Chapter 1: The Brewing Storm

  It was the worst thing King Kai had ever seen. The swirling black clouds above were pitch-black with an indescribable darkness. He had seen a kind of darkness like this before, rarely, and it was always followed by an evil sign.

  It was anti-light. If darkness was the absence of light, this was a force that erased light, the obliterated invisibility. It was what black holes were made of, only on a spiritual level.

  The images that formed the thick black fog that encompassed such a space were even more terrifying. The clouds were made of truly wicked images, acts of untold horror rising to the surface before falling down to be replaced by an even more terrifying image. For example, King Kai saw the head of a child cut off by a marauder of the infant’s home world and speared on a pike.

  Then, afterward, the scene stretched out to find the hundreds and hundreds of spears with the heads of babes atop them. The invading aliens were laughing at the carnage, mocking the severed faces by asking the dead children if they would like mercy. Then, when the head could not give a response, they laughed so loud they fell to the ground in a fit of mirth.

  Replacing the vile image was a starving woman, her ribs showing through her sallow skin. Her dress looked two sizes too large for her, she was so gaunt. She was grabbing the edge of a person of her same race, the only difference between them being that the dying woman had two horns atop her head.

  The person she pleaded with stood beside a well, carrying a pail of water. The starving woman asked to be given some drink and food as she was too weak to care for herself. Her village had been destroyed by greedy land developers who forced out the original inhabitants and her fellow villagers had either been killed by wild animals or starved to death. The land developers had held a grudge against their horned brethren due to a war between the two’s armies’ more than a hundred years ago and separated as a result. They only recently began having relations when attempting to steal territory from the other became an ongoing conflict.

  The healthy woman carrying the pail kicked the dying woman away, her face bloodying from the strike. She said there is no reason for them to interact due to the war their ancestors fought. The healthy woman then ran away as fast as she could from the well before the dying woman succumbed to her pain and died of thirst.

  These events forming the tempest were not only hard to look at but sense as well. The Womb of Evil was so filled with terrifying, disastrous events that the qi it exerted was poisonous to sense. If King Kai had any less resolve he might have died just standing where he did. The Womb of Evil being composed of every sin ever committed put a strain on anyone near it, either corroding their body or very soul.

  While the Kais gathering around him did in fact increase his stamina by merging their qi field, it still felt painful to be in the presence of the Womb of Evil manifesting at the edge of the Precipice of All. The Precipice of All was not a place that King Kai liked being at. Even as the overseer of the North direction of the galaxy, he felt insignificant and like a grain of sand standing there.

  It was a cliff side in Otherworld where only high ranking Kais stood to conduct business pertaining to the fate of existence itself. The precipice was the edge of existence, where beyond was a history of the universe. One could see every supernova, every planet being destroyed, every planet being formed, and the acts of every mortal ever committed. Looking over the sheer rock cliff would allow one to catch glimpses of the past and the present playing out in a river of causality.

  The Precipice of All was seldom ever visited and for good reason. Looking out at the events of all the present could drive one mad, as they realized they were mere grains of sand in the scope of time immemorial. Even the Kais had trouble staying here for extended periods of time. However, they gathered here because it was the only place they could meet with the two largest threats to the universe. And the Womb of Evil had already shown up.

  “When is the Trampled Innocence showing up?” West Kai asked. “They should be here by now!”

  “Be patient, West Kai!” East Kai said. “If someone as evil as Buu showed up then someone as good as Goku would show up!”

  The four Kais of the four cardinal directions, Grand Kai, Shin the Supreme Kai and Kami, the guardian of Earth, stood on the Precipice of All.

  “Yeah…” West Kai said. “This same Goku that destroyed a HUGE amount of the north galaxy. Doesn’t seem that trustworthy…isn’t that right North Kai?”

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  King Kai remained silent as he and the others stood at the sheer rock cliff. In the five years that the Trampled Innocence had went on a rampage North Kai had gained great ire with the hierarchy of Otherworld. Contempt for training the second and strongest of the Super Saiyans was a common opinion.

  North Kai’s reputation as one who had averted wars and prevented mortals from being controlled by dictatorships of Kai rule was replaced with one who unwittingly and foolishly spawned one of the greatest genociders in history. And King Kai agreed with their criticism. Not a day went by where he didn’t blame himself for the great destruction that had taken place.

  “Do not place all the blame on King Kai,” Grand Kai said. “He did what he thought was best…trying to prevent Goku’s ascension and still use him as a force for protecting the universe. Us Kais all have champions we use to defend our station we are responsible for and North Kai thought he could use the Trampled Innocence’s weapon of genocide for a different purpose. We have all given dangerous people a chance as such, is not that right West Kai?”

  North Kai silently thanked him for his words. Grand Kai seemed to be the only higher up in Otherworld who seemed to not hate him. He was usually more forgiving of mistakes than the other Kais were. West Kai rolled his eyes.

  “If you’re referring to Pikkon, then there is no comparison between the two,” he said. “Pikkon was a run of the mill thug, who needed guidance. Goku was literally created by the Trampled Innocence for the sheer sake of destroying almost all life in the universe. North Kai should have destroyed him long ago.”

  “I agree,” South Kai said. “As much as we are supposed to give evil souls a chance to repent, some are too dangerous or beyond saving.”

  “To know we allowed such a person to live for so long seems like an oversight in judgment to me,” Shin, the Supreme Kai, added. “I don’t think Goku’s righteous actions were worth keeping him so unmonitored and unabated. Several times I asked Kami to hinder Goku’s progress as a warrior but he was operating under the ideology of hands off approach to governing mortals…is that not right, Kami?”

  Shin turned to Kami, the old Namekian sighing.

  “I…” he said. “Have done a great amount of thinking about my own part in all of this. I agreed with the new standard of thinking Otherworld has in trying to let mortals deal with their own problems and not intervene so much. I did as you Kais did, gleaning champions that had the power and heart to fend off large threats and allow those chosen mortals to guide the masses to a peaceful future. Now…now I believe I should have had more direct intervention in human affairs. And our ideology of mortals dealing with mortal matters is a foolhardy one.”

  “Well I wouldn’t go THAT far,” West Kai said. “But I do believe you should have directly prevented Goku from growing strong, maybe even killed him.”

  That was the final straw for King Kai. West Kai was usually rude but that was too far. He had hit a sore spot that had only grown sorer with time.

  “No!” North Kai said. “I can’t agree with that! Goku was the best champion of all of them! Not just that I trained but that any of you trained either!”

  He glared at West Kai.

  “Better than Pikkon in every regard!” He said.

  West Kai turned to glare back.

  “You dirty-!” He said.

  “Look!” Kami said.

  They all turned to see below the swirl of darkness that was the Womb of Evil rose a series of shining bright faces. The faces were gold in color and swarmed forward in a river of bright yellow. The rush of bright yellow pushed the darkness of the Womb away, drawing a distinct boundary between the two. The Trampled Innocence’s collected cries formed the most soothing hymn the Kai had ever heard. The light of the faces was so bright King Kai almost felt he would need to avert his eyes.

  And forming directly in front of the gathering of the Kais and one guardian, Goku appeared. His body was made of shining particles that flowed bright yellow, his form like standing in front of a bright star. The unease that King Kai from being in the presence of the Womb of Evil vanished. He trembled at the sight, his eyes watering in admiration.

  “Goku…” King Kai said.

  “King Kai…” he said. “It’s been a while.”

  “It…” King Kai said, on the brink of tears. “It sure has.”

  And just as the Kai wished to speak to Goku, wished to tell him how much he missed the Saiyan’s presence, Buu appeared. The form of the gray, gaunt being slowly emerged from the clouds of darkness atop the river of gold faces. The Majin smiled wickedly at the Kais.

  “So,” he said. “You wanted to talk?”

  “We are here to strike a deal,” Grand Kai said. “One we think you will…potentially profit from.”

  His smile widened.

  “I’m listening,” he said.

  “What did you call us here for, King Kai?” Goku said. “You must be pretty serious to have brought that thing here as well.”

  Grand Kai stepped forward, his face so stoic it seemed etched in stone.

  “We are here to strike a deal,” he said. “Concerning the future of good and evil in this universe.”