The Second Universe's Goddess of Destruction sighed as she put on her robe, now done with a nice warm bath to sooth her nerves, even if only slightly.
"Here you go, Lady Heles."
Heles looked down to her left to see one of her servants holding her clothing for her, as her right eye twitched slightly. Sure, he was being kind, and he didn't want to upset the Destroyer, but it seemed he didn't have enough common sense to know she can't just change in front of him, so while holding her towel, the clothing floated away from the servant's hands, as Heles walked into the bathroom to change, slamming the door behind her.
The servant sighed as he walked away. "Even when we might die soon, she still keeps her dignity..."
Soon, she exited the bathroom, headed to another room where a crystal ball could show the entire universe, where both Sour and Pell were, scouring it for potential fighters for the Tournament of Power.
Heles wasn't in good hindsight about it. Sure, her universe had mighty warriors, however they were mostly creatures or plants, it would be nigh impossible for them to make warriors capable of performing strategies to win the tournament.
Perhaps... maybe she could recruit the Kamikaze Fireballs. They were indeed symbols of beauty, only second to herself.
Soon, she opened the door, where the floor and walls practically looked like the cosmos themselves, with twinkling stars and constellations all around the chamber, and in the middle of course, were the Guide Angel and Supreme Kai, looking over through planets as the latter, waved his hand to the right each time to switch from planet to planet as they evaluated it.
Pell sighed in frustration. "Well, that's thirty so far, I don't see much we can do here. It's so simple, we just have to find those who can help us win, yet it's so difficult because most of the planets we came across are nothing but barren wastelands! We should have destroyed them eons ago and make way for me to create new ones. Perhaps I should do so once this whole fiasco concludes."
Heles did have a tendency to put her beauty and looks over her duties and as a result, left many planets that should have been destroyed centuries ago, and she just had to agree. Perhaps this was why the mortal level of their universe was so low.
She then stood in the middle between her fellow deities as they kept scrolling across planets, until Pell passed one that caught Heles' eye.
"Wait, stop! Go back!"
Pell, confused, quickly complied as his hand waved to the left, the crystal ball showing a green and blue planet as Heles stared at the planet. Eventually as time passed, Pell picked up some very powerful energies exuding from the planet.
Heles marveled in it. "I believe we can work something out with this."
Sour turned to the Destroyer. "We'd best be on our way then."
It wasn't long before they arrived on the strange planet, it seemed to be called Planet Gurmanski.
There was an interesting band of individuals there to say the least, one of them being a Gourmet Hunter named Toriko, who had immense strength for a mortal, but still not able to contend with the Goddess of Destruction.
"So let me repeat everything you told me for everyone to hear," Toriko muttered, eating a peace of meat as he laid down on a grassy plain, surrounded by trees. "There's twelve universes, nine of the twelve are gonna be in this Tournament of Power thing, it begins in ten days, and if we lose, those Omni-King guys are gonna destroy us all. That the gist of it?"
"Yes, and we deities cannot partake in the tournament, only mortal warriors can," Heles reprimanded.
Multicolored hair bristled across the wind, as a hand rubbed a right cheek. "These gods aren't playing around," Sunny muttered.
"So ten people, right?" Coco began thinking of who could be on the team. "We already got the three of us but I don't see how we can actually beat those two that fought in the Expo."
Zebra was not deterred, it didn't matter, he would make sure he came out on top, and so was Komatsu, who despite his size, was older than he seemed. But he did have some concerns. "Why are we so calm about this, we're talking about everything we've grown to know and love be destroyed.
"You're focusing on the negatives too much," scolded the blue-haired Gourmet Hunter, leaning towards his friend. "All we have to do is win and there's that."
"But what about the other universes, what about those trillions of lives, just being erased for-"
"There ain't nothing we can do about it unfortunately, right now our universe's survival comes first and foremost. Now then, we already got three of us, so the fourth could be Starjun, he's not a bad fighter."
"Well, both Midora and Jhiro were formidable guys, but..." Komatsu sighed in disappointment and sadness. "They're dead now, and there's nothing we can do about it."
"Actually... we can work something out," Pell interrupted, gaining each and every one of their interests. "How strong would you say they are compared to you now?"
"Well, both of them gave me a pretty tough time, I'll tell you that much," Toriko chuckled, remembering the exciting and dangerous fights and escapades he went on years ago.
"In that case, we can resuscitate them briefly." This seemed like something out of a dream, but these were desperate times, and such they called for desperate measure. They would be cheering slightly if not for the gravity of the situation at hand. "We'll grant them a few days to spend in the living realm in order to train with you all and prepare."
"So if you can bring back people from the dead for a little bit of time, with Midora and Jhiro, we would be seven," Sunny remarked. "There's also Ichiryu, the former President of the IGO, making eight, then for the other two, Acacia and Joa would be perfect!"
"You... you're joking, right?" Toriko wheezed, spitting out a drink he was consuming when he heard one of those names.
"Okay, fine, Acacia was crazy when we fought him, but even without the Neo, he's still one of the strongest people we know, just give the man a chance."
"Sure, but Joa though... he just leaves a really bad taste in my mouth," complained Komatsu, not even wanting to think about him.
Heles waved a hand in reassurance. "You shouldn't worry about that, should this Joie wanted to destroy you, we would be there to prevent him from doing so."
"Well, there we go!" Toriko clapped his hands. "Five of us already here, and we just need to pick up the other five from the dead, then we got our team, and we can start training, if you have any objections, raise your hand."
None of the other fighters made one.
"Then it's settled, Komatsu, let's get going."
"Oh, y-yes, sure!" exclaimed a surprised Komatsu, wondering where Toriko wanted to go.
Seeing the little boy leave, while the others finished their meal, Heles wanted to know.
"And where do you think you're going?" Heles demanded, as Toriko turned to the Goddess with a smirk.
"We're gonna find Starjun while you go on and get people from the dead."
She almost snarled at the mortal's laid back attitude, but just rolled her eyes in annoyance, holding herself back from committing such actions not fit for someone like her.
It wasn't long before everyone was finally gathered and brought to the Sacred World of the Kais, which was lightyears away. On the way, the rest of the things had also been explained to them, such as the Super Dragon Balls, Goku and Top, the time limit, etcetera. Now, Toriko and the four other alive fighters were now trapped in a dimension inside what they remembered to be that azure-colored guy's ball on his staff, as they tried to fight off the intense gravity which assaulted them. It was as if tons and tons of bricks weighed down on them. Luckily for them, a day out there corresponded to a year inside this dimension, so that already gave them loads of time to train.
As everyone was struggling, they saw Coco managing to get around without anything holding him back, concentrating very carefully.
Zebra was agape. "You have to be pulling my leg, how did you manage to move?"
"It's simple, just make sure you keep your energy within you and don't let it leak out of your body."
"You have to be joking me, I despise concentration!" Zebra roared, preferring to continue fighting the gravity.
"You're gonna need it, old man."
All five living fighters' eyes darted towards the new group that had just came in.
Midora and the other dead fighters had just been brought back thanks to Sour and were now ready to train, the long, purple-haired one now remaining silent as he left the group to be on his own. Compared to them, he wasn't coming for the sake of saving everyone in his universe, but the Super Dragon Balls were what caught his eye and drew him in, as well as the mentioning of Goku, Top and Jiren, but they had yet to see what the latter looked like.
" Midora-sama. " Starjun recognized him.
" Yo. " Said Ichiryu and Jhirô.
Behind him, Acacia, in her human form, didn't know how to react as he remembered her behavior perfectly before he died. Finally, Joa had already moved away from the others and stared at Toiko and the others with hatred. Initially, he did not want to participate in this tournament. However, in the face of Heles' overwhelming power, he finally gave in. Now he is forced to fight alongside his worst enemies.