Eliminating the Demon Realm Supreme Kai was a good outcome for all three of them.
Wiping Mechikabura out once and for all meant Ino would never again have to worry about some shadow figure whispering poison in her ear. She didn't have a great deal of faith in her own willpower — Mechikabura had spent tens of millions of years wearing Kuronoa down, eroding and controlling her like water hollowing out stone. The same span of time, the same methods, could do the same to Ino. Give it three or five hundred years, and she might have gone dark herself.
With Mechikabura gone, every last loose end was tied off. From here on out, she could do whatever she pleased in the Time Nest.
Aeos was pleased as well. Under the terms of the "treaty signed at the city gate," she had secured a perfect foothold — a clear opening through which to one day return and seize the throne of Supreme Kai of Time.
Kuronoa was the happiest of all three.
With every trace of the Demon Realm Supreme Kai's existence erased, her own dark history — being controlled, being corrupted — had, in a sense, ceased to exist as well.
She had her pride to think of. Fighting on pure stubbornness with her Time Power nearly spent — did that mean she and Ino shared some deep and profound bond? Nonsense. She simply wanted Mechikabura dead.
Aeos's "treaty at the city gate" had also given her a chance to make her own comeback someday. Seventy-five million years was nothing. She could wait.
Aeos turned to leave. Before she did, she spoke in the flat tone of someone issuing a notice: "That Bardock — I'm taking him with me."
Black-clothed Bardock's betrayal had made every scheme she'd carefully laid look utterly foolish. She had to vent that fury somewhere.
Ino agreed without hesitation. "Fine by me."
...
The battle that had been the Supreme Kai of Time's to fight was over. Ino gave a casual wave of her hand, and Mechikabura's former divine treasure — the Scroll of Time — flew into her grasp. She had done the most to bring Mechikabura down, so this scroll, which recorded the history of all the multiverses, was unquestionably hers.
She flipped through it quickly.
Bardock had been taken by Aeos, but King Vegeta — one head short — and Paragus — being thoroughly beaten by a mob of Saiyans — were still loose in the main timeline. She found both of their temporal threads and sent them back to their respective timelines, one by one.
You were each supposed to die in a certain place. You'll be dying in that place.
Super Saiyan 3, Legendary Super Saiyan — none of it meant anything in the face of time.
Leafing through the Scroll of Time, Ino spotted the names of Frieza and Majin Buu as well.
Majin Buu had been a major threat once, but now that the Saiyans were steadily breaking through to Super Saiyan God and rapidly climbing toward Super Saiyan Blue, he was simply behind the times.
They didn't need Vegetto anymore. Son Goku could kill him on his own.
Majin Buu was no longer a threat.
Frieza was a different matter. That one was exceptionally good at stirring up trouble, and had enormous untapped potential.
Ino very much wanted to have him killed — but Frieza had too many entanglements. Going by how the Tournament of Power ended, Grand Zeno himself had remembered Frieza's name.
Once something involved Grand Zeno, it became very complicated, very fast.
How many beings existed across all the multiverses? And of all of them, how many could Grand Zeno actually name? To put it plainly: Frieza's web of cause and effect was far too large. As long as he behaved himself and kept bouncing back and forth between the Seventh and Sixth Universes without crossing timelines himself, the Scroll of Time gave Ino no authority to touch him.
Majin Buu and Frieza she left alone. But her old acquaintance West Supreme Kai Leila — that was someone she absolutely could not forget.
Strictly speaking, Leila's situation was similar to Future Trunks's and Future Gohan's — all of them were individuals who had originally been fated to die, or who had no real connection to the main timeline, and had been pushed into their current circumstances by outside interference from Ino's side, making them temporal anomalies.
The difference was that Future Trunks and Future Gohan were people she had actively recruited and whose fates she had deliberately changed, whereas Leila had been nudged passively, step by step, into the situation she was in now.
Leila's ties to Ino were deep. There was absolutely no way she could be allowed to remain in the main timeline.
Ino crooked a finger. That temporal anomaly vanished from the main timeline, split into seven fragments, and the original shard of a remnant soul returned to the spaceship Bardock had shot down a thousand years ago.
As far as Ino was concerned, Leila was a creature of the "past." And so she would remain in the "past" forever. Coming to the "present" was simply not an option.
She gave the Scroll of Time one final pass. This time, there were no problems.
History had fully returned to its proper course. According to the official record, West Supreme Kai Leila had been killed by Majin Buu, and had never appeared again.
"Good. That's how it should be." She put the Scroll of Time away, satisfied.
The battle was finished. Everyone went home.
Aeos took Black-clothed Bardock with her — whether she chose to brand him or mince him was entirely her prerogative.
Kuronoa departed with Tokitoki and the Time Patrol. A former Supreme Kai of Time was still a Supreme Kai of Time. She would continue to lead the Time Patrol in combating space-time crimes and safeguarding the flow of history.
Ino left something appropriately dramatic — something along the lines of "when the flowers bloom next spring, that is when we shall meet again" — and then led her subordinates out of the Demon Realm.
...
Ino and the others had withdrawn.
The war in the Demon Realm, however, was still very much ongoing.
Majin Buu never learned his lesson. After regaining control of his body this time, he had once again been using Leila as his core — she supplied him with enough intelligence to function. The moment Ino "removed" Leila, that temporal anomaly gone, he went berserk yet again — for what must have been the umpteenth time.
Majin Buu reverted to Kid Buu, seething with killing intent. He didn't just tear through nearby Demon Clan soldiers — he launched a full charge straight at Zamasu's army.
Kid Buu might have been a full generation behind the Saiyans in terms of power, but against ordinary beings, his strength was still terrifying beyond comprehension.
The wrestling champions and sumo wrestlers of the Tenth Universe went pale one by one, every one of them cutting sideways glances at the others, each hoping someone else would be the one to deal with this monster.
Zamasu prepared to step in himself.
Toppo stopped him — the captain of the Eleventh Universe's "Pride Troopers," a powerfully built man in a black-and-red combat suit, his eyes faintly clouded, his face framed by a full white beard.
"Lord Supreme Kai, leave this one to me."
Toppo operated on a strict "evil must be cut down" principle, and he was also an apprentice Destroyer of the Eleventh Universe. He and Zamasu had hit it off unexpectedly well — they shared remarkably similar views on good and evil, similar principles, and a similar way of handling things.
The rest of the Pride Troopers had declined Zamasu's invitation. What did the Demon Realm War have to do with the Eleventh Universe? Their duty was to protect their own home; there was no need to march out and fight in someone else's war.
The Pride Troopers hadn't come. Toppo was here entirely in a personal capacity, helping Zamasu as an individual.
Now, watching Kid Buu come charging in, radiating killing intent, the hot-blooded, zero-tolerance Toppo stepped forward and volunteered.
One was an apprentice Supreme Kai, the other an apprentice Destroyer. Zamasu was as proud as they came, but he didn't regard Toppo as some ordinary person.
And as the commanding general, it truly wasn't appropriate for him to rush into battle lightly.
He gave a slight nod. "Very well. That enemy is yours."
____
________________________________________
🌸 Help Love Bloom!
Our girls need a little push... and you can help!
💖 Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 50 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter to warm your hearts.
🚀 Community Reward: If we reach 20 supporting members, we'll have a +5 chapter marathon across all stories! The romance won't stop.
👻 Come to our secret corner: Search for GirlsLove on (P). You know that's where the magic happens... 😉