Kibito refused to accept defeat and activated his ability once more. It still didn't work.
"My body is finished. I can no longer fulfill the duties of the Grand Supreme Kai..."
The Grand Supreme Kai remained surprisingly optimistic. He knew his own condition better than anyone.
When he had sealed Majin away all those years ago, he had spent the better part of his divine power in the process — a permanent reduction to his own maximum reserves, the kind that couldn't be recovered no matter how much time passed. What was gone was simply gone.
Then came absorption by Majin Buu, followed by five million years of slow erosion inside the Majin's body. By now, his fundamental life-source had been nearly entirely depleted. When he separated from within Majin Buu, he had drawn away a portion of the Majin's condensed energy essence — but he was a benevolent, lawful Supreme Kai, not an evil creature of the Demon Realm. That energy, rooted as it was in the Demon Realm, could only sustain his life. It could not be used in combat.
By saying all this, he also wanted to make one thing clear: he had no intention of vying with Shin for authority. The Supreme Kai of the Seventh Universe was still Shin. The Grand Supreme Kai would do exactly what the Old Kai had done in the original timeline — serve as an advisor, nothing more.
"Young attendant of the Supreme Kai," he said slowly, "please use your ability to heal the other warriors instead."
Kibito's first instinct was to go to Ino — after all, she was one of their own, and the most capable fighter on the Supreme Kai's side.
Ino shook her head lightly.
"Don't worry about me. Go heal them."
Her stamina and energy had both taken heavy losses — those Kibito could treat. But the depletion of her Time Power was beyond his healing ability.
Without entering her released state, her baseline combat power in her loli form sat at ten billion — more than enough to deal with Dabura or Cell. But Majin Buu was a different matter entirely. No form of Buu, in any configuration, was a fight she could win right now. Better to sit this one out than go up there and embarrass herself.
She gestured for Kibito to go heal the Saiyans, then crossed her legs and settled into meditation — gathering her scattered time clones back into herself, letting her existence slip into a state between being and not-being, drawing strength from the river of time itself to restore her Time Power.
Under Kibito's treatment, Son Goku recovered first — injuries and stamina both. Then Vegeta. When Kibito moved to treat Son Gohan, the red-faced attendant simply sat down on the ground. He had nothing left. Restoring a Saiyan to full condition demanded an enormous toll from his own body, and he had hit his absolute limit.
"Impossible... Wait — the Majin actually absorbed a female Supreme Kai?!" Shin stared at the increasingly feminized form of Majin Buu, his expression one of pure bewildered shock.
That ki signature was far too familiar. Had he been remembering it wrong for the past five million years? Was it not just his abilities that had deteriorated — but his memory too?
The Grand Supreme Kai looked over as well. He had spent all those years inside the Majin, but always sealed away in his own isolated cocoon — he hadn't known how many beings the Majin had absorbed, or who his "neighbors" had been.
Sensing the ki now, however, he was certain. He narrowed his eyes and gave Shin a direct answer: "That is Leila. The signature is unmistakable. Leila no longer has a body — only a fragment of her soul remains... Ah..."
The malice radiating from Majin Buu continued to intensify. The feminine features grew more pronounced with every passing moment. The Majin was clearly on the verge of completing its final adjustment — the recalibration that had begun the instant the Grand Supreme Kai's anchor was removed.
Son Goku and Vegeta both dropped into fighting stances simultaneously.
Both had gone through another near-death upgrade. But this time, the boost to their combat power was marginal. They hadn't been able to beat Buu before. Now... they still couldn't.
The Grand Supreme Kai steadied himself and pushed up into a seated position. He studied each of the Earth warriors in turn, and his gaze finally settled on Son Goku.
"Warrior. Come here."
"Me?"
"Yes, you. You don't just have a good soul — you have extraordinary potential. I have an ability called Benevolent Potential Unlock. The greater the kindness within the target's heart, the more effective the unlocking."
The Grand Supreme Kai gestured for Son Goku to sit cross-legged before him. Drawing on the last dregs of his divine power, he began to unlock Goku's potential.
In truth, Son Goku had always gotten the short end of the stick when it came to shortcuts. The one and only time he had ever received any kind of accelerated potential development in this life was when he drank the Ultra Divine Water — and that experience had left a permanent scar on his heart. In all the time that followed, whether in the original timeline or this one with Ino in it, a quick and easy Potential Unlock had always been out of his reach.
The Grand Elder hadn't gotten to him. Before the Tournament of Power, the Old Kai had considered it — but time ran out, and the subject was quietly dropped and never raised again.
Every last bit of his combat power had been earned the hard way, through sheer grueling training.
Now, the Grand Supreme Kai's palm rested at the center of Goku's back. Their shared goodness resonated between them, and Son Goku's potential rapidly began to unfurl.
Arms folded across his chest, Vegeta looked on with a face full of contempt. Big deal. I wouldn't want it anyway.
It didn't take long. Majin Buu completed its power adjustment.
The last remnants of the South Supreme Kai's energy had been spent within the Time Domain. The muscular, powerfully built South Supreme Kai form gave way to something else — a slender silhouette: the West Supreme Kai form.
She was neither savage and wild nor childishly simple-minded. Her eyes held clarity. She would not be wailing nonsensically the way Kid Buu would.
She didn't remember ever absorbing a female Supreme Kai — but she felt no contradiction in it, and saw no reason to explain herself. Explain it to whom, anyway? The West Supreme Kai's essence had dramatically amplified her intellect, and she had never felt this sharp before in her existence.
This form could be called Grand Buu — or, more aptly: Lady Buu.
Lady Buu's eyes went immediately to Ino. It was an inexplicable, instinctive hatred. The West Supreme Kai's memories had been tampered with by a certain someone, leaving them frustratingly blurred — Lady Buu could access a measure of that heightened intelligence, but could retrieve nothing of actual use from those fragmented recollections.
The transformation was complete. At the same moment, Son Goku rose from the ground, rolling his neck and shoulders out.
He could feel the boundless energy surging within him. For the first time in a while, he was full of confidence.
Lady Buu pointed at the assembled group. "Are you all coming at once — or what?"
The Majin's attitude and tone sent a spike of fury through Shin. The West Supreme Kai had been absorbed by this wretched creature?! If he had even a shred of combat ability, he would have charged in already.
"I'll go! I'll fight you!" Son Goku declared, battle spirit blazing. Super Saiyan 2 hadn't been enough before — but now he had confidence.
As if she could "see" what he was about to do next, a corner of Ino's consciousness surfaced from its meditative state.
"Goku, hold on a moment."
One of her time clones flickered into existence in Konoha in an instant. Back at home, she found the two children at their desks, working on their homework.
Hinata and Temari had gone out shopping. To make sure the two girls stayed put and actually behaved, Hinata had entrusted Tonton with keeping watch over them.
When the time clone stepped inside, she found Tonton holding up a small mirror in her right front trotter, gazing intently at her own reflection.
Tonton was making all manner of faces at the mirror, apparently trying to arrange her features into something more dignified and imposing.
"Pfft." Ino let out a laugh before she could stop herself. What on earth — what was a pig doing staring at herself in the mirror?
What, was she going to ask it: "Mirror, mirror on the wall — who is the fairest pig of all?"
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