Man, it's funny how the second I decide no more Beerus (for now) I'm suddenly able to write again. Like I am half a chapter ahead as I type this.

I did technically mean for the end of this chapter to be separate from the Beerus plot, but this ended up being the natural way to implement it. Also, too much serious stuff so I had to end with a silly.

Also, since I'm getting close to the thing (TM) I should start seeding in a bit more foreshadowing again. It has already been foreshadowed, at least twice, but since it'd be so absurd for anyone to connect the dots between them no one ever did. Which was its design. Only one person has ever even scratched the surface of what it may be, by accident and unknowingly, based off of a drawing I did outside of fic related things (though secretly with the fic in mind) long ago, and they've forgotten what it was lol

Qinlongfei: I, half agree. To be honest I think it would be far more of a cop-out if Goku ever does surpass Beerus. Beerus being an untouchable entity makes him a somewhat flat character who you know there can never be a real conflict with because he can't be beaten, however now that that has been established it would be far worse to me if Goku does beat him, because to me that would ruin any already dwindling realism in power growth. Not that DBZ had much of that either, but at least it was still set in a sort of logic behind the absurdism
Beerus existing also makes it funnier to me how almost no one treats the Kais seriously lol
And yeah, I like Buu too, rather I love his dynamic with Mr Satan. But there was no way for me to feasibly retrieve him without drawing out the shenanigans in a way that wouldn't feel natural with the setup I had

Some1call4MR-E: Chapters have tended to get shorter lately I have noticed, but I figure it's better to post what I have if I come to a natural stopping point that force people to wait longer
And yeah, Shipping Mai and Trunks is super weird. I genuinely hate that direction they went with for no reason. It honestly feels like they wanted a girl to ship Trunks with so they can try to stop Truten shippers. Like, no gay ship, now have girl, ignore the fact that she's literally older than Bulma
Also, the diced Frieza should still be the case as in my interpretation of the Fusion Reborn movie is that it was their souls returning, his physically body would still have been cubed

I'm sure the fight was plenty entertaining. I'm sure for anyone actually able to see it, that is. From where I sat, completely unable to sense any of it, it was pretty underwhelming.

Logically I knew they were fighting at levels beyond comprehension, but that's just the issue. It was beyond comprehension. I was back to seeing flashes in the sky once again like when I was a child in this world.

It was different than not being able to sense the androids. With them, it truly felt like no one was there. But with the deities, I could tell something was there but it was impossible to focus on, and getting a read on their power was out of the question entirely.

"You disappointed?" I asked, bumping my shoulder against Seventeen's, "I'm not the strongest anymore."

Seventeen raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure I can settle for second strongest."

"It'd be fourth, counting Beerus and Whis. Might as well call it fifth now since Vegeta's probably gonna catch up out of spite."

"Whis? The blue guy? How do you know he's that strong?"

"..a hunch. I assume he has to be up there to be "The God of Destruction's" attendant person."

It wasn't really a lie. I wasn't certain he was really up to their level. I vaguely remembered a line about him being stronger than Beerus but I could be mistaken.

"To your other point, how would Vegeta match that? Recreating the ceremony?"

"No clue." I shrugged. That one was entirely the truth. I had absolutely no idea how Vegeta achieved blue in canon.

I suppose it didn't really matter if I knew or not.

I did wonder how The Ultimate really stacked up against the God forms. I had no way of sensing them to be sure, but I hoped it at least matched the base God form.

It really was weird being outclassed so quickly after years of never really needing to fight when it got that serious. I never needed to put in real effort when using it.

Now I probably would.

Kinda sucks.

I like having fair fights and all, but when it was needed it was nice to have an instant kill all. Guess that's gone now though.

There was a brief worry over whether the two of them fighting would break the universe or whatever, but I wasn't concerned. After all, the rest of Super existed, and if this was enough to jeopardize things I had no idea how Blue or any other future forms existed.

Mr Satan made a big show about protecting Videl. When nothing happened he looked confused. He looked at his hands, then glanced at me.

"Did I-?"

"No," I shook my head.

He drooped a bit. But better than giving him an ego trip over nothing.

Whis decided to take the group to watch the end of the fight, but I wasn't really interested. I knew how it ended. I hadn't changed anything. And I can't do anything as it were.

I don't, see the point of it.

"Are you disappointed?" I looked up at Seventeen, "that you're not the strongest anymore?"

I looked up towards the sky. "Am I?" I considered it. "I dunno, maybe a bit. I guess so."

I never really considered it much. This was inevitable after all. Part of me was glad that I was no longer the person who'd always be expected to take care of things when it got real bad.

But, I think part of me was upset by it. Maybe that was the reason I didn't care enough to watch. Part of me liked being the strongest. It was fun. But that's probably a bad reason to like being strong.

"Huh. I guess I am," I reaffirmed anyway.

Oh well. I was never given the option, but even if I were, I don't think I would have wanted the God form. Goku's more suited for it. He's stronger at base and is better at learning new forms. Vegeta's stronger than me at base too, and at the very least he's stubborn enough to force its eventual mastery.

It wasn't something I could master. Not without using the ceremony multiple times at least, and that'd just be a waste. Especially when I'd probably want to default back to The Ultimate anyway.

This was always inevitable.

The Ultimate is cooler anyway.

…

Raditz

The brat was so absurdly obvious literally the entire time. Almost to the point where it wasn't even fun.

From the second that cat showed up the brat was so clearly watching him. Even though she was clearing trying not to be obvious it did not work.

And the goddamn tell-tale line of "I don't think I could beat you."? Absolutely absurd. Also slightly terrifying if he thought about the implications too long so he did not.

But the brat's Ultimate form has literally never once struggled in a fight. Not once has there been anything that would so much as trip her up- Buu not counting as he removed the Ultimate from the equation.

And he wasn't stupid. He knew as well as any that she couldn't sense him any better than the rest of them. There was absolutely no reason to think that she couldn't have won.

Unless she already knew otherwise.

Frankly, it was a miracle no one else questioned it. Must be incredible luck that only Kakarot's friend had any suspicions. Not that he was any better than she was at not looking suspicious.

Maybe everyone on this planet was just an oblivious fool.

Who was he kidding? That's been the case since he first set foot on this planet.

…

I humored Seventeen as he decided he wanted to drive as far of the way back as he feasibly could.

I stood by the fact that it was inefficient and kinda tedious but he liked it so whatever.

But it reminded me. It reminded me of the first time he'd insisted on driving. It reminded me of that conversation.

I looked out the window. I didn't glance back very as I spoke again.

"I already knew."

"Hm?" Seventeen glanced over in question. He was casual. Unaware of the true meaning of what I said.

But, that didn't really matter. More than once I'd almost slipped and said more than I should. It happened earlier that same day with Whis. There have been times when I almost just, forgot, that he didn't know. I had to say something.

I fiddled with the seatbelt as I spoke again.

"You asked once, why I was so casual when you and Eighteen were first woken by Gero. It's because I already knew how things would turn out."

Seventeen looked at me again. His expression looked carefully blank. "Knew how?"

"I just, knew things ahead of time. I knew how some things would play out. Mostly major events, but some interactions too."

Seventeen focused on the road. He took a few moments before responding again.

"You knew about Cell." He concluded.

I inhaled. "I- I'm sorry I didn't say anything, I-"

He held up a hand to cut me off. "Don't. Stop. It's not an accusation. Just an observation."

He still looked upset. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything after all.

"No. You had warned us. We didn't listen. Saying that you somehow knew the future would not have helped." He stated it clinically, like he was just listing a set of explanations. Even though I'm sure under other circumstances that last sentence would have been said in a lighter tone than the rest.

He glanced over. "I'm not mad," he stated, entirely unconvincingly, "I don't think you did anything, technically, wrong. I'm just- how am I supposed to react to this?"

I shrugged.

Seventeen sighed, his head tapping against the headrest. "Elaborate more. On what you mean by already knowing."

"It's- it's not something recreatable. I know- knew one version of events. One where, Gohan isn't me. He was his own person."

Seventeen looked at me through the corner of his eye. "Well, that must suck. Knowing there was supposed to be another person in your place."

I shrugged. That part wasn't really one I considered much. It's not like it was my fault this happened after all.

Seventeen's fingers tapped against the steering wheel. "Up til when?"

I looked over.

"You said that you knew- past tense. What was the last thing you knew?"

I fiddled with my sleeve. "Uh, Beerus was the last thing I had any details on."

Seventeen side-eyed me. "So you waited until after it didn't matter to say anything."

"I-"

"No. I said before that I didn't mind not having an explanation at all. I never asked any follow-up questions despite knowing there was more to it."

..he kept doing that. Saying something and then explaining it himself without my input. Probably better than I would have in the first place.

"…"

"…"

"Did you know Sixteen couldn't be revived?"

"He- he was supposed to die during the final Cell fight. When that was avoided it didn't occur to me that it'd be an issue again."

"..even if you did there probably isn't much you could have done."

He glanced over again. "It's fine. It is fine. It's just-" he ran a hand through his hair.

"It sounds more like you're trying to logic your way out of being upset."

"..yeah. It would be very easy to get upset. But logically I know that isn't something you'd casually tell anyone. And I'm fairly certain you wouldn't do anything with that that isn't towards a positive outcome. I assume you didn't expect to be killed by Buu? Your reactions seemed pretty genuine."

My hand found its way to my shirt. Right over where Buu had pierced through me. "No. I thought, knew, I was strong enough to beat him. I had expected him to find a way around it."

"Right. Right. Is that why The Ultimate was always so overpowered?" He asked, his voice finally regaining some amount of tone in it.

"Might have cheated a bit. Its original name- or I suppose the name it was supposed to have was Super Sayain 4. I renamed it since that obviously wasn't practical."

His head tilted. "What, was three skipped?"

"No, things just played out so it doesn't exist here. It was supposed to have been used against Buu, which was part of why I figured The Ultimate would just sweep him. Which it would have. If it were just based on strength."

Seventeen hummed in acknowledgment. He sighed, leaning his head back. "I just wish you prefaced this with saying you were gonna talk about something serious. Or at least waited until we got back. Driving is supposed to be relaxing you know."

"No, not really. I never learned how to drive."

Somehow the car itself stuttered to that.

Seventeen eyed me with the most intensity yet. "..you do mean in this life, right?"

"Mmmno. Never bothered. Didn't care enough to."

"What if you needed to get anywhere? Did you just rely on rides?"

"I had an electric scooter."

This did not appease him. "What if you needed to get somewhere further away? Or needed to carry anything? You've said your old world didn't have capsules."

"I got an electric bike."

That somehow made it worse.

"How is this only now coming up? You know what? No. No. No," he said, each "no" having a different inflection.

Seventeen pulled over. On the highway. He then got out and walked around the car to my door.

He opened the door. "Out."

"What?"

"Come on. Another car could arrive at any moment."

Very confused, I unbuckled the seat belt and got out.

He very, very insisting guided me to the driver's side.

"In."

"What." It was no longer a question.

"In."

"I can fly. Why would I ever need to drive?"

"Oh look at that. Another car. Better get in."

Begrudgingly I did so as the other car drove past right after.

Seventeen got into the passenger side.

"This is stupid."

"What do you know of the basics?"

"Literally nothing."

"Great step one then-"

The horn happened to go off. Coincidentally my forehead kept wanting to fall into it.

Still, I lifted my head up long enough to glance over. "It's ok?"

Seventeen paused. "Yeah. It's ok." He lifted his chin, nonchalance quickly retaking his voice. "Besides that, we're onto a much more important topic. Now this is a stick shift so-"