In that instant, Ino saw a tall mage — his features bearing a three- or four-tenths resemblance to a human — performing a divination. The crystal ball shattered. The mage's eyes wept blood; his hands clawed countless wounds across his own body. Amid wailing shrieks, he was reduced to ash by a column of fire that fell from the sky.
She saw a being like King Kai, alone, quietly tending to his crumbling planet — behind him an apocalyptic tableau of dying civilizations and worlds collapsing into ruin, the howling wind carrying with it the blood and tears of the last surviving Kai.
She saw Supreme Kais and Destroyers lying in pools of blood. She watched generation after generation of Saiyans throw themselves forward, and still they could not overcome their fate. Their enemies only grew stronger, and the Saiyans had their limits — they fell one by one, their bodies reduced to white bone, and then the wind blew, and even the bones were gone.
It seemed as though countless voices were whispering into Ino's ears: Your efforts are meaningless. You want proof? Look — it's all right here. Civilizations. Universes. Worlds. Every last thing, in the end, returns to ruin. What is the point of your struggle?
In that single instant, a torrent of information flooded her mind. The Demon Realm Supreme Kai laid out one irrefutable truth: the multiverses would not improve. They would, inevitably, march toward their end. This was beyond all doubt.
"I don't believe it! I don't believe it——" Ino screamed, tears of blood streaming down her face. Then she followed Aeos's footsteps — not only did she release her "Liberation" transformation and revert to her seven-year-old height, but every last bit of energy inside her body spun out of control.
She seemed to become a pillar of light. As her convictions were utterly shattered, the immense energy within her could no longer be contained. Her flesh, her bones, her muscles — all of it withered dry in an instant as the energy was ripped away. She stood motionless where she was. Her body, drained of all energy, became a lifelike stone statue. Kuronoa licked her lips and smashed the statue with a single palm.
"What pitiful willpower. You couldn't bear even this much truth?" Mechikabura held nothing but contempt for someone like Ino — a lucky upstart who'd clawed her way up using the Super Dragon Balls. Someone like you dares to call herself Supreme Kai of Time? Please.
He raised his hand and shattered Cell Max with a casual slap. He couldn't help but linger a moment on Frieza and Majin Buu, who were joined together like conjoined twins. Majin Buu originally belonged to the Demon Realm, and now that she had recovered West Supreme Kai Leila's intellect, she immediately prostrated herself in submission. That bow of hers was Frieza's absolute undoing — he'd still been putting up a fight before, but now half his body had defected to the enemy. What was there left to resist with?
"Very well. I accept your allegiance," said Mechikabura, welcoming Majin Buu into the fold. Then he knocked Frieza unconscious with a single palm. The Demon Realm was short on talent — in his eyes, this Frieza was worth cultivating. Wash out his brain, and he'd make a perfectly serviceable new enforcer.
He turned his gaze to the other side. Aeos, that big cute girl, seemed to have considerably more willpower than Ino. She stood where she was in a daze, her mind still submerged in the vision of all things converging on destruction, unable to surface.
"A bunch of pathetic weaklings..." Mechikabura cast Aeos into the Time Vortex. Then, carrying his greatest prize — the demonized incumbent Supreme Kai of Time, Kuronoa, and Majin Buu — he departed from the end of time.
...
No one knew how much time had passed. The stone dust scattered in all directions slowly converged back together. The statue reformed itself into flesh and blood. Ino opened her eyes.
She waved her hand in front of her left eye a couple of times.
This was precisely why ninjutsu ran so deep. Low in rank, sure — but the technique had required absolutely brilliant execution.
The moment she'd realized she couldn't hold off two opponents at once, she had preemptively activated Izanagi.
The Evil Containment Wave was suicidal to use in the early stages and trivially easy in the later stages — it all came down to one thing: the technique was costly, requiring your life as the price early on, but once your health bar was long enough, it only took a bit of stamina. Izanagi worked the same way. After using it, her left eye stung a little — but that was all there was to it.
Ino brushed the dust off herself and stood up as if nothing had happened.
She made a beckoning gesture. The shattered remains of Cell Max's corpse gave a twitch, and an eyeball — one with a recording function — flew into her hand. She watched back the scene of her own death.
Seeing Mechikabura accept Majin Buu's pledge of loyalty, she smiled. The Leila card could still be played again next time.
As for the rest — nothing much to say.
Frieza? Tough luck.
She rubbed the back of her head and thought back over the illusions Mechikabura had shown her.
She hadn't resisted on purpose — that was the only reason she'd been reduced to ash in the first place. If she'd actually tried to fight it, she was fairly sure she could have taken the hit.
The world will ultimately end in ruin? How much is that supposed to shake me? Do you honestly think I care about something like that?
Ino genuinely couldn't see what the big deal was. Everything has a beginning and an end; every single thing reaches its conclusion someday — wasn't that just perfectly normal? Was this really worth pulling out as a trump card?
Mechikabura had believed this move would utterly demolish Ino's entire worldview. She was left scratching her head. What's the big deal? How is that so hard to accept? And yet Aeos had been floored by what amounted to a joke of a technique.
She couldn't tell if Aeos thought too deeply about things, or if she herself was simply too shallow...
Through Cell Max's eye, she'd also watched Aeos get thrown into the Time Vortex. She fished her out without much effort.
"Hey, wake up, sis? Hello? Are you completely out of it?" She gave Aeos a firm slap on the cheek. The big cute girl stared blankly ahead, her eyes flickering with ghostly images of civilizations, worlds, and universes drifting past.
Ino: "..."
The other woman was pouring every ounce of her mind into deducing the true final destination of all things — desperately searching within a canvas of total annihilation for some path of survival for intelligent life. Next to that, someone as utterly carefree as Ino stood out as just a little... out of place.
"Since Kuronoa has been demonized, that means the position of Supreme Kai of Time is now vacant! Time is the single most critical element there is — it governs the stability and function of the multiverses, and we absolutely cannot afford for it to go unattended. Although I am still very young, circumstances demand it, and I shall reluctantly step forward to serve as the new Supreme Kai of Time. All those in favor? All those opposed?"
Ino produced the Time Token the Super Shenron had given her back then, and addressed the open air in a loud, ceremonious voice.
She waited a few seconds. "Kuronoa is not present — her abstention is noted by default. And you, Lady Aeos? Silence? Does that mean you consent by default? Very well, I understand. Thank you all for your trust. From this moment forward, I shall assume the role of new Supreme Kai of Time!"
She rattled all of this off in one breath, entirely talking to herself.
Aeos finally showed a faint reaction. The greater part of her mind was still deep in its deductions; at this moment only one eyeball could move by a small degree, and judging by the look in that eye, she appeared to want to eat Ino alive.
Ino waved a hand in front of her face, confirmed that the big cute girl still had a sliver of consciousness left and wasn't a complete vegetable, then crushed the Time Token and cut straight to the chase: "Thanks for everyone's support. I'll do a great job as Supreme Kai of Time. I'd like to ask my superiors to keep watching over my— hm? I don't have any superiors anymore? Oh well. Then I'll just ask everyone to watch and see what I can do!"
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