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North Kai's voice crackled with indignation across the divine airwaves. "Excuse me? Is no one going to offer me peanuts while I rot in the afterlife? Goku! Why in the world did you bring that ticking time bomb to my front door?!"
On the small, grassy sphere of King Kai's Planet, the deity was fuming. He had been hit by a disaster he didn't earn. He hadn't offended anyone, yet here he was, being dragged into a shallow grave alongside a Saiyan.
Goku rubbed the back of his head, giving a sheepish, digital shrug. "Hehehe, sorry, Lord Kai. But the 'me' in that video did say he couldn't think of anywhere else to go on such short notice."
"Well, you'd better stay away from here in the present!" King Kai barked. "Hurry up, get revived, and go home. Do not come looking for me!"
"Don't be like that, Lord Kai," Goku countered playfully. "I still need you to teach me the Kaioken and the Spirit Bomb!"
The deity went silent. It seemed his fate was irrevocably tied to the headache that was Son Goku.
In the multiverse chat, Sengoku of the Marines narrowed his eyes. "Wait a moment. Why didn't Goku just grab King Kai and use Instant Transmission to warp back to Earth before the explosion? Cell didn't detonate instantly."
Zhang Chulan chimed in, nodding. "Exactly! There was plenty of time. He could have saved everyone and avoided the sacrifice altogether."
King Kai seized on this. "Goku! Explain yourself! Why?!"
"I... I honestly don't know what the video version of me was thinking," Goku admitted, sounding just as confused as everyone else.
Krillin sighed, his voice full of weary realization. "There's a very simple, very likely possibility: Goku just didn't think of it."
"Yeah," Yamcha added. "That sounds exactly like the Goku we know."
The Z-Fighters, having spent years dealing with Goku's singular focus, understood all too well. It wasn't malice; it was just Goku being Goku. Unfortunately, Lord Kai was the one paying the price for that lack of foresight.
"Regardless," Kakashi Hatake noted, "Cell has been eliminated. It was a heavy price, but the threat is over."
Uchiha Sasuke interjected, his voice cool and calculating. "Kakashi-sensei, don't forget the Dragon Balls. They can simply wish Goku back to life. Death isn't quite as permanent in their world as it is in ours."
The mood among the viewers lightened instantly. That was the beauty of the Dragon Ball worldâthe ultimate safety net.
"Wait," Krillin cautioned, "the Earth's Dragon Balls can only revive a person once. This was Goku's second time dying."
Piccolo dismissed the concern. "We have the Namekian Dragon Balls for that. Porunga can bring him back without those restrictions. He'll be fine." He then turned his attention back to the screen. "But that doesn't excuse Gohan. Goku can be revived, but Gohan needs to learn that his recklessness caused this. @Gohan, remember this lesson. Never again."
"I understand, Uncle Piccolo," Gohan replied, his tone heavy with regret.
"But wait," Yamcha asked, "isn't Cell capable of Namekian regeneration? Are we sure the self-destruction actually finished him?"
Piccolo scoffed. "His regeneration has a limit. That explosion blew him into subatomic dust. There's nothing left to grow back from."
But as the words left Piccolo's mouth, the video shifted.
A sudden, jagged beam of violet Ki tore through the smoke on the battlefield, piercing directly through Future Trunks' chest. The silence that followed was deafening.
"Let's see who I hit," a cold, familiar voice echoed through the clearing. "Oh, it's Trunks."
Gohan and the others spun around to witness an impossible nightmare. Standing in a pillar of dust was Cellârestored to his Perfect Form. But he was different now. Violent arcs of bio-electricity danced around his frame, mirroring the aura of Gohan's Super Saiyan 2. He wasn't just alive; he had ascended.
Cell, relishing his role as the ultimate predator, explained the miracle of his survival. He revealed a core chip inside his brainâas long as that remained intact, his body could reconstruct itself from a single cell. The explosion had left the chip untouched. Furthermore, thanks to his Saiyan DNA, the near-death experience had triggered a massive Zenkai boost. He had even mastered Goku's Instant Transmission.
Gohan's despair vanished, replaced by a searing fighting spirit. This was his chance to avenge his father. But before he could leap forward, a golden blur beat him to it.
Vegeta.
Seeing his son murdered before his eyes, the Saiyan Prince lost all sense of tactics. He charged Cell in a blind rage, unleashing a desperate barrage of Ki blasts. Cell brushed them off like flies, swatting Vegeta aside with contemptuous ease. As Cell leveled a killing blow at the fallen Prince, Gohan threw himself into the path of the blast.
The explosion was massive. When the smoke cleared, Gohan stood firm, but his left arm hung limp and shattered at his side. His power was halved.
Remorse flooded Vegeta's faceâa sight no one expected. "I... I'm sorry, Gohan."
It was a historic moment. First, Vegeta had wept before Goku on Namek; now, he was apologizing to Goku's son.
Frieza's mocking laughter filled the chat. "Oh ho ho! This is precious. The Prince of all Saiyans, reduced to tears and apologies. You've given all your 'firsts' to the Son family, haven't you, Vegeta?"
"Shut up, you monster!" Vegeta snarled. "I'll kill you for this!"
"With what power?" Frieza countered smoothly. "The 'you' in the video is a pathetic burden, and the 'you' right now wouldn't last a minute against me."
The tension was suffocating. Even Dr. Vegapunk was distracted, frantically typing: "I must know! @Dr. Gero, what material did you use for that chip? To survive a self-destruction of that magnitude... the molecular density must be revolutionary!"
But on the battlefield, Gohan looked at his useless arm, then at the smirking monster before him. The situation had gone from victory to a desperate, one-handed struggle for the fate of the universe.