The Monke King: Ch.28

“Was the song really needed?”, I asked, smirking as Cell shrugged while standing up with a soft chuckle.

“It was not, but it was quite entertaining to do.”

“I suppose it was. How do you feel?”

“…Wonderful,” He answered before elaborating as I just raised an eyebrow. “It does not feel as if I am struggling with my every move. Everything feels fluid, clear and so wondrous to my body.”

“…So, in short, you feel good,” I said and chuckled as he nodded slowly with a happy grin.

“I feel good~”

“Glad to hear. Now, I'll go and talk to our companion before we return to our timeline,” I spoke while nodding to the person in question, who was frozen in shock as Cell simply nodded.

Younger Gohan snapped out of his shock as he saw us moving towards him, spinning around to try and run only to stop as both Cell and I stood in front of him.

“G-G-Get back!”, He barked out, shakily clenching his fists as I smiled and raised my hands.

“Apologies for disturbing you but we are not here to hurt you. We were simply here to get the Androids and then leave.”

“W-What makes you think I trust you?”, He asked, still wary but not looking as if he was going to attack as I smiled and looked to Cell.

“I don't think I have a way to show you how you can trust us, but we're about to leave now. You just have to know that the Androids are gone and you and Bulma can contact King Kai to help find Namek and wish the others back. Cell?”

“Of course. May you have a prosperous life, Gohan,” Cell spoke with a smile, confusing Gohan as he placed a hand on my shoulder before an Instant Transmission took us halfway across the planet.

Floating above the Son residence, I smiled as I felt Mother's energy fluctuating before both Cell and I floated down to the rocky outcropping a few kilometers away from our house.

“Are you ready to return to the future, King Gohan?”, He asked and I nodded as he clicked the Time Machine capsule and threw it onto the surface, the Time Machine appearing in puff of smoke that I blew away.

“I wonder what the others have been up to while we were gone.”

“Since the passage of time is 1:1 for the present and the future, only a few hours would have passed during this time.”

“So, we'd probably make it back in time for lunch, then?”, I asked, grinning as Cell rolled his eyes with a smirk.

“Yes, my King. We should get home in time for lunch. How is it that your mind went to that firstly?”

“Hey, I'm part Saiyan. Food is in my blood,” I answered as we floated into the machine, sitting down with a sigh while Cell typed away and turned on the machine with a hum.

'The Androids are gone and younger me will tell Bulma about King Kai like I hope. This timeline will heal with the absence of my father and even though they have to deal with Buu like we still do, they will thrive or survive. It all matters on what they do,' I thought as the machine floated upwards before relaxing back in my seat.

“Also, King Gohan, may I ask what you have been doing during the flights you take alone around the planet?”, Cell asked as the hatch closed and world around us vanished, replaced by the bright white light of the timelines as I sighed.

“I fear that there may be something worse than the Androids brewing somewhere so I'm fliying around and making sure that we still have peace in our time.”

“What makes you say that?”

“It's just a hunch, Cell, but unfortunately, my hunches have never failed to warn me of danger,” I said before looking upwards as the light faded away, revealing the roof of Bulma's warehouse.

“If that is the case, I ask that you allow me to join you on these patrols.”

“Will you listen if I say no?”

“No, I will simply shadow you from a distance,” Cell said with a smile and I shook my head as the hatch opened, both of us floating out to see Bulma lowering her welding glasses while staring at Cell.

“Gohan, who is this and where is my son?”

“Well, since we had one extra trip in the tank, I asked Cell if he wanted to achieve his Perfect Form. He said yes and we then went to a point in our timeline where the Androids killed everyone before he absorbed them both.”

“I thought I removed the limiters and your need for a Perfect Form?”, Bulma asked and I raised an eyebrow at that as Cell nodded.

“You did, but I felt incomplete even after your adjustments so I asked King Gohan for this favour.”

“…Hmm, okay then. Well, as long as you're not going to blow up the planet or start a monologue about you being genetically superior, it's okay.”

“Perish the thought, mother. If anything, my monologues are about peace and loyalty.”

“I can agree to that. He even made up his own little song,” I said and Cell's eyes lit up as he turned to Bulma only to look disappointed as she shook her head.

“Later. Trunks and Vomi said that the honeymoon didn't suit them so they're coming back later tonight.”

“Oh, really? Here I was thinking they'd be gone for at least a week,” I said as Cell and I floated up to the upper catwalk after he turned it back into its capsule form, handing it over to Bulma who took it with a soft thanks while nodding.

“Apparently, the two found a few bugs on the island and both of them don't do jungle critters so they decided to cut their losses and come back home.”

“That's quite the amusing sentence. A Saiyan and an Android, two beings capable of destroying planets, fear pests.”

“Yeah, bugs don't really care about power levels,” Bulma spoke with a smirk and I chuckled before she grabbed a wrench from besides her. “Now, you go and relax while I run diagnostics on the Time Machine. Got to make sure it didn't pick up any temporal feedback.”

“I shall help you, mother. With my new enhanced brain, the calculations and simulations of improvements that we can do are running to and fro in my mind.”

“…Sure. Just don't melt my servers by trying to overclock them because they work too slow. When you nerd out, you tend to focus on power instead of productivity,” Bulma spoke as she tossed a datapad at him, Cell catching it with a grin as he nodded.

“As you command,” With that, I watched for a moment as the super-genius and the super-android went to work before turning and making my way to the lounge on the upper floor.

After all, I would be of no use here.

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The elevator ride back to the surface was filled with the faint sound of the music playing as I thought back to the current crisis that I was worrying about, that being the threat of Majin Buu, Babidi and Dabura as well as their Majin group.

That was a threat I could not take lightly, especially since Babidi operated at his best in the shadows where no one could find him and where he could manipulate events to cause chaos.

By the time anyone in the original story had heard about him, it was already too late as Buu had gotten enough energy to be revived and everything just went downhill from there.

That was a mistake I could not afford, especially since so many depended on me as their new king.

The elevator's opened with a soft ding and I walked out into the lounge, staring through the front doors at the Monke Kingdom where everyone was happily going about their day.

Yeah, it was a mistake I could not afford.

The sound of my communicator going off drew me back from my thought, but I frowned as the tone from it was one that was only used either by family members or emergencies.

“Hey, Gohan. It's Grandpa here,” Grandpa Ox's voice came through and I raised an eyebrow as the man was never one to call me other than the few times through the day to say that he loves me.

“Hello, Grandpa. What's wrong?”

“Well, we've got a bit of a problem. I sent out three Dragon Warriors earlier to check out this weird energy fluctuation Bulma's sensors picked up near the East City Ruins, but when I sent another group to find them after they didn't report in, they were just gone.”

“Gone as if ran away or gone as in gone?”, I asked, feeling the dread in my stomach growing ever so slightly as Grandpa sighed.

“Gone as in gone. There was no sign of a fight, none of their energy signatures were picked up on the radar and when Yajirobe and this second group went to go check, the energy trail just vanished.”

“Is Yajirobe still at this point?”, I asked as I held two fingers to my forehead, already feeling out Yajirobe's energy in the far distance before Gramps could answer.

“Yeah, you going to teleport over?”

“Yeah, I'll see what's up and talk back with you. In the meantime, call all Dragon Warriors back to the city and declare a quick lockdown to the other cities.”

“Will do. Grandpa out,” I rolled my eyes amusedly at his attempt to say goodbye before I turned off the call, vanishing and reappearing right beside Yajirobe who jumped along with the two dozen Dragon Warriors.

“Gohan! You really have to stop doing that!”

“Sorry, sorry, everyone. I didn't mean to startle you all like that,” I spoke, smirking as Yajirobe tried to regain his composure before looking around. “What's the situation?”

“We followed the energy trail, but it disappears right here. It's really weird too like it's leads up to here and then…nothing,” He said and I frowned as I stretched out my sensing, my eyes narrowing as I could feel the energy vanishing the moment I got to the point that we were.

“Could be someone with advanced ki control or perhaps technology to cloak their ki. Let's investigate the ruins and see if we can't find any evidence,” I said as I floated down, Yajirobe and the Dragon Warriors looking tense even as they followed my lead with no hesitation.

As we walked amongst the ruins of East City, I frowned at the eerie stillness around us, the place being unnaturally quiet as we all stayed close.

“Whatever happened here, it's not something we should take lightly,” I murmured as I scanned the area with my ki, feeling faint traces of energy, but it felt as if it was scattered intentionally to throw us off.

“I can feel something here, but I don't know what,” Yajirobe spoke up, the others nodding slowly as I nodded while looking around before my gaze focused on the figure standing on a rooftop.

They were dressed in a dark cloak to hide their face, but I appeared in front of them in the blink of an eye, floating just a few centimeters from them with a frown as I tried and failed to see under their cloak despite it being bright as hell.

“Who are you?”, I asked, watching as the dark void that was the underside of the person's hood lifted up to where we would have been face to face before I frowned at their scarlet red eyes and the wide yellow-teethed grin.

“King Gohan, how delightful to finally meet you. Babidi has been eager for someone to meet with you,” They spoke, an eerie echo to their voice as I frowned.

With zero hesitation, the air rumbled as I kicked at their skull, the fighter barely blocking the strike even as they were sent flying through a building and skidding across the ruined landscape.

The other fighters looked surprised at how fast I moved before I raised a hand right as they went to attack.

“Everyone, stay here and make sure there aren't any who might interfere!”

“You got it, Gohan!”, Yajirobe spoke up with a thumbs-up and I nodded as I floated down, shooting through the air and closing the distance between us in the blink of an eye.

The figure barely had time to respond before I was upon them, swinging a fist to their chest. Just as I struck though, I stopped at the dark energy that shot from their chest, vanishing and reappearing behind them.

A spinning roundhouse sent them skidding to the side as I landed, frowning at how their arms were shaking before I frowned as the dark energy wrapped around their arms and healed it.

“So, you're a minion to Babidi?”, I asked as I floated down, wanting to end this quickly but also wanting to get information that would help us.

“You think you can defeat us so easily, Gohan? Hahahaha! You have not even begun to feel the weight of Babidi's influence!”, They exclaimed with a manic grin and I didn't say anything as the golden aura of Super Saiyan erupted from my body.

“I don't have time for this,” With a lunge, I was in front of the figure with a fist pulled back, swinging it forward and punching through their arms, delivering a crushing blow to their chest that had them choking on air.

Before they could be sent flying, my left hand reached out and caught their head right as I lifted my right hand, unleashing a ki blast directly into their chest that exploded violently.

The force of it was enough to blast away their cloak and sent them flying, their body skipping across the ruins before slowly coming to a stop in an empty street.

“You're not…the first to underestimate Babidi's power, but soon~ Soon, you all will join the others in submission to Majin Buu~!”, To my surprise, the being was not dead as that dark energy from earlier was stitching their wounds shut, the burns on their pale grey body fading away.

“And you won't be the last of your group to die for threatening my people,” I spoke softly as I appeared beside them, the Power Pole in my hand as I held it to the side of their skull before extending it through their head and out the other side.

A burst of ki exploded his head before I swung the Power Pole down, a ki barrier incinerating their body to smithereens as I sighed.

Looks like my hunch was right.

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“You know, I came back to enjoy the rest of my off-time…and now I have to worry about fighting against some evil wizard and his army of mind-controlled minions?”, Trunks said with a frown as he sat at the table, a smirk spreading across my face as Mom and Bulma rolled their eyes while Vomi patted his shoulder.

“It's okay, Trunks. Besides, think of this as a way to show off the new moves you've learned.”

“You learned new moves? Huh, I wanna see that now,” I spoke with a grin and Trunks rolled his eyes before I looked to Videl as she spoke.

“Gohan, who exactly is this Babidi character?”

“To be quite honest, I have no concrete idea either. I just know he is able to give his men a way to heal with some kind of dark energy and that his men are blindingly loyal to him, which lets me think that he may be using some kind of mind control to do this. Also, with this Majin Buu that the guy kept mentioning, I think that's a weapon they have at the ready, but they can't seem to use it for now.”

“So, we need to make sure they don't get a chance to use it and take out this guy at the same time, then,” Erasa said and I chuckled as Bulma shook her head.

“If it was only that easy. If this Babidi person is able to give others some form of cellular regeneration, then he must be strong and if he is strong, then whatever he's trying to revive is most definitely an end-all type of weapon or being.”

“In that case, our first priority is to figure out where Babidi is by scanning for their unique energy,” I said as I looked to Bulma, who nodded as Cell cleared his throat.

“We have been struggling a bit to lock down on the specific frequency of the energy, but we have managed to narrow it down to the eastern side of the continent.”

“…That…Well, that is still pretty good,” I said with a nod, to which Cell rolled his eyes as he smirked.

“It's atrocious, but unfortunately, Babidi has some way to reflect our methods to sense his energy. If we had better sensors or technology, perhaps it would have been possible then.”

“Then, perhaps we could be of assistance.”

“…Is there someone behind me?”, I asked as I looked to Bulma, who didn't answer as she along with everyone else were stunned silent.

The voice sounded familiar and as I slowly turned around and stared at the spiky, white-haired dudes dressed in formal clothing and with polite smiles, I sighed as I pinched the bridge of my nose.

'Well, Babidi is already here so why not throw the Kais in as well, eh universe?'

A/N: And the Buu arc is underway, but this will be a bit of a long one as I will be throwing elements of Daima and GT in here as well.

Essentially, this is probably the final long arc of the story as this will be just a big war arc for the story.

Yeah, it's a short one and I didn't think we would get here, but both this story and Perfection are in their final moments. Ah, such is life.

Anyway, next chapter: Happy gods and Angry demons.

As always, read, enjoy, review and until the next one…

Ba-Bye~!!