DUHRAG✪NBALL

Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball,  which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation.   This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made  on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.

Continuity Note: This story takes place about 1000 years before  66 years after the events of Dragon Ball Z.

     [9 May, Age 774.   The Sacred World of the Kais.]  

Just two days after his reactivation, Majin Buu had destroyed the Earth.   The Earth’s defenders regrouped in Otherworld to figure out their next move, but Majin Buu followed them, and the battle continued on the holy domain of the Kaioshin.    

After numerous transformation, Majin Buu had finally reverted to his original form, which resembled a ten-year-old humanoid child.  His earlier forms had been a product of absorbing various enemies.   “Fat Buu” had arisen millions of years ago when Buu absorbed two of the Kaioshin.   The absorption of such holy beings had given Buu a more innocent and fun-loving personality, but this conflicted with his vicious and destructive nature.  "Super Buu" represented an attempt to resolve this conflict, and Majin Buu embraced his evil nature while absorbing other fighters in an effort to make himself supremely powerful.  

It was Vegeta who separated the Fat Buu from the evil Buu, which caused him to devolve into the original, childish form.   And yet, the Fat Buu survived.   When Goku and Vegeta failed to defeat Kid Buu, the Fat Buu stepped forth to hold the line.  But he was no match for the savagery of Kid Buu, and it was only a matter of time before he fell.   During that brief window of opportunity, Vegeta hatched a desperate plan to seize victory from the jaws of defeat.  

Unfortunately, the Fat Buu never lasted long enough for Vegeta to explain his idea to anyone else.  

“The little one!   What… what happened to him?” Goku asked.   The two Saiyans had been watching the battle from a safe distance.   The Fat Buu had been putting up stiff resistance, and for a moment it looked like it would take a long time for the Kid to defeat him, but now, the tide of the battle had completely shifted.  

“That little imp!” Vegeta snarled.   “He was never this strong when he was fighting us!  Was he holding back this whole time?”

Kid Buu’s eyes glowed red now, and a dark energy roiled across his body like purple smoke.   Before, the Fat Buu would recover from the Kid’s strikes.   Now, their duel had turned into little more than a one-sided beating.  

“This is bad!” Goku said.   “At this rate, the big one will be killed!”

“Hmmph!  Don’t trouble yourself over him, Kakarot!” Vegeta muttered.  "You should be more worried about what the little one’s going to do to us when he’s finished over there.“

Vegeta’s warning came true almost as soon as he said the words.   The supercharged Kid Buu destroyed the Fat one in a blast of pink light, and then he turned his sights on the Saiyans.   To their credit, Goku and Vegeta stood their ground, but they were too exhausted to offer anything more than token resistance.    

Moments later, Majin Buu was the only thing left alive on the Sacred World of the Kais.   Then he destroyed the planet, just as he had done to the Earth.   And then he moved on, in search of other worlds to destroy…

There would be no one else to stop him.

*******

     [16 April, Age 850.   Toki Toki City.]  

From the Time Vault, Trunks, Luffa, and the Supreme Kai of Time watched these events in the images that were mystically produced by the Scroll of Eternity.    

"What about Vegeta?” Luffa asked.    "He had that halo on his head, like Kakarot did a couple of missions back.   I mean, if he was dead when that planet was destroyed, then…“

"King Yemma restored his body so that he could help out in this battle,” Trunks explained.   “Dead or alive, he wouldn’t be able to do anything with his body destroyed.   We can’t let Majin Buu win this battle!   The fate of the universe is at stake!”

“That’s what I don’t understand,” Chronoa said.  She had kept quiet while they had been watching the altered history on the Scroll, but now she sat in one of the stools at the table and steepled her fingers.   “Why would Demigra interfere with this moment in history?  Unless we set things right, Majin Buu will destroy everything.   So why would he risk the universe to advance his plan?”

“He wouldn’t,” Luffa said.  "Think about it.  If he can control Majin Buu this completely, then Demigra doesn’t need to worry about him.   He can let Buu run wild or seal him up again, like that evil wizard did before.“  

"Then you think Demigra has plans for Majin Buu?” Trunks asked.  

“Maybe,” Luffa said.   “Either that, or Demigra’s just showing off what he can do.  This may just be him warming up…  So, what was supposed to happen in this battle?”

“My father had a plan,” Trunks explained.   “He asked the Supreme Kai and Dende to go to New Namek, and use their Dragon Balls to revive the Earth and its population.  Then Goku would use the Earthlings’ collective energy to create a Spirit Bomb large enough to destroy Majin Buu with one shot.”

“A Spirit Bomb?” Luffa made a skeptical face as she took this in.   “Like the one Kakarot used against Frieza?   But that took forever to make, and it didn’t even work!”

Trunks nodded.   “This one will do the job, trust me.   But you’re right, it’ll take a long time to set up the attack, and that was only possible because the Fat Buu kept the little one occupied.   But with Demigra amplifying Kid Buu’s power…”

“The big Buu won’t be enough,” Luffa said, “so we need someone to pick up the slack, and that’s me.    But if I can score a heavy blow early, like we did on Super Buu last time, then that should knock Demigra’s influence right out of him, wouldn’t it?”  

“It should,” Chronoa said, “if you can hit him.   Remember, Super Buu was standing still when you did that the last time.    Kid Buu won’t be so accommodating.    You may be stuck fighting him for a while.”

“All right,” Luffa said.  "Let’s get started.“  

"Right now?” Trunks asked.  "You just got back from the hospital.“

"And the healers restored me to full strength,” Luffa said.  "If I’m right, Demigra’s trying to intimidate us by showing what he can do.   Then it’s only fair that we show him what we can do.   But there is one thing I’ll need before I go to this crazy planet…“

*******

     [9 May, Age 850.   The Sacred World of the Kais.]  

As she arrived in the altered history, Luffa considered working alongside the Fat Buu to improve her chances.   As much as she disliked double-teaming a single enemy, she had only ever fought Majin Buu by teaming up with Goku or Gohan, and preserving history was more important than playing fair.   Besides, she had begun to see the players in these Time Patrol missions as pawns in a larger game.   Demigra was her true enemy in this conflict.   Majin Buu’s defeat was already destined to occur.    Any victory Luffa might have achieved over him in the past would be erased when the Supreme Kai of Time finished repairing the affected segment of time.  

The skies of the Kai Planet were violet, resembling a world in perpetual twilight.  There were no stars, only dozens of moons, each reflecting daylight from some indeterminate source.   Unlike Goku, Vegeta, and Gohan, who had each spent time on this planet during the Majin Buu crisis, Luffa still had her Saiyan tail, which would trigger a great ape transformation if she looked at the full moon.   Given the sheer number of moons, and the chaotic nature of the mission, it made sense for her to wear tinted goggles.    

Luffa had carried a lingering anxiety about the Oozaru form ever since she first became a Super Saiyan.  Her fear had been that if the two forms increased her power at the same time, she would lose control of her ki and her body would tear itself apart.  She had only attempted this once, in her final assault on the Jindan Cult on Nagaoka.  She had done it fully intending to die in the process.   Instead, she had barely survived, outliving Nagaoka just long enough to perish in space.   The Time Patrol had saved her, but her body was left weakened from the experience.    Luffa’s powers still weren’t fully recovered, and she had no intention of trying another "Golden Oozaru” stunt again, even though the threat of a Demigra-empowered Kid Buu made that a tempting solution.    With any luck, the Fat Buu’s assistance would save her from having to consider that option.  

But when Luffa was close enough to strike, she found the Fat Buu was already dead on his feet.    He had been nearly unstoppable when Luffa fought him before, but Kid Buu had picked him apart with frightening ease.   And so, Luffa gave up any hope of joining forces with the Fat Buu, and concentrated on saving his  life.   As Kid Buu prepared a ki blast to finish him off, Luffa kicked it away before he could fire.     The giant pink energy ball careened into the sky, and exploded somewhere over the horizon.  

“Forget him!” Luffa shouted.   “I’m the one you want!   Unless you’re frightened, that is!”

Kid Buu was not frightened.  He turned and glared at Luffa with a surprised expression, then tilted his head to one side, and his lips curled into a malicious grin.    When he opened his mouth, Luffa expected some menacing threat, or some other bold words.   Instead, he simply made a high pitched growl, then howled with laughter.    

“I have to say, this is a step down for you,” Luffa said.    "The other forms had some character to them.   Maybe that’s why you absorbed those people, huh?   You were trying to get some personality.“

Behind Kid Buu, Luffa noticed Mister Satan kneeling beside the Fat Buu.   "What the hell is he doing here?” she asked.    

“Goku saved him just before the Earth exploded,” came the reply from Trunks through her earpiece communicator.    "It’s because of him that the Fat Buu managed to escape from the little one’s body.   They became friends, you see.“

"All right, so I’d better draw the Kid away from the others,” Luffa said.  "Maybe he’ll follow me if I–“

Kid Buu’s attack came without warning.   He slammed into Luffa with blinding speed, and began punching and kicking her as they moved through the air.    Luffa managed to block most of his strikes, but not enough to prepare any meaningful counterattack.  

"Luffa!” Trunks cried out.  

She was about to reverse a punch into a throw, when Buu suddenly whipped around the tentacle on his head.  It stretched out like a rubber band and wrapped around her neck.   Before Luffa could react, Buu snapped his own neck back and flung her down to the ground.  

“This… is… not how I–”

Buu didn’t let her finish, as he rained down a barrage of ki blasts upon her.   For a moment, her position was lost in a maelstrom of pink explosions.    

Then a beam of golden light shot out from the turmoil, as Luffa launched herself directly at Majin Buu.    She managed to score a punch to his head and abdomen, but it did little to faze him.   When she threw a kick at his back, her leg simply embedded in his pink flesh like it was tar.  

“Haaaarrrghhhh!” Majin Buu said as his entire body changed shape, reversing itself so that his front and back switched places.    Before Luffa could free herself, he had grabbed her ankle in his blobby, indistinct fingers, and he swung her around like a toddler playing with a ragdoll.  

He was laughing so hard at her apparent helplessness that he didn’t even notice her charging her ki until the Gallick Gun blasted him squarely in the face.  

Luffa came to a stop and gasped for breath as she took stock of the situation.   The Gallick Gun had apparently vaporized Buu’s head, along with a chunk of his chest, but she knew better than to expect that to slow him down.  

“Come on!” she shouted.   Without waiting for his head to grow back, Luffa continued attacking Buu’s decapitated body.   Every blow was designed to shove him further away from the others.  

For what it was worth, her tactics seemed to be working.    Buu could reassemble himself very quickly, but he seemed to need at least a few seconds to gather himself together.    By pressing the assault, she seemed to at least be dragging out his recovery process.

When she saw the black sclera of his beady eyes, she broke off and moved away from him.   Buu’s attacks were too ferocious and intense for her to keep blundering into them.   She resolved to keep her distance where she could, but Majin Buu wasn’t going to make that easy for her.  

He stared at her for a moment as she backed away, then raised his finger and tugged at the lower lid of his left eye, and stuck out his tongue.   Luffa wasn’t familiar with the gesture, but she knew it was nothing respectful.  

“You want a fight, is that it?” she said.    "Well come get me!  I’m right–Dammit!“

Majin Buu blindsided her again, this time flying rings around her at incredible speed.    Just as she had a fix on him, he broke the pattern and hit her with a headbutt to her forehead.  

Luffa tumbled out of the air, her eyes screwed shut as she reeled from the force of the impact.   As she fell, Buu raised his hands over his head, and a large ball of pink ki appeared over his head.    He began to cackle with glee, and the ball expanded in size.    

He launched the attack just as Luffa was about to hit the ground, but instead, her eyes snapped open, and she did a flip in mindair, less than half a meter from the turf.   With the enormous ki ball between them, Majin Buu had no idea what she was doing.   She raised her left hand to her head, then swung her arm out toward him.    

A thin beam of crimson light shot out of her fingers, lancing through Buu’s attack and directly into Buu himself.   It only tore a small hole through his chest, but the wound was enough to distract his attention.  By the time he noticed his own ki ball flying back at him, it was too late to stop it from exploding in his face.    

Despite shoving the attack away from herself, Luffa was still caught in the blast.   She landed in a glen between two large hills, and stumbled back to her feet.   Buu’s headbutt had drawn blood, and a red stain now covered much of Luffa’s face.   She could sense Buu’s energy, but couldn’t get a feel for his exact location.    

For the moment, Goku and Vegeta were safe, and she considered her options.   Fighting Buu was a dangerous proposition.    As much as Luffa relished the challenge he presented, she suspected that she would lose an all-out battle.   In every exchange, it had taken her strongest attacks to drive him off for just a few seconds, while he seemed ready and willing to respond with incredible power and fury at any moment.  It was as if the boy simply never got tired.   He could keep up this pace indefinitely, while Luffa was already beginning to get worn down.  

"Trunks,” she said.   “How are we doing on time?”    

There was no answer.    

Luffa reached for her ear to check her earpiece and found no trace of it.   It must have been knocked loose or destroyed at some point.  

Instead, she heard a whistle.    

Luffa whirled around and found Majin Buu, sitting on a rock behind her.    He was staring off into the distance, carrying on as if he were waiting for something.  

“Snuck up on me, huh?” Luffa asked.   “I get the impression you’re just toying with me.  Is that it?”

Buu finally looked at her, and responded with a menacing leer followed by a giggle.  

“Fair enough,” Luffa said.    "I know what it’s like to be too strong, to have trouble finding worthy opponents.   You try to get as much out of the competition you can find.   Let me see if I can ramp this up a bit for you.“

Buu regarded her for a moment and rolled his eyes.  

"Right, Kakarot and Vegeta probably did the same thing, and look where that turned out.   But I’m not quite like them, kid.   Let me see if I can prove it to you…”

She balled her fists and began raising her power.   The golden aura that surrounded her began to grow brighter.    Majin Buu didn’t care.  

“Real sporting of you to wait for me,” Luffa said.   “Guess you’ve got a few manners after all.   Now, let’s try this again, shall we–?”

Kid Buu charged at her again, but this time Luffa was ready for him.  Instead of standing her ground, she leapfrogged him and fired a ki blast into his back as she sailed over him.   Without waiting for the smoke to clear, she planted her hands on the ground and sent a charge of energy through them, producing a massive explosion across a ten meter range.  

She was sorely tempted to press the attack, but she knew that was a trap.  Majin Buu was too resilient to hurt through conventional attacks.   She would exhaust herself long before she managed to do any lasting damage.  

Instead, she backed off again, firing smaller bursts of energy as she flew.   She didn’t know if he would chase after her while there were still other targets on the planet, so she had to keep attacking him, even as she retreated.  

“Come and kill me!” she shouted.   “I’m right here!”

Majin Buu followed, but to her surprise, he didn’t chase her though the air.   Instead, he ran along the ground, letting his noodly arms flap behind his back like tassels.    Every so often, he would glance up at her and make some primitive grunt.  

Just as Luffa began to wonder why he hadn’t fired back at her, he opened his mouth, and began shooting pink blasts at her from below.   When she dodged them, he simply increased the frequency of his blasts, shooting more and more ki at her until the sky was practically filled with pink light.    

Luffa managed to avoid the assault, but she had to slow down to maneuver through the thick field of obstacles.   She continued moving away, determined to lead Buu further and further from the others, but she was suddenly grabbed from behind.   Luffa swung around, hoping to catch Buu with a backfist, but her arm hit nothing but thin air.   It was just Buu’s arm, reaching out from the ground like some impossibly long serpent.  

“No, no, no!” Luffa shouted as she struggled to break free.   Buu’s fingers had grasped the collar of her compression shirt, but she couldn’t yank the fabric out, or even tear it away.   The material was too durable, too flexible, and before she could even think of another way out, Buu had flung her into the path of fire.    For a moment, it was all Luffa could do to block the explosions that buffeted her from all sides.   At last, she went limp, and managed to fall to a safer altitude.  

But “safe” was a very relative term with Majin Buu, and he went back on the offensive almost immediately.   Luffa expected a frontal assault, but instead he swerved around her, and began running in circles.  A moment later, Luffa understood why.   He had never released his hold on her shirt, and by running around her, he had wrapped up her whole body in his elongated arm.  

Buu seemed to find this extremely hilarious.   For a few seconds, he just stood there and laughed at her, pointing with his free hand.   Luffa struggled to get loose, but not very hard.   She was playing for time, and if Buu was willing to give her some, she was willing to take the breather.  

“Hard to believe you took down the other Buu so quickly,” Luffa said.   “I guess you weren’t in much of a mood to play around with him, huh?  Well, let’s see how you like this!”

She bit down on the length of Buu’s arm that was closes to her face, and the boy cried out in pain.   At the same time, Luffa launched herself into the air like a rocket, and Kid Buu suddenly found himself being dragged along in her wake.  

As she pulled him along, Luffa worked herself out of Buu’s coils.   Whether it was the pain of her biting him, or the effort of preparing another attack, Buu had slackened his grip.  Before she pulled free, Luffa grabbed him by the arm and swung him into a rock formation just as she slammed into it at full speed.    

This didn’t keep Majin Buu down for long.   The resulting impact reduced the rocks into dust, and Buu emerged from the debris with a vengeful expression.  

“Up here, stupid!” Luffa shouted.  

He turned to find her floating just overhead, holding her left hand over her face.    Her fingers were glowing red.    

When she released it, the red ki flashed across the distance between them and straight through Buu’s forehead, right between the eyes.  

Luffa dropped to the ground and prepared another Gallick Gun to follow through.    For a moment, she watched Buu stumble around as he reacted to the hole in his face.  She doubted that he had any vital organs, and yet it did seem to inconvenience him slightly whenever she targeted his head or chest.  

Just as she prepared to fire again, Majin Buu raised his foot, as though unsure of his next step.    Then he drove his foot down hard into the ground, until his leg was half buried in a hole he had made.     Luffa wondered what was wrong with him, and then she got her answer, as Buu’s foot emerged from the ground just in front of her, and collided with her chin.    

Luffa stumbled backward, and Buu kicked her again in the same way.   And again.   And again.

“Dammit!” Luffa shouted as she leaped back into the air.    She fired more ki blasts to cover her escape, but this time Majin Buu simply swatted them away as he chased after her.    When she tried to pick up speed, he accelerated to catch up to her.   Then he suddenly moved alongside of Luffa, and with a sneer he kicked her in the gut.  

Luffa doubled over in midair, and Buu went to work, battering her with rapid punches and kicks from all sides.  He paused for a moment, as if to admire his handiwork, then placed his finger on Luffa’s chin, and raised it up so that he could look into her eyes.  

“Heeee-yeeeeeaaghhhh,” he said, then he punched her in the face with both hands.  

As Luffa tumbled through the air, Buu fired more ki blasts, seemingly indifferent as to where they landed.   Everything around Luffa was pink light, or something being destroyed by pink light.    She was too dazed from Buu’s attack to notice, however.  

Disoriented, Luffa couldn’t tell where Buu was.   Desperately, she generated an explosive wave as she fell, to repel anything that might have hurt her as she fell.  When that subsided, she struck a tree branch, and then bounced off another tree, and hit several more before finally getting to the ground.    

She forced herself to her knees, and a sharp pain in her side confirmed what she already suspected.  Buu had broken at least one of her ribs.   She reached for her goggles, and found the lenses had been smashed to pieces.   Grimacing, she pulled what was left of the googles off her face and felt around her brow.    

Buu’s double-punch had hit her in both eyes.   She could see thin slivers of light, but nothing more.    She couldn’t open her eyes any wider, as the flesh around them had swollen them shut.    

“Well, so much for my fallback plan,” Luffa muttered to herself.   She had no desire to use the Golden Ape form, and she had no idea if the planet’s many satellites would have worked in any case.   But if she couldn’t even see the moonlight, none of it mattered.  

But she couldn’t afford to worry about that.    Majin Buu was still nearby.   Her senses were sharp enough to locate him even without her eyesight.   He was floating in the air, at least twenty meters away, laughing.  

“What… what is he waiting for?” Luffa asked.   Painfully, she rose to her feet, leaning against a tree for support.  And then she realized what he was doing.  

“Rrrr!  Rraaghh… Yaahhhr!” Majin Buu growled.  And then what little Luffa could see turned pink.   Desperately, she swung to the right to dodge what was coming.  

But she wasn’t fast enough, and there came a searing pain in her left arm.   Luffa cried out as she collapsed on the ground.  

As she grabbed her left arm with her right hand, she could feel the open wound in her flesh.  It was bad, though the heat had cauterized the area.   It was as though a beam of light had carved a chunk of her arm away.   But Luffa knew there was no time to lose.  Buu would fire again.   He never seemed to tire out, so there was nothing to stop him.   She had to put more distance between them.   With a pitiful whimper, she took flight, doing her best to move in as erratic a pattern as possible to throw off his aim.    

For what it was worth, Buu seemed to be in no hurry to pursue her.   His tactics made no sense, until she reminded herself that he was no longer the Buu she had faced before.   This version was a little boy.   To him, Luffa was little more than an interesting bug he had found on the road.    Fighting her was a way to amuse himself, and nothing more.

He was only a boy.  

The pain in her arm forced her to qualify that observation.  

He was a boy who had learned to imitate her Vengeance Cannon!

She was running out of options.   For all the pride she had once placed on her Super Saiyan heritage, Majin Buu had made a mockery of it all.   She had staked her claim as one of the Old Heroes of Saiyan lore, but her love for combat seemed paltry in the face of a relentless killing machine like this!  Her signature move was just a plaything to him.   Her power, once thought to be supreme in the universe, was barely enough to keep her alive.   Her mother’s training, with all the jointlocks and counterholds, were useless against a creature like this.

It was then that she realized that she had to shift her tactics.     She had already lured Majin Buu far from Goku and Vegeta.   All she had to do now was keep his attention long enough that he wouldn’t go looking for a better fight somewhere else.   And she had to stay alive long enough to pull it off.  

Luffa unleashed another ki effect, but not to attack or defend.   The burst of energy was intended to cover her tracks instead.  By the time it dissipated, Luffa had transformed back into her base mode and taken cover on the floor of whatever forest she had wandered into.    

This was her backup plan, in case everything went wrong.  If she couldn’t hold Buu’s interest in a battle, she would try to lure him into a game of hide-and-seek.   It was something of a gamble.   Kid Buu was relentless, but also easily bored.   If he decided she wasn’t enough of a challenge, he might decide to abandon the hunt and resume his attack on Goku and Vegeta.  

But in her current condition, there wasn’t much more Luffa could do. To her relief, she sensed that Buu hadn’t left the area.   At the very least, he was curious to see what she was up to.  

Then she heard explosions, one after another.   He was trying to flush her out by bombarding the entire forest.  

As she heard his shrieking laughter from above, she knew that this was never going to work.    

And then, one of his overpowered ki blasts came down on her head, and the hunt was over before it really ever had a chance to begin.

*******

Through his mirage, Demigra observed the rest of the battle with great satisfaction.  

He was not actually present on the Sacred World of the Kais.   Instead, he was trapped on the far side of creation, a prisoner of the Crack of Time.  Still, he had spent seventy-five million years plotting his escape, and had learned to project images of himself to almost anywhere he wished beyond the confines of his “cage”.   He could even make these mirages solid enough to interact with the environment.   He could speak with others, cast his magic spells, and even smell the sweet air of the Kaioshin sanctuary.   It was almost like freedom.  

Almost.

Luffa had proven to be a persistent and resourceful enemy, but those qualities could only carry her campaign so far.   He had bewitched Kid Buu and made him defeat his corpulent counterpart much faster than he was supposed to.    Luffa had interpreted this to mean that she had to fight Kid Buu herself to buy time.  

Now, having bought that time with the last of her stamina, Luffa was helpless to deal with the true consequences of Demigra’s intervention.   Kid Buu returned to harass the others, only to discover the Spirit Bomb in Goku’s hands.   Vegeta was obliged to defend Goku, but he was too weak to do much more than take another beating.   The Earthling buffoon, Mister Satan, watched this desperate struggle, and called out to the people of Earth to lend their power to the Spirit Bomb.   Up to that point, the Earthlings had been reluctant to listen to the Saiyans, but Mister Satan was their champion, pathetic as that was.

And so, Son Goku was able to complete the Spirit Bomb, and the Fat Buu managed to rally just long enough to separate Buu from Vegeta and give Goku a clear line of fire.   Kid Buu was too strong to be easily overwhelmed by the Spirit Bomb, but that wasn’t a problem.   In the mortal realm, the Namekians used their third wish on the Dragon Balls to restore Goku’s strength, thereby giving him the power he needed to overcome Buu and complete the attack.

And this was the critical moment.   Demigra had enhanced Kid Buu’s power for this single moment.   For now, the balance of fate had been upset, and now, Son Goku would not have the strength to push the Spirit Bomb into position.  

As he watched Goku and Majin Buu struggle, Demigra took in the heady sights and smells of the Kai Planet.  He supposed that Luffa could never have imagined his full motives for choosing this battle.  He had lived among the Kais once, and though he had never been granted permission to tread upon this holiest of worlds, it amused him greatly to do so now, albeit through one of his mystic proxies.   The irony alone was reason enough to intrude on this historic battle.  

Besides this, he longed to see if such an intrusion was even possible.  It was one thing to alter historical events on Earth.    To do so in Otherworld was another matter altogether.  

Furthermore, his control over Majin Buu had been nothing short of extraordinary.   It proved that he was ready for the next step, and for every other step that would follow.   First the Sacred World of the Kais would fall, then the rest of the universe, until finally, Toki Toki City…

Demigra was so pleased with himself that he almost didn’t notice that the struggle over the Spirit Bomb had shifted.   Before, Majin Buu had managed to hold it at bay, and at times, he was even forcing Goku to give ground.   But now, Goku was pushing harder.  Demigra raised his scepter, and prepared to feed more magic into Majin Buu’s body to tip the scales.  

It was then that he saw something approaching from the distance.  

“What in the world…?” Demigra asked as he focused his eyes on the speck that was rapidly approaching from Goku’s side of the Spirit Bomb.  At last, when it was close enough, he recognized the figure, and he made an irritated scowl.

It was Luffa.  

She was bruised and bloodied, and her yellow pants were reduced to scraps sticking out of her belt and boots, but she was still alive, and still powerful enough to insert herself in this battle.  

“Having trouble, Kakarot?” she asked.  

“You?”  Goku only knew her as the mysterious Saiyan who kept Kid Buu away from him while he prepared the Spirit Bomb.   While Luffa had met him in past missions, Goku remembered none of these encounters, for the Supreme Kai of Time had ensured that those meetings never truly took place.  

“I know, I look like hell,” Luffa said.   “Majin Buu really cleaned my clock, but he got sloppy, and didn’t make sure to finish the job.   And I knew I’d get another crack at him here, so as long as I conserved some power and laid low, I knew I’d get my chance.”  

“The Dragon Balls,” Goku said with a grunt.   “They restored my power, but I still can’t–”

“Hush,” Luffa said.   “I know what you need.   Just focus on what you’re doing.”  

Demigra expected Luffa to attack Kid Buu, or to join Goku in shoving the Spirit Bomb toward its target.   Instead, she raised her hand, and placed it gently on Goku’s shoulder.   Then she transformed, and the golden glow of her aura mingled with his.    

“This power!” Goku exclaimed.  

“Not bad, huh?” Luffa asked.   “I would have preferred to show it to you in a fight, Kakarot.  But that just hasn’t worked out.   For now, you’ll just have to settle for borrowing it.”

Goku made a valiant cry and his own aura intensified with the donated energy.   “Wow!” he said.   “I don’t know who you are, lady, but thanks!   You really helped us out!”

“I’ve always been there,” she said.  "You won’t remember this, but I wanted to say it anyway.   You’re not alone, Kakarot.   You never were…“

"Huh?”

“Never mind.   Just put this little bastard away!”

Goku didn’t need to be told twice, and he began to push the Spirit Bomb with renewed vigor.   Not so far away, Demigra watched in disbelief as the Spirit Bomb inched closer and closer to the ground.  Within seconds, Majin Buu was trapped, barely able to hold the enormous globe back.  

This would only be a setback, Demiga reminded himself.  His true plan could not be foiled so easily.   And yet, it surprised him nonetheless.   He had assumed from the last temporal incursion that he had the Time Patrol’s measure.  

He looked at the Saiyans again, and while Goku was still driving the Spirit Bomb the rest of the way to victory, Luffa kept her right arm locked onto his shoulder.   As she supplied him with energy, she turned and looked directly in Demigra’s direction.  

For a moment, the Demon God assumed this had to be a coincidence.   Then he saw her raise her left arm.   In spite of the injury, she managed to extend her hand.   Demigra wondered if she could possibly be foolish enough to attack him.   At this distance, there was no chance she could hit him, and her power level was far too low to be picking any more fights.    

But Luffa did not attack.   Instead, she simply held up her left hand, and extended her middle finger to Demigra.   In spite of the pain she was in, she made a defiant smirk.  The message was clear.    

 “Was this the best you could do?”

Demigra recalled his mirage from the Sacred World of the Kais.   Withdrawing his awareness to the Crack of Time, he set to work on his next move.   Soon, he promised himself, he would show the impudent girl the best he could do, and she would regret her insolence…

*******

     [16 April, Age 850.   Toki Toki City.]  

Luffa rematerialized in the Time Vault, and collapsed immediately.   Trunks and Chronoa were not surprised, having watched her battle in the Scroll, but they were still very worried.  

“We thought we lost you for a minute there!” Trunks said as he lifted Luffa up in his arms.  

“So did I,” Luffa murmured.   “Took everything I had to keep from passing out.  That kid’s tough.”

“Trunks,  get her to the hospital,” Chronoa said.  "And you’re cleared to fly in the city, got it?“

"Got it,” Trunks said.   Without wasting another moment, he dashed out of the Time Vault, and through the portal that connected the Time Nest with the rest of Toki Toki City.    

“I still don’t get how you lasted so long,” Trunks said as he leaped into the air.   “Kid Buu defeated Goku and my father in a matter of minutes, and you had to deal with Demigra increasing his power!”

“Heh.  Couldn’t let those two upstage me,” Luffa said.  "Thanks, by the way.“

"Huh?  For what?”

“For letting me handle that scrap my own way,” Luffa said.   “You could have pulled me back to the Vault, or sent reinforcements.”

“I had a feeling you were up to something,” Trunks said.   “I wanted to give you a chance to make your play.   I just wish you didn’t have to take such a beating to pull it off.”

Luffa snorted.   “I’m glad… Chronoa didn’t try to heal me,” she said.   “I wouldn’t want her to have to absorb this much damage.”  

“I talked her out of it before you returned,” Trunks said.   “She might have done it anyway, but I think those swollen eyes of yours helped convince her to let the healers handle this.”  

“Nice…” Luffa said.  "Y'know, she’s all right…“

As she fell into unconsciousness, Trunks reached the entrance to the hospital, and delivered her to the attending physician for treatment.   The Namekian healers on the staff would only need a few moments, but it would be best to let her rest for a while afterward.  

"Back again?” was the question asked by several of the people in the hospital.   Luffa had just returned from this place after completing the previous mission.  

“Yeah,” Trunks said.   “Things have been pretty busy at the Time Nest.  But with any luck… I think it might finally be over…”

 NEXT: Extra Innings