even have hair!

"In any case, I've managed to stabilize him at least, but he's going to be out cold for days," Dende remarked tiredly. "Stars above, what was that man thinking after what happened to him in the time chamber?! And after he told his students not to engage in such behavior too, no less! Ohh, I'm going to have words for you, Master, I swear to-!" Dende continued in a way that might have amused King Kai under different circumstances, but not these.

Certainly not after everything he'd just witnessed.

"You and Mr. Popo have duties to perform, and there are...other concerns which Roshi may be asked to attend to here, so I-I think it's best for everyone if we leave him in the care of our people for a change," King Kai remarked, sending a telepathic message out in the direction of King Yemma's hall. Before long, some of the blue genies who attended him appeared and took Master Roshi away. For whatever reason, Mr. Popo didn't seem to like them very much, and it would seem that the feeling was mutual. Deciding not to unpack that, Dende instead pointed towards the vase.

"What should be done with him?" he asked, a hint of reluctance in his voice. "Perhaps I am speaking of matters above my station, but from what you have told us...is it really as simple as having this 'Jamba' executed and washing your hands of the whole business?" Hearing the way that Dende spoke, and thinking of the last thoughts Roshi had before he fell unconscious, King Kai sighed.

"It would be, ordinarily, but...I'll throw my weight around, cash in a few more favors. See if I can't convince the other Kais to hold off on having him executed and grant him a trial for his crimes instead," King Kai replied, pausing for a moment to collect his thoughts. "Roshi hadn't been too terribly impressed with the universal order as I had described it, and reading Jamba's mind seems to have solidified that negative impression. He doesn't care for The Destroyer, not that anyone really does, but...he also questioned why things are the way they are to begin with, for both halves of the cycle of creation. He seemed to think that this entire situation with Jamba could have been avoided if my people simply did things differently, and as much as it feels treasonous to even contemplate...I have to wonder if he's right. And for someone in my position to entertain such a notion for even a moment, a notion that goes against everything I've been taught, that...that terrifies me." King Kai simply stood there in silence for a time before continuing. "In any case, he put his life on the line to protect the Supreme Kai, to protect our very way of life, and for that...I think letting Jamba have the chance Roshi would have given him is the least we can do to repay him for his efforts."

"Understood, my lord," Mr. Popo said without hesitation, accepting the word of the Kai as law, even if it was perhaps against everything he had been taught as well. For Dende's part, as a child still relatively new to all of this godly business, he said nothing, but was hopeful that Roshi's wish would indeed be fulfilled as he swiftly moved to teleport back to the Lookout. Once he was gone, King Kai turned to Mr. Popo and assumed a somewhat more stern demeanor.

"Take the vase to King Yemma immediately. He'll know what to do with it," he said simply, to which Mr. Popo gave a salute before teleporting away on his flying carpet. King Yemma and the newly appointed Record Keeper Zuno did indeed know just what to do with it, swiftly logging "Jamba's Vase" as the latest cursed, evil, or otherwise noteworthy item to be stored in the coldest depths of Hell for safe-keeping from the mortal world. With the instructions he had been promised, Mr. Popo promptly teleported down, down, down to that very spot and met with two rather amicable ogres wearing matching parkas with the word "Hell" stitched onto them. From there, the two ogres took the vase from Mr. Popo and bade the genie goodbye before merrily gallivanting towards the massive, foreboding mountain of pitch black ice that served as Hell's vault.

The process was like clockwork, nothing that these individuals hadn't done a hundred thousand times before over the centuries, and yet...something was different this time. Something that they didn't even notice, something they should've considered, but which nobody could blame them for missing. It had been perhaps five million years, after all, and with how little they knew about what really happened back then, how could they have even known to look for it? Zuno, perhaps, but even he, for all of the knowledge he was cursed with, couldn't tell anyone about what was coming.

After all, the one question that no one could ask him was just who cursed him...and why.


Greetings, everyone! Apologies for the delay, but I've been reaal busy being sick.

Yeah, I sorta dropped the ball on this one already - too many projects, too little time, as is often the case with me - but the double whammy of an unplanned extension to my vacation and the sickness that I likely got from said vacation made it so that I'm only really well enough to get this out last-minute, using material I had written for an earlier chapter and originally planned to include later. Hopefully the quality doesn't suffer too much for it in y'all's eyes - I had considered taking an extra week without explanation, but I'd rather not make a habit out of missing what is already a fairly liberal deadline in the grand scheme of things.

To help get this out "on time," I'll be saving my usual review responses for a later update when I'm feeling better, but I definitely appreciate the greater number of reviews this go-around. All that being said, thank you all for reading, and I will see y'all again shortly. Take care!