PART TWENTY ONE: THE HOPE FOR A WHOLE UNIVERSE

Chapter 104

Translated by npberryhill

In order for the next fight to proceed normally, the spherical ring was melted down and repaired, following the match between Gotenks and Nekomajin. Once everything was restored and in place, the Vargas announced the next battle.

“Next round: Buu of universe 4 against Tenshinhan of universe 9!”

Each from their own area, both fighters responded and flew into the ring. Buu seemed to land gracefully, unlike Tenshinhan—who seemed like he weighed a ton...

Since the start of the second round, the ring had increased its gravity, reaching about 100G. For the majority of creatures present in the multiverse, that force alone would’ve been enough to keep them pinned down—and eventually kill them. Even for highly trained individuals who were used to pushing their own physical limits, there was still a danger. The strain not only demanded incredible physical strength, but a continual exertion of such. Tenshinhan was suffering the consequences of the intense gravity, like his friend Kulilin before him. Tensing up his legs, he kept his body straight though, without resorting to the Kaioken.

‘This ring...100G...it’s really something!’ he thought, letting his eyes fall down towards the gray surface.

Across from him, Buu smiled. “I hold you in high esteem, Tenshinhan, but you don’t stand a chance. You know what, I’ll give you a five minute head start. Attack all you want, I won’t retaliate.”

“That’s generous of you.”

Tenshinhan had pondered this fight for hours. He knew the most likely outcome already. But, from his vast experience he’d also learned that even when there was a huge gap between the strength of two fighters, the result wasn’t always a foregone conclusion.

Noticing that the three-eyed human had not moved yet, Buu continued. “I certainly mean to give no offense by the rapid defeat that soon awaits you. In all honesty, you’re probably the most powerful and talented human I’ve ever met.”

‘Is he flattering me? Why bother? What’s he thinking?’ Tenshinhan wondered.

Buu continued. “You’re still alive in my universe. Really! I haven’t absorbed you! While your abilities do interest me a little, I saw it as a sort of gift to your other earthling friends—obviously not those I had already absorbed, but you get my point. So come now! It’ll be short, but it’s not your fault. The gap between our respective levels is simply too high, you can’t do much of anything.”

“You already absorbed...? Tell me, does that mean you also absorbed the other earthlings?”

“No one who was a fully human warrior, if that’s what you mean.”

“And Master Roshi? Is he free?”

“That old coot? Of course.”

“You didn’t go into the realm of the dead and absorb Master Mutaito by chance, did you?”

Buu didn’t immediately reply, pondering the point of Tenshinhan’s questions. “No, why? You worried about your ancestors now? Oh, and you might want to hurry. Five minutes pass pretty quickly...”

“So, you don’t know about this technique then...”

Tenshinhan thrust his hand into a hidden pocket in his cloak, grabbed a small object, and threw it at his opponent. Buu made no attempt to avoid it, as he’d already guessed in advance what it was.

“Mafuba!” Tenshinhan suddenly yelled.

Buu suddenly became caught in a powerful energy spiral. “No, really?” he chuckled, the Djin circling the strange object until he disappeared inside and it fell to the ground.

Tenshinhan walked over to the prison of the participant from universe 4, which had swollen to full size like a balloon. The transformation had been almost instantaneous! The body of Buu had been captured by the energy of the Mafuba and sucked inside. The resulting shape, when it had finally ceased, was that of a beach tube Shenron! Buu was a prisoner, and if he remained inside for thirty seconds, it meant defeat. Up in the grandstands, the amazed spectators held their breath.

“Great idea! We should have tried that ourselves...” Goku said, impressed with his friend.

A handful of seconds passed (well, a human handful, as many creatures have only three or four fingers, while others have seven, twelve, or sixty seven—tentacles that is).Tenshinhan remained on guard, but it was no use. Appearing behind him, Buu leaned in and rested his right arm on Tien’s shoulder.

“Bravo, what mastery!”

Tenshinhan gasped, but didn’t react or jerk away. He knew this wasn’t a fight to the death, and his life wasn’t in danger, regardless of his opponent’s strength.

“Of course, I also know the Mafua Gaeshi, as well as its counter, but I wasn’t about to ruin your beautiful moment of glory...”

“Counter against the Mafuba?”

Tenshinhan was stumped. How could Buu know a technique that would work against the Mafuba? That could only mean that he’d dealt with the Mafuba before, or had absorbed someone with personal knowledge of it. Yet he had absorbed neither Master Roshi nor Mutaito!

“Indeed,” Buu replied. “I absorbed Piccolo.”

“Piccolo?”

At the mention of the name, Tien glanced towards the designated spaces for universe 16 and 18. He had heard of them from Yamcha, who’d made it a goal to learn what he could about all the other participants, that universe 4 was apparently a derivative of both 16 and 18. In these, there was a Namekian named Piccolo, but he was not the same as the one from universe 3...the one that he knew.

Tenshinhan didn’t have any more time to continue thinking, as Buu began again. “I really am sealed inside...though not fully. I placed small pieces of myself all around the ring!” At his words, many parts of the ring tingled with a mushy pink, which then straightened up a few inches above the ground. There were at least fifty of them, though it was easily enough to convince Tenshinhan that Buu was everywhere within the ring.

“Maybe you should do a Mafuba for each one?” Buu proposed.

“What?”

“You are capable, are you not?” the pink Djinn continued, suddenly materializing a large number of Mafuba containers with his head tentacle. The objects rolled onto the ring. There were bottles, safes, self-cookers, washing machines, even more inner tube dragons...

With a grin, Tenshinhan decided to accept the challenge—though his companions in universe 9 were concerned.

Isn’t the Mafuba supposed to consume all of the user’s energy?” Videl asked.

“Correct,” Kulilin replied. “But we’ve reached a mastery so that it only requires a portion now.”

“However, given the number this time, it is going to be risky!” Yamcha added. “Though on the other hand...it is a challenge worthy of our good ole baldy!”

“Whenever I’ve seen him at work, he always impressed me,” Trunks said. “I have no doubt he’ll succeed.”

“If he’d accepted my proposal, he’d be able to do that little trick as easily as putting on a shirt,” Old Kaioshin interrupted.

Yamcha and Kulilin turned to one another. Technically, donning a shirt or suit of armor was pretty simple, but for Tien? Clearly they didn’t know how often he went shirtless. Both humans turned back to the Kaioshin who, observing their expression, changed his metaphor.

“Or tell a joke, if you prefer.”

All of universe 9 shared a laugh together.

Up in the ring, Tien had focused long enough...he sprung into action. For the first time in his life, and probably the last, he created a Multi-Mafuba! Each individual blob of Buu, as well as the whole body which stood next to him were sucked in all directions! Suddenly though, Tien perceived the counter Mafuba energy coming from all around him. He immediately deployed the Kaioken, which allowed the tall bald man to deflect Buu’s redirection energy back into the container. Others rose up, each from the Mafubas surrounding him.

‘Buu’s loving having this much fun!’ Tenshinhan thought, sweating profusely. He managed to outwit them though, one after the other, preventing the anti-Mafuba technique, until every last container was closed and the ring was silent.

Again, the audience exclaimed with joy and surprise at Buu’s reappearance near Tien.

“Oh, whoops... It seems I didn’t provide you enough containers!” Buu chuckled. “What a fool I am! But well done! It was worth it to see this!”

Other tiny parts of Buu began escaping all around, returning to their globular pink forms all around the surface of the ring.

“You have pieces of your body everywhere...but are you only on the ring?” the man asked.

“Yes,” Buu lied.

Using his perception, Tenshinhan tested the air around him, searching for particles of Buu in the surrounding air...but he detected nothing. He then decided to go all out.

“Don’t move!”

He leapt into the air, soaring high above the ring and leaving Buu below (or rather, his opponent decided to stay motionless in order to see his next valiant attempt). Then, focusing the energy in his back, he suddenly formed two new arms. It was an old technique, but made relevant again by linking it with something new.

“He’s doing that?” Kulilin said, stunned. “Even after exerting himself so much with the Mafuba, he’s still trying it!”

Tien placed his four hands into two triangles, one behind the other. Goku and others immediately recognized the Kikoho, the devastating technique even superior to the kamehameha—though it drew on a person’s life-force energy.

If that were true over thirty years ago, the three-eyed man had improved it even further, enough to create the Shin Kikoho. The basic version delivered the maximum energy by drawing on the user’s vital energy, up to a certain threshold. But the Shin Kikoho allowed linking several Kikoho together, each one vastly improved. It made the startup faster, while significantly decreasing the collected vital energy. As a result, the user was in far less danger, unless one performed a dozen in a row. In the universe where Cell had reached his second form, Tien had managed to maintain a chain of Shin Kikoho. He’d been completely outmatched by the monster, but by the use of such a devilishly effective technique, he’d stalled Cell out—though it had left him near death.

The variant he was using now, against Buu, was even more different. Using four hands, Tenshinhan could double his attack’s efficiency, precision, and energy strength. That did, however, come at the cost of putting the user’s life back in danger—almost a suicidal attack.

“Nibai Kikoho!”

“Oh...” Buu said, nearly blinded from the enormous wave of energy which engulfed both him and the ring.

Though the attack was not particularly fast, it covered a large area. This didn’t affect Buu, however, as he did not try to escape—though he easily could have without a problem. Dazzling the spectators, the Nibai Kikoho struck Buu violently, burning his body and then exploding with a deafening roar. Despite the solid attack, the three-eyed human still had a lot of energy. Continuing his beam, he pushed through the ring—which was obliterated easily—then his attack hit the floor of the arena and tore a deep square hole into the ground. No “normal” creature could have survived the technique. They would have to be much stronger than the one who fired it, or be virtually immortal and indestructible, such as Buu.

When the light of the attack finally weakened, the spectators and other participants opened their eyes.

“The ring is gone!” one of the Vargas immediately yelled into the microphone. He then let out a huge “couack” when he saw the huge diamond chasm that had been dug into the asteroid.

Breathless, Tien took in his second pair of arms. Then he lowered slowly, until around him he saw the thousands of tiny shards of Buu clumping together into a perfect uninjured body. The pieces of Buu which had still been trapped within the various objects were released as well, their prisons having been vanquished.

“Not bad!” Buu said. “I’ve been burned and splattered everywhere! But this alone does not kill me...”

Tien clenched his teeth, knowing he’d given it his all. He’d surprised everyone, and was once again completely spent...in vain.

“I give up,” he said.

“Really? You’ve still got a little time...”

“Victory of Buu!” the Varga announcer spoke. “A new ring is on the way...again...”

Goku and Gohan turned to one another, praising the excellent performance of Tenshinhan against an adversary far superior to him. Goten and Trunks were also whispering back and forth.

“He did well for an oldy!” Goten said.

“While Buu did let him attack unhindered the whole time, he still managed to imprison him and blow him to bits,” Trunks agreed.

“Hey, do you think that if we knew the Mafuba we could win?”

Trunks thought a moment before replying. “I don’t doubt we could manage learning a new move in less than twenty four hours, but honestly something like that isn’t going to stop Buu.”

“Yeah, you’re right. We would need a super powerful move that could somehow prevent him from regenerating, at least for thirty seconds. That, or something to hold him for at least that long.

“—Like another dimension...”

The two young men mentally resumed their serious thinking, though neither had found a solution. Over in the area of universe 9, Tien explained to Yamcha and Kulilin that Buu had absorbed neither Master Roshi nor Mutaito! Yet he somehow knew the Mafuba, which meant only one thing: he had absorbed Piccolo Daimao!

“Eh, I’m not so sure,” Yamcha intervened. “As I’ve said before, universe 4 stems from 16 and 18, among others. There is a Piccolo in those worlds that is not quite the same as Piccolo Daimao of universe 3. The one that Buu has absorbed is, if my sources are reliable, the reincarnation of Daimao.

“You’re surprisingly knowledgeable,” Kulilin commented.

Yamcha laughed. “Well, it’s not like I have to worry about an upcoming fight, and there’s really nothing better to do.”

“You would, if you hadn’t forfeited so foolishly,” Videl snapped, standing near the group.

“Oh, come on...” he replied

“Yamcha passing the first round?” Kulilin said jokingly. “I suppose it’d have to be Yamcha from another universe, certainly not ours, haha!”

“Oh here we go again!” the skar-faced bandit rolled his eyes.

The ring would soon be repaired and ready to go. Both fighters for the next match were preparing. Bra of universe 16 would face Eleim of universe 19.