The Dark Shenron had said the wish 'restore youth' was a simple one — but the actual restoration process was anything but.
Even a dragon who could fulfill wishes with effortless elegance had its limits. Restoring Mechikabura — the oldest Supreme Kai in existence, the very creator of the Demon Realm — to his absolute prime required a staggering amount of energy.
A seven-colored halo of light enveloped the ancient, withered Demon Realm Supreme Kai. When the radiance finally dispersed and faded, the frail, elderly figure was gone. In his place stood a tall man with silver hair, dressed in a black formal suit and fastened with a sweeping crimson cape.
He closed his eyes for a moment. When they opened again, two streaks of dark crimson shadow materialized instantly across his brow and eyelids.
Mechikabura clenched his fists, feeling power surge back through his body, and couldn't hold back a thunderous laugh.
Towa and an entire host of Celestial Mages dropped to their knees in reverence.
With his body fully revitalized, Mechikabura raised a hand — and a golden scroll materialized instantly in his grasp. Like Aeos's Time Crown, it was one of the supreme treasures of the Supreme Kai of Time: the Scroll of Time, a record of every civilization's history across all of existence.
He turned its pages gently, using the Scroll of Time in place of an ordinary timeline — peering into every corner of civilization, every crack between the moments, to survey the whole of the multiverses.
Once he had seen all he needed to see, he raised his right hand and drove his fist straight up into the sky.
The pitch-black world seemed to be split in two by a thread of silver-white light — top from bottom — and the entire Demon Realm shuddered violently. Countless low-ranking Demon Clan members were killed by the shockwave alone. Yet the seal, constructed from the power of Time, managed to repair itself at the very moment it was about to shatter.
Mechikabura let out a cold sneer. "Hm. Fairly solid work, I'll grant them that. Dark Shenron — my second wish..."
He waved a hand, and a flat diagram of the twelve universes appeared before him, each pair facing the other. He studied the gaps between the universes with careful eyes, and finally settled on his target.
"My second wish: merge the Sixth Universe and the Seventh Universe into one."
Dark Shenron's expression shifted to obvious distress. It had only absorbed a mere sliver of the Super Dragon Balls' power — it was not a Super Dragon. A wish of this scale was clearly beyond it.
"Just do it. Did you hear me?" Mechikabura said darkly.
Dark Shenron could only nod. "...Fine. This is your wish. I'll try my best..."
——
As Dark Shenron's divine power left the Demon Realm and entered cosmic space, the Sixth Universe and the Seventh Universe began merging together in a deeply unsettling way.
Kizashi Haruno — wearing the Hokage's conical hat, draped in the Hokage robe, his face showing the lines of age — stared at the village before him: familiar, yet utterly wrong. His head was full of question marks.
Hadn't he just been working in his office? How had his vision flickered for a single moment and deposited him outside the village gates?
Was this another God Tree incident like last time?
"Lord Hokage!"
A large crowd of village ninja quickly gathered around him. Beyond them, an even larger ring of Konoha ninja had already formed a perimeter.
The two sides' uniforms were noticeably different. The Sixth Universe ninja were still using the old-style Konoha forehead protectors, while on the Seventh Universe side, designations like Iwagakure and Sunagakure had long since been abolished — every ninja here wore a forehead protector bearing the single character for "Shinobi."
The two groups faced each other across a clear divide, both sides wary, neither making a move.
Asuma had taken up smoking again after his daughter grew up. Now he stared at the surrounded cluster of ninja in total bewilderment — the cigarette fell right out of his mouth.
Was that salt-and-pepper-haired old man really Kizashi Haruno? Dressed head to toe in a Hokage's regalia — were you planning a coup? He honestly hadn't seen it coming. Those thick eyebrows and wide eyes of yours, and you've got more gall than Danzo?
The vigorous-looking old man with the white beard to Kizashi Haruno's left — was that Kakashi? And that potbellied, utterly listless figure next to him — was that Might Guy?
Was he still dreaming?
"Who are you people?"
"Is this some kind of genjutsu?"
Both sides spoke at exactly the same moment.
The ninja armies held their standoff.
On the other side of the village, Sasuke ran into another Sasuke.
"You fake — you dare show your face in front of me?! Chidori!"
"Ha? Everyone in Konoha knows my reputation as the dashing Sasuke — you're the one with the face like a funeral, you impostor. Take this — True Chidori!"
A timid, conservatively dressed Ino Yamanaka was walking alone through a narrow alley. Then five or six Root ninja jumped out and called her the Seventh Hokage, demanding she come out and take charge of the situation. She was so startled she froze solid. Someone like her — Hokage?
Naruto stepped out of Ichiraku Ramen and hadn't taken two steps before he came face to face with a red-haired woman of remarkably gentle disposition: Kushina Uzumaki. He stopped dead in his tracks.
Shikamaru — who couldn't reliably do single-digit arithmetic — was taken down in one move by Terumi Mei. Before the former Mizukage could even begin interrogating him, Choza Akimichi came charging in.
"Mom, I'm going out to take a look! Ow, ow, ow!" Himawari threw on her coat and bolted for the door, eager to show these strange Konoha ninja her Super Otsutsuki form — only for Hinata to yank her back by the ear. This child was too reckless. You have no idea what's happening out there — what are you running off for?
The entire village descended into chaos: each side tangled up with the other, friend indistinguishable from stranger. The Sixth Universe ninja looked out at all the Sunagakure, Kumogakure, and Kirigakure shinobi that had suddenly appeared on Konoha's side, and every instinct told them something was very wrong — they guessed it was probably some large-scale genjutsu along the lines of the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
The Sixth Universe ninja had arrived first; after them came the buildings, merging in all at once.
The Hokage Rock, which had already been carved with eight faces, suddenly sprouted four more enormous heads. A hospital materialized beside the Ninja School, while the original Konoha Hospital was swallowed up by a dense forest. Shizune led a team to rescue patients still in the original wards; the remaining ninja held the perimeter, braced for attack.
On Earth.
Son Gohan was at Orange Star High School reviewing his coursework, preparing for his university entrance exams. Son Goku had taken his "mini-me" Son Goten fishing — and before either of them had gotten so much as a nibble, a massive nuclear crater opened up on Mount Paozu. Father and son stared at the scar left by humanity's most powerful weapon, completely at a loss.
No. 17 had just walked out of a movie theater with his girlfriend when he found that the parking lot had vanished, replaced by a heap of rubble — his brand-new car buried under the debris, clearly totaled.
The once-thriving Earth had suddenly doubled in size. The Sixth Universe's Earth — which had long since become a dead, abandoned planet — had been merged directly onto it.
The fusion was brutally crude. Environmental damage was the least of it — the planet's orbital path, its climate, the energy at its core: those were the real crises.
When the entire universe convulsed, No. 18, Krillin, and Kibito were separated from each other. When the tremors finally stopped and they opened their eyes, they found themselves back in what looked like the familiar Seventh Universe — or at least something that looked like it.
Majin Buu had come through with them. The group found their footing at the Galactic Patrol headquarters in the Seventh Universe.
Back when Ino had served as Proxy West Kai, she'd maintained contact with these Galactic Patrol officers — who ranked as little more than temps in the eyes of the divine hierarchy. No. 18 knew them too.
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