Majin Buu

The night sky over the southern desert was split open by a bolt of dark purple lightning.

It was no natural phenomenon. After the lightning faded, the clouds did not close back together. Instead, some force tore them apart from within, revealing an eerie dark-red halo like a gigantic eye slowly opening to look down upon the uninhabited wasteland. The dunes trembled. Sand did not slide downward, but rose against gravity, hovering several meters above the ground in a dense black haze.

Babidi's spaceship rose from the depths of the desert.

It had been buried underground for eleven full years. Eleven years ago, while the aftershocks of Cell's destruction still echoed through the atmosphere, this dark force from the depths of space had already slipped quietly onto Earth. It burrowed into the deepest fissures beneath the southern desert and wrapped itself in dark magic like a dormant cocoon. It was not in a hurry. Its master, Babidi, had lived for millions of years; patience was what he had most. For eleven years, he had absorbed the faint energy of Earth's core, charging the sealing orb bit by bit as he waited for a foolproof moment.

Now, he believed that moment had come.

The alarms at Kami's Lookout blared almost at the exact same instant. Ji Ming turned from the observation window of the Gravity Chamber, still clutching the detector wristband he had just removed. The numbers flashing on its screen made his pupils contract slightly—not combat power readings, but energy-spectrum identification codes. Bulma had compiled this code system using ancient Frost Demon Clan records and material from the murals at the Namekian temple. Within seconds, it could determine what civilization and power system an unknown energy source belonged to. And the result currently flashing across the screen made the temperature in Ji Ming's fingertips drop sharply.

"Babidi. Dark magic."

He pressed his communicator, and within three minutes, a holographic star map had been brought up in the conference room at Kami's Lookout. By the time everyone arrived, a live scan of the southern desert had already been projected into the air. A pulsing dark-red dot was rising toward the surface at several meters per second. Majin Buu's sealing orb was inside that ship, and Babidi's dark magic had finished charging.

"Eleven years." Ji Ming stood before the holographic projection, his voice steady but rapid. "Babidi has been hiding on Earth since the second year after Cell was destroyed. His ship stayed concealed in a fissure beneath the desert, drawing on the planet's core energy for eleven years to charge the sealing orb. He wasn't in a hurry. Once Buu awakens, the entire universe will be his. He was waiting for a perfect opportunity. That opportunity is today."

The air at Kami's Lookout froze. Piccolo stood behind Dende, his antennae trembling faintly beyond his control as he sensed the dark energy surging up from beneath the desert. He was not afraid. It was a Namekian's instinctive rejection of dark magic—that energy belonged to no natural force. Formed from pure malice and ancient curses, it oppressed the soul rather than the body. Nail stood just behind and to Piccolo's side, one hand on Piccolo's shoulder, their antennae lightly touching as he used his own ki to stabilize Piccolo's senses.

Vegeta leaned against a stone pillar in the hall, arms folded, his face expressionless. Yet the instant the alarm sounded, his Super Saiyan form had ignited on its own. Golden ki flames flickered around him like a blade waiting to be drawn. Son Goku said nothing. He merely rose slowly from the corner, his hands hanging at his sides as he stared at the dark-red point on the holographic screen. He had not transformed, nor had he activated Kaio-ken, but Ji Ming noticed that he had already shifted to stand in front of everyone else—not deliberately. His body had simply moved on its own.

Ji Ming spent a long time laying out the battle plan. He ran through Buu's absorption limit, regenerative limit, and the conditions required to incinerate him with extreme heat, then assigned each person a separate task. Krillin's priority was not attacking, but sealing off Babidi's escape routes. Tien Shinhan was to use Neo Tri-Beam immediately to blast a hole through the ship's outer dark-magic barrier. Piccolo and Nail were not to engage Buu at first; they would focus on moving all noncombatants within the battle zone to a safe distance. Nappa and the Saiyan mobile unit would handle the outer blockade. They were not to enter the main battlefield, only prevent Babidi's followers from breaking out amid the chaos.

He reserved the hardest task for Vegeta, Son Goku, and himself.

Late that night, the dark purple glow of the spaceship turned the sky above the southern desert as bright as day. Bulma's remote surveillance system streamed the scene simultaneously to Kami's Lookout and the West City command center. Chi-Chi and Bulma sat side by side at the monitoring station. Bulma's fingers flew over the keyboard, while Chi-Chi's gaze never left the tiny points of light on the screen.

Babidi stood on the ship's upper deck, his short, stout body wrapped in a loose black cloak. The cloak's edges were embroidered with glowing purple runes, each one continuously writhing like a living creature. His face was grayish blue, with a few sparse white hairs on his head. His eyes were so small they were nearly invisible, but the voice from his mouth was shrill and delighted.

"Oh my, oh my. Earth's warriors, you arrived so quickly. I had planned to come play with you after Lord Buu had fully awakened. Who would have thought you'd deliver yourselves right to my doorstep?"

Krillin muttered instinctively, "Same tone Frieza used."

Son Goku flew at the very front. Looking at that gray-blue face, he frowned slightly, but he did not get angry. He only said, "You're Babidi? Hand Buu over."

Babidi let out a shrill laugh that echoed over the desert. As he laughed, the ship's upper deck slowly split apart, and a thick column of pink smoke shot into the sky through the opening. The smoke gathered in midair, rolled, took shape, and finally became a humanoid creature—its pink skin was smooth and utterly textureless, a short fleshy antenna protruded from its head, its eyes were pure black without pupils, and an innocent-looking smile rested at the corners of its mouth.

Majin Buu. The seal had been opened ahead of schedule.

The instant Ji Ming saw Buu take form, he lowered his voice and gave everyone one final instruction. "Remember the plan. Thirty seconds."

Buu's thirty seconds began with Vegeta's first Final Flash. Vegeta did not attack from the front. Instead, he teleported directly behind Buu, completing his charge at the very instant he appeared. A deep-blue beam of Final Flash erupted from his palm and blasted straight through Buu's back. This Final Flash was not the violet-gold one he had used against Cell. It was the result of half a year of training. The deep-blue beam was only as thick as a fist, but its piercing power had increased by more than a full level. It punched a fist-sized hole through Buu's body. Pink flesh writhed around the wound, trying to regenerate, but deep-blue arcs of electricity lingered at the edges, continuously scorching every cell that tried to regrow.

Buu tilted his head, looked at the hole in his chest, then at Vegeta, and wore a puzzled expression. He reached out and touched the edge of the hole. Residual electricity scorched his fingertips, but he merely put them in his mouth and sucked on them before smiling—the innocent smile of someone amused by pain. That smile made Nappa, watching from afar, shudder involuntarily.

Buu's smile did not last long. Son Goku activated Kaio-ken the moment Vegeta's Final Flash landed. A figure wreathed in intertwined crimson and gold appeared along Buu's escape route, driving a knee into Buu's lower back and knocking him backward. Ji Ming came straight at him, his fists hammering Buu in a relentless storm. Every strike targeted a spot where regeneration had just finished, blasting several bone-deep dents into Buu's front.

Babidi laughed with delight—Buu feared direct confrontation least of all. His regenerative ability was nearly endless. They could hit him as much as they wanted; every time he was torn apart, he would grow right back. A war of attrition had always been Buu's victory. His laughter continued for five or six seconds before stopping. Because he noticed that Buu's regeneration was slowing down. Not by a little, but visibly, unmistakably slowing down.

Between punches, Ji Ming calculated Buu's regeneration intervals. After the first round of injuries, Buu had healed completely in less than a tenth of a second. After the second and third rounds, that interval had stretched to a noticeable degree. Vegeta's deep-blue Final Flash had left behind more than an ordinary wound. It had planted lingering destructive energy within Buu, continuously burning the cells around the wound and making every regeneration more difficult than the last. Son Goku's Kaio-ken-enhanced heavy blows further restricted Buu's regenerative efficiency by suppressing his core ki channels. The three of them maintained pressure from three directions. Whenever Buu tried to counterattack, an assault from an unexpected angle interrupted him.

Buu grew frantic. His body suddenly swelled, and countless pink tentacles burst from its surface, lashing in every direction at once. Each tentacle was an arm capable of fighting independently, and each could absorb anyone it touched. Ji Ming twisted past three tentacles, his body moving faster than thought. Ultra Instinct had already entered the shallow stage of autonomous response. Vegeta blasted away the four tentacles before him with a close-range ki blast, golden flames flickering through the explosion. Son Goku vanished from the web of tentacles with Instant Transmission, then appeared above Buu's head the next second, clasping both hands together and slamming them down onto Buu's skull.

Sweat began to bead on Babidi's forehead. He understood now. These three Saiyans were not merely attacking—they coordinated with almost no gaps between them. Every restriction they placed on Buu's movements was meant to strengthen their overall control. He had seen this style before. It was a tactic used only against enemies with limitless regeneration. But the problem was that no one in the universe had ever executed it to this degree. To pull it off, every fighter needed to meet three conditions at once: they had to be able to break Buu's defense, predict Buu's every movement, and instantly exchange positions to block him whenever he counterattacked. Plenty of warriors in the universe could meet any one of those conditions. But all three together? In all his long years, Babidi had never seen it.

After Buu's chest was pierced through once more, he suddenly stopped. He stood motionless with his head lowered, his pink body trembling slightly. Babidi thought he was about to fly into a rage and was just about to order him to unleash wide-area absorption when Buu raised his head.

A completely different smile hung on his face. It was one Babidi had never seen before.

Buu turned and punched Babidi's spaceship. Not with a ki blast, not with a tentacle—just a pure punch. The deck split open, and the shockwave knocked Babidi off the upper deck. He rolled several times before grabbing the railing and steadying himself. In his fury, Buu had turned his rage in another direction—at Babidi himself.

Piccolo used the opening to teleport to Babidi's rear flank. He brought two fingers together, and a beam of purple light compressed to the limit shot silently from his fingertips—Special Beam Cannon pierced through Babidi's chest. Babidi looked down at the hole in his chest. His lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but no sound emerged. Then his body slowly toppled sideways, rolling from the ship's deck onto the sand below.

After Babidi fell, Buu threw back his head and released a shrill, piercing howl. His body expanded violently as he attempted to unleash all his energy at once and detonate the entire desert. At the same time, Ji Ming pushed the Crimson-Gold Light Core within him to its limit. Golden flame-light poured into Buu's ruptured body like a waterfall. Countless golden cracks burst open from within, spreading across Buu's entire body—the whole pink form became translucent from the inside out, like a sheet of paper burned through by fire.

The golden light shattered. Buu exploded into a skyful of pink-white fragments, every piece wrapped in lingering golden flames that burned into nothingness before touching the ground.

The desert sank back into silence. Ji Ming tilted his head back and gasped for breath, great lungfuls at a time. More than half of his golden battle suit had been torn apart, and several bleeding abrasions marked his arms, but he still stood perfectly straight, his ki flames withdrawn in orderly fashion. Vegeta landed atop a dune, his fingers still trembling faintly and his chest heaving, yet a cold curve pulled at his lips. Son Goku was the last to land. Crimson ki flames slowly faded from his body as he shook his slightly numb hand and let out a long breath.

"It's over." Piccolo drew his cape close and stared at the patch of sand where Buu had vanished.

Late that night, Mount Paozu. Chi-Chi cooked three huge pots of food: one of braised pork, one of clear-simmered pork ribs, and one of old duck stew with dried bamboo shoots. The table stretched from the kitchen doorway to the far end of the living room. Vegeta sat near the door, eating potato-braised ribs. Piccolo silently picked up his third piece of steamed pumpkin. Krillin messaged Android 18, "Buu's dead," and Android 18 replied only, "Come home early and sleep."

Ji Ming raised his head from the dining table. Outside the window, the stars over Mount Paozu shone as though someone had scattered crushed diamonds across black silk. The night wind blew in from the rear mountain, carrying the scent of pine resin and earth. He looked down at his palm. It was still faintly warm—the same hand that had destroyed an ancient monster with limitless regeneration from the inside just hours ago. Yet now, that hand was holding a rib Chi-Chi had just placed in his bowl.

"Mom, this is so good."

Chi-Chi froze for a moment. Her eyes suddenly reddened, but she turned her face away and gave a forceful snort. "Of course it is! When has Mom's cooking ever not been good?"

Son Goku reached from behind, trying to steal a rib from Ji Ming's bowl, only for Chi-Chi to smack the back of his hand with her chopsticks. Vegeta gave a one-syllable huff. Bulma said, "Was that supposed to be a laugh?" Krillin nearly sprayed rice everywhere. Ji Ming lowered his head, laughing as he carefully gnawed every last bit of meat from the bones.

Moonlight spilled across the roof of Mount Paozu, while the chimney released its final wisp of cooking smoke. At Kami's Lookout, Dende finished examining the residual energy data from the southern desert and turned to glance at Nail. "Normal?" "Normal." At the spot where the final grain of ash had fallen, a blade of grass was pushing up through the sand. The night wind quietly brushed over the newborn green shoot.