Fanfic: "History of Beerus"

[Polyphase Avatron]

Chapter 11

Over 12 hours later, Beerus finally woke up. The first thing he noticed was that he was feeling a lot better. He could tell his bones were still broken, but most of the pain had been reduced to a dull ache. He yawned, throwing off the bed sheets and approaching his unwilling host, who was still floating half a meter or so off the ground, trapped by the glowing sphere of ki.

"Y-you're awake! Finally! Now please, release me from this thing!"

Beerus smirked playfully. "Why should I?" He enjoyed the suffering of this being, who he knew would turn him in in an instant if he had the chance.

"Because..." The alien stammered, shivering unnaturally.

"Because?" Beerus repeated, still smiling.

"Because... I have to use the toilet!"

A large drop of sweat formed on the Nekosei-jin's face. He hadn't considered that.

"Fine," he said, snapping his fingers, as the energy ball instantly dissipated, causing its prisoner to drop unceremoniously to the floor. The alien quickly got up and ran for a nearby door, but was stopped cold by his captor's voice.

"But-", Beerus began, "I still can't let you out of my sight."

The diminutive alien looked at him, incredulous. "You can't be serious."

"Hey, it's not like I'm looking forward to the prospect or anything! But I can't give you a chance to report to your superiors. Besides, I just realized, I have to go too."

After their business was done, Beerus changed into a standard set of armored clothes available at the outpost, and struck a fighting pose. He threw a few volleys of rapid-fire punches and kicks into the empty air, testing his body's recovery.

After a while, he stopped, questioning the Arcosian soldier again.

"Will that pill thing help my bones heal?"

"It-it should," the alien began, intimidated by the scene he had just witnessed, as Beerus' attacks were far too rapid for his eyes to follow. "They should begin to re-knit themselves in a few hours. Once 24 hours have passed, you can take another pill, and you should be fully healed a day or so after that."

"Good enough," the feline shrugged. "I'm going to go and-"

Before he could finish, a sharp, electronic tone resounded through the building, the Arcosian version of a doorbell. Beerus instantly rushed under the bed covers, hiding himself.

"Don't let anyone know I'm here," he whispered, "or I'll blow this whole place sky-high."

The alien nervously nodded, and headed to answer the door. He was greeted by two taller, armored soldiers, who he immediately saluted.

"Scout 3961, report. Have you found any clues to the location of the fugitive?" One of them asked.

"No, sir!" The alien said. "Nothing here!"

"Where is your partner?"

"Um..." the frightened soldier stammered, and then quickly made up a lie. "We're taking turns searching the area, he's currently out on patrol."

"Good. I'll contact him and see if he's found anything," one of the soldiers said, reaching for a button on his scouter.

"No! Uh, I mean, no, that's not necessary, I can do that myself." He closed the door and then re-emerged half a minute later. "I just checked in with him, he still hasn't found anything."

The two soldiers looked at each other, realizing something wasn't quite right, but they had been trained to be efficient and not nose around in unnecessary business.

"Very well, Scout 3961. Continue your patrols, and report if you find anything."

"Y-yes sir!" He saluted again, and the two officers flew off.

Sighing with relief, the scout returned to the bedroom, to find Beerus up and walking around again, this time inspecting the medical kit where the cellular regeneration pills were stored.

"They're gone," he informed the feline.

"Good job," he muttered, taking a handful of the red-and-white medicines and pocketing them. As he did so, the small alien noticed a peculiar object in Beerus' pocket.

"What's that?"

"Oh, this?" The cat-man smiled proudly, demonstrating his trophy. "Just a little souvenir, courtesy of Icer."

Recognizing that it must have been part of the tyrant's outer carapace, the small soldier shuddered in fear. "In-incredible..."

"Unfortunately, the rest of him escaped intact. Next time we meet, he won't be so lucky." Beerus pocketed the horn shard again, and began heading towards the door.

"W-where are you going?"

"No idea, but I'm not staying here. You've done enough to help me already."

"Y-you're not going to kill me?" The alien asked, baffled.

"Oh, thanks for reminding me," Beerus snarled, turning, and soon burst out laughing as he found the Arcosian scout cowering in terror before him.

"Hah, I was just kidding," he said. "The way I figure it, you won't have any idea where I'm going, and if you tell anybody that I was here, all that you'll accomplish is getting yourself executed for incompetence and lying to your superiors. So I figure I can count on you to keep your mouth shut."

"Th-thank you!" The alien said, bowing politely.

"By the way," the cat-man said as he stepped outside. "If I were you, I would suggest booking a trip on the next spaceship out of here."

"Why?"

"Let's just say, this planet might not be around for much longer. Bye!"

And, with that, he rushed off into the forest, proceeding on foot both to conserve energy and avoid detection.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Chapter 12

Beerus awoke in a cool, damp cave that he had earlier taken shelter in. He shivered involuntarily due to the low temperature, powering up a bit of an aura to warm himself.

The last day and a half had been spent on the move, laying low. Although there was only one being on this planet strong enough to threaten him, he wanted the inevitable confrontation to take place on his own terms, which would hopefully give him an advantage.

He had been moving from place to place, avoiding patrols, letting his body further recuperate, and even engaging in training exercises when he had the chance. Nothing too flashy though, as he didn't want to attract unnecessary attention. He had taken the second pill when he was advised to, and estimated it had been another 24 hours since then. Just as the scout has said, he was feeling better. His ribs were still a little sore, but overall he was feeling pretty good.

He had also spent the time concocting a plan of action. It basically went like this:

Step 1: Find and steal a spaceship, then hide it somewhere
Step 2: Defeat Icer
Step 3: Force some underling into showing him how to program the ship to take him back home
Step 4: Take off, destroying the planet as he left, thus ending the threat of the Arcosian Empire for all time, or so he hoped.

He chuckled a bit to himself. Step 2 would be, by far, the most difficult. Some might think him arrogant for planning for what would happen afterwards, as if his victory was already certain. But the way he saw it, if he won, he would need a plan for what to do next, whereas if he lost, he most likely wouldn't get another chance, so it made sense to do his planning now.

He also had to prepare for the fight itself, of course. His injuries were already healed to the point where they wouldn't make any real difference, and he was actually feeling a bit stronger than he had when he had first faced the alien tyrant. Still, the battle would be by no means easy. Although it was kind of cowardly, he realized his best chance was to ambush his opponent. Icer didn't stay in his fifth form all the time, so if he could take him by surprise, there was a good chance he could kill him before he transformed again.

In the eventuality that the Arcosian did have a chance to reach his ultimate form, things would become quite a bit more difficult. He had experienced and mentally reviewed the fighting styles of both Frigid and Icer, and believed he was better prepared to take them on this time, but Icer's sheer speed, strength, and power were still enormous. The outcome of the fight was far from certain.

Standing up, he began doing a few more exercises, throwing punches and kicks, crushing rocks, and lifting his own body vertically with one hand at a time. The gravity on this planet was slightly greater than his homeworld, so that helped a bit.

After a few hours of this, he flew up, smashing through the ceiling of the cave and emerging above a frozen tundra landscape. Earlier, he had scouted out what appeared to be a spaceport a few hundred kilometers East of here, so he began running in that direction, keeping his ki low and sticking to the ground to avoid detection.

As the dawn broke, he arrived at his destination. Several towers and runways of obviously alien construction dominated a large plateau, and flying vessels, mostly the small, sphere-shaped kind he had arrived on, took off and landed once every few minutes.

Using quick bursts of super speed, Beerus slipped in past the guards, and entered one of the runways. A very large ship, bigger than any he had seen before, and roughly saucer-shaped, was being fueled by a group of wheeled vehicles. He inspected this scene covertly from behind a wall, then quickly jumped to the other side of the wall when he heard voices approaching.

"Preparations are almost complete," one alien said. "Lord Icer's vessel should be departing momentarily."

Beerus' eyes widened at that. He knew he had to be decisive. In one swift movement he attacked the group of aliens, destroying their scouters, and covered their mouths so they couldn't cry out for help.

"What did you say?" He asked, having absconded with his prisoners into a small, empty shack, presumably used for fuel storage.

He took his hand off of the mouth of one of the soldiers, who began stammering.

"L-Lord Icer is about to t-take off," he murmured. The planet-wide manhunt had evidently informed everyone of who Beerus was and what he looked like, which, in a way, was convenient, as weaklings like this knew better than to try to challenge him.

"Where is he going?"

"T-to your home planet," the other alien said. "He was convinced you were d-dead, so he said he was going to prevent anyone of your s-species from c-challenging him ever again, by destroying the p-planet Nekosei."

Beerus cursed. He obviously couldn't let Icer get away with this plan, which meant he would have to take him on now, before he was fully prepared. Just then, something occurred to him.

He hadn't sensed Icer's enormous ki when approaching this place! He stretched out his senses, and detected what was unmistakably the Arcosian tyrant's energy on the ship, but it was heavily suppressed. If he could take him by surprise before he had the chance to power up-

His thoughts were interrupted by a deafening roar coming from outside. Leaving his two prisoners, he tore his way out of the shack, only to see the large spacecraft ascending into the sky, driven by powerful engines. He immediately flew after it, knowing he had to stop it before it left the atmosphere and engaged its stardrive.

Dashing in front of the ship, he fired a concentrated ki blast, tearing a hole in the vessel. It immediately stopped its ascent, and began falling back to the planet's surface, smoking and burning. To the feline's consternation, however, another large explosion rocked the ship, and Icer, already transformed to his fifth form, burst out of the hull, confronting him in mid-air. As the ship continued to plummet, a few dozen survivors flew out of the wreckage, scattering in multiple directions. Several hundred weaker soldiers, spilling from the breached hull like sand from a ripped bag, began falling to their deaths.

"Aren't you going to do anything about those guys?" Beerus asked, indicating the rain of hapless aliens. "I don't think they can fly."

Icer dismissively raised a hand, and fired a single beam, vaporizing both the remains of his ship, and the freefalling soldiers.

"Useless weaklings," he muttered. "We searched everywhere, and were sure you were dead. How did you survive?"

"You should have checked the area for a body," Beerus smirked.

"Oh, believe me, I will this time," Icer retorted. They both then began gathering as much ki as they could for their final confrontation.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Chapter 13

"You will pay for disfiguring me, you scum," Icer said coolly, gesturing at the stub protruding from his head, where a spiked horn had once been.

Beerus smirked. "Oh, you're still sore about that?" He reached into his pocket and took out the horn fragment. "Here, you can have it back then!"

Rushing at top speed, he rammed the horn into one of Icer's eyes, causing the Arcosian to scream out in pain and rage, immediately releasing a massive wave of destructive ki in all directions.

As the dust cleared, Icer, purple blood trickling from his ruined eye, saw that his opponent was still there, floating in front of him, having braced himself against the attack by crossing both arms in front of his chest.

"Why you-" He charged the feline, but his attack missed, and he was rewarded with a double-legged kick to the back, sending him hurtling toward the ground. Before he hit the surface, he recovered, and countered with a death beam barrage.

Despite his bravado and seeming initial advantage, Beerus was getting worried. He had only managed to dodge Icer's charge due to being able to anticipate the alien's movements based on their previous fights - if not for that, he was sure he would have been hit. And, though he could deflect the death beams being fired at him, each one still stung quite painfully. He knew he had to put Icer back on the defensive if he was going to win this fight.

Creating a spherical ki shield around his body, he charged the tyrant, who dodged and replied with a slicing beam, which appeared to go right through the shield and vivisect the cat-man in two. However, the image soon blurred and disappeared, and Beerus appeared scant meters behind his opponent, firing a very powerful, condensed purple ki beam from his finger. Icer spun around in time to smack it away with one hand, sending it over the horizon.

"You insignificant bug! Why won't you die already!?" The Arcosian yelled, charging again. This time, Beerus met him head-on.

Their battle proceeded at incredible speed, the two of them exchanging punches and kicks, and the sky of the planet Arcosia resounded with sonic booms, bursting in many different locations at once almost simultaneously, like a huge fireworks display.

After over half a minute of this melee combat, the two warriors alighted upon some nearby rock formations, facing each other.

"You're certainly fast, and strong," Beerus said, catching his breath. "But your technique is a bit sloppier than I remember." The feline gestured toward his eye. "Maybe it's a problem with your depth perception?"

Icer growled, still blinded in one eye from the earlier assault. "You dare mock me?"

"I've dared a lot more than that," Beerus replied, assuming another fighting stance, and giving a 'come at me' gesture with one paw.

Icer's next move took him by surprise, as the alien blasted the rock formation under Beerus' feet, instinctively making him fly up into the air. However, Icer was waiting for him above, and trapped him in another Imprisonment Ball.

"This again?" The feline warrior scowled. "You need to be more-" as he said these words, he flared his ki to escape the trap, "-original!"

As the ki prison burst apart around him, he suddenly sensed something alarming - Icer had been using the time it took to escape the technique in order to gather ki for a very powerful attack.

"See you in Hell, fool!" The tyrant laughed, as he launched a massive orb of energy at point-blank range. Beerus had no room to dodge, so the only thing he could do was try to hold it back, but the immense ki blast kept pushing him back, down towards the ground.

He could feel Icer charging up for another attack, so he quickly disengaged from the attempt at pushing the glowing orb and flew downwards. The ki blast, now unrestrained, picked up speed, but Beerus was fast enough to put a good amount of distance between it and him, and, after touching the ground, he then reversed direction and flew upwards, channeling his power into a double-handed smash that sent the attack back up into the sky. Icer quickly dodged his own deflected blast, but then was taken by surprise as the purple cat delivered a strong uppercut to his face.

Icer recovered and smacked the feline with his tail, sending him crashing into a rock formation.

Before the dust even had a chance to clear, a barrage of orange ki blasts fired upwards at Icer, who dodged most of them, but Beerus then appeared in front of him, charging a point-blank blast with both hands. The tyrant managed to avoid it and retaliated with a blast of his own, which Beerus deflected. The two exchanged more melee attacks, until Icer finally got the drop on his foe and knocked him back to the ground.

Beerus quickly stood up and dusted himself off, eyeing his opponent, who was still floating several hundred meters above him. There was something he had been meaning to try, and he figured now was as good a time as any.

"That was a good attempt," he shouted, "but you know what I really liked? That technique you used to beat me last time. It was really very impressive."

"Oh?" Icer smiled. "You liked that, huh? Well, in that case..." Raising one hand, the alien tyrant quickly created a massive, orange-yellow ball of ki, flaming like a miniature sun.

"Do you still like it now?" He taunted, firing the attack downward at his foe.

"Yeah, I do," Beerus replied, gathering ki of his own. "In fact, I like it so much, I figure I'll try it myself!"

Raising both hands above his head, the feline created his own ki sphere, which quickly swelled in size to match that of Icer's.

"What? How can you copy my technique after only witnessing it twice!?" Icer screamed.

"What can I say, I'm a fast learner," Beerus replied, throwing his supernova ball up to meet Icer's.

Beerus reflected how, technically, he had encountered the technique three times before, including the battle with Frigid in the Pendulum Room, but Icer didn't need to know that.

As the two small suns collided, a huge shockwave, followed by a hurricane-force wind, swept the landscape, the ki spheres meeting in an effective standstill, each trying to overwhelm the other.

Both combatants poured more and more power into their attacks, until the very ground underneath them began to disintegrate, the clash creating a brilliant spectacle of light that would appear blinding even from orbit.

Icer raged inwardly as he concentrated on forcing his attack through. No one had ever been able to resist his ultimate death sphere before, and he certainly wasn't about to let that change now! Firing a fresh wave of ki to reinforce his attack, he smiled as he felt it picking up speed, pushing back the upstart feline's imitator.

"Hah!" he boasted. "A cheap copy, is all yours is! You're no match for me!"

"Who are you talking to?" A voice rang out from behind him. His concentration broken, Icer whirled around, but it was too late. Beerus had somehow escaped from his side of the clash and maneuvered behind the distracted Arcosian! Striking with lightning speed, the feline kicked his opponent downwards, right into the middle of the still-ongoing clash of ki spheres. As the alien's body reached the center of the two blasts, they both detonated, creating an enormous explosion that shook the entire planet.

Beerus finally stopped shielding his eyes as the glare died down. Landing in the enormous crater, he cleared the dust with a quick kiai, and began searching for his adversary. He wasn't intent on making the same mistake Icer had during their first battle.

His ki sense alerted him in time, and he jumped backward as a hand burst out of the ground, attempting to grab him. The rest of Icer's body soon followed, but it was beaten, scorched, and bruised, his exoskeleton cracked in several places, and yet more of that odd purple blood was dripping from the tyrant's mouth.

"You will pay dearly for-"

"Shut up," Beerus interrupted, delivering a punch to the alien's cranium, sending him flying backwards and crashing into the crater wall. "I've had just about enough of your cliched dialogue."

Icer burst out of the rock, charging again, but his speed had slowed, and the feline countered, delivering several damaging punches and kicks to the alien's head and gut. Icer got a hit in himself, but it didn't mean much, as Beerus replied with a powerful ki blast. Icer tried to shield himself, but the injuries he had already received were worsened, and now he was bleeding from several wounds across his body after the blast washed over him.

"This-this can't be happening! I am Lord Icer, the strongest warrior of the entire North Galaxy!" The Arcosian was becoming practically hysterical now.

"There is no way I can be defeated by some no-name, primitive upstart! THERE'S JUST NO WAY!" With this, the weakened tyrant began gathering ki for another attack, but the process was slower than before, and Beerus interrupted him with a series of melee attacks, finishing with a tail slap, sending him back to the bottom of the crater.

Icer began to stand up again, but Beerus blasted him with a powerful beam of purple ki, targeted specifically at one of the alien's wounds. The beam pierced the tyrant straight through his chest, and he began coughing up blood.

With a final, mighty punch, the feline sent Icer smashing back to the ground. This time, he wouldn't be getting back up.

Beerus began panting, desperately trying to catch his breath. He had sustained quite a few wounds himself, and over the course of the fight, he was pretty sure some of his old injuries had been worsened before they had a chance to fully heal. Still, he was in much better shape than his opponent, who was only barely clinging to consciousness.

Walking over to stand above his beaten foe, the Nekosei-jin began to boast.

"That was touch and go there for a while, but in the end, it looks like you came up short. You should have never sent your goons to my planet, asshole!"

To emphasize the point, Beerus kicked some rocks onto the bleeding, dying alien.

"You know what I'm going to do now? After arranging passage back home, I'm going to make sure that you and your Empire never threaten anyone ever again. I'm going to do to your planet what you planned to do to mine!"

To his surprise, the half-dead, half-buried Icer began laughing when he heard this, coughing up yet more blood.

"What? What's so funny?"

"Even if you *cough* kill *cough* m-me..." he began, wheezing and hemorrhaging, "You *cough* could never destroy *cough* *hack* Arcosia... 'He' won't *cough* let you..."

Beerus just spat on the soon-to-be-corpse. "I have no idea what you're talking about. You must be delusional. Now die."

And, with that, the feline warrior raised a finger and fired another ki beam, finally putting an end to the reign of Lord Icer.

[Mystic Buu]

Another strong fighter .I like this fanfic.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Thanks. You'll see who Icer was referring to next chapter.

[xmysticgohanx]

Only read chapters 1-4 so far, looks pretty good keep it up

[Polyphase Avatron]

Thanks, I'll try my best to do just that.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Chapter 14

Beerus floated up into the air, surveying the landscape. Unfortunately, the spaceport that he was planning on raiding had been destroyed in the battle, along with pretty much everything else on this continent. The cat-man sighed. Despite Icer's cryptic words as he lay dying, he could sense no powers on or near the planet even remotely capable of challenging him anymore, so he could afford to take his time.

He lazily began flying towards the largest concentration of ki signatures he could detect, going slowly so as to let his wounds heal and allow himself to recuperate from the intense battle.

Several hours later, after capturing and interrogating a few soldiers, he finally located another spaceport. The guards stationed there immediately aimed and fired their arm cannons at him, but he simply let the beams bounce off of him harmlessly, as he casually strolled towards what appeared to be the leader.

The panicking soldier continued to uselessly fire his weapon, until Beerus was less than a meter in front of him. The feline grabbed the gun with one hand, crushing it, along with the bones of its wielder's arm. The officer screamed out in pain, and the other soldiers finally stopped firing.

"I need a ship," Beerus said simply.

Realizing that they might be allowed to live if they granted his request, the officer and his soldiers stammered an affirmative and ran off, soon returning in a wheeled truck-like vehicle, carrying one of the distinctive space pods.

"W-what is your destination, sir?" The injured officer asked.

"Planet Nekosei."

"Ah - um, I'll have to look that up in the database."

Conferring with some of the technicians, who punched keys on a computer terminal, they finally programmed the space pod for its destination.

Eyeing the vehicle, Beerus surprised them by lifting the entire thing over his head and flying up into the sky.

"What's he doing?" One of the soldiers asked.

"I don't know," replied the wounded officer. "But assuming he figures out how to use the ship, he's in for a nasty surprise. I had it programmed to fly him straight into the sun!"

The others laughed at their commander's ingenuity. The alien who had invaded and devastated their world would soon meet an untimely end, they were sure.

Meanwhile, Beerus was reaching the edge of space. He threw the pod gently into orbit, and stood on top of it. The atmosphere was much thinner up here, and it was harder to breathe, but he could get used to it.

Watching the frost-covered orb that was Arcosia slowly turn below him, Beerus noted the battle scars left by his fight with Icer, visible even from up here, and smiled. In his time on this wretched sphere, he had learned that the evil empire governed from this world had conquered and destroyed hundreds, even thousands of innocent planets like his own. It was time for them to finally receive their karmic retribution.

He hesitated for a bit. He had never destroyed a planet before - although, he reasoned, if Icer could do it, and he had defeated Icer, then it shouldn't be that difficult. In fact, he would use his own version of Icer's attack to do so. Poetic justice, he chuckled to himself.

Just as he prepared to gather the needed ki, he noticed something odd. Floating, suspended in front of the planet, only a few hundred meters in front of him, was a man.

The man was odd-looking, with blue skin, tall, white hair, and a strange ring around his neck that appeared to be suspended on nothing. He was carrying a strange - looking staff, which also had free-floating components. The strangest thing of all, though, was that, try as he might, Beerus was unable to sense this being's ki at all.

Halting the preparation of his attack for a second, Beerus shouted. "Who are you supposed to be?"

Replying in a calm, polite voice, the strange man introduced himself, bowing courteously. "My name is Whis. I am the attendant of the Hakaishin."

"I have no idea what that means," Beerus replied, "but if you know what's good for you, you had better move, because I'm about to destroy this planet!"

The being called Whis simply waved his finger in a scolding motion. "You will do no such thing. My master has given me standing orders to make sure Arcosia and its inhabitants survive."

Beerus found this amusing.

"You should have gotten here earlier, then! I already killed Icer and all of his strongest flunkies!"

"I saw," Whis said, clapping politely. "Quite impressive. But I cannot allow you to do any more damage."

Scowling, Beerus resumed creating his attack, a massive, glowing, sun-like sphere suspended above his head. "This is your last chance," he warned. "Get out of the way or die with the planet!"

He hurled the ball of ki down towards Whis, who didn't even react.

"What is he doing?" Beerus thought to himself. "He's not even trying to dodge it or anything!"

At the last second, before the massive sphere reached him, Whis raised his free hand, and held out his index finger. As the sun-like globe came in contact with it, it immediately halted its momentum, and then completely dispersed, bursting into nothing more than a diffuse orange glow that faded completely after a couple of seconds.

"What!?" Beerus exclaimed, unable to believe what he had just seen. "How did you do that!?"

"You really should just leave, Beerus-san," Whis said, the smug grin that never left his face starting to get on the feline's nerves. "You have done more than enough already."

"H-how do you know my name?"

"I have my sources," the man replied mysteriously.

"Just tell me why!" Beerus shouted. "Why won't you let me finish off this miserable planet? Do you know the amount of death and evil that has come from this place?"

"Of course," Whis replied, never dropping his amused tone. "In fact, that is why I was assigned to protect it. As I said, I am the attendant of the Hakaishin, the God of Destruction. When he hibernates, he assigns proxies to do his work for him. Currently, his proxy is the Arcosian Empire. As long as they destroy a certain amount of planets in a certain timeframe, balance in the universe is maintained without need of the Hakaishin's direct intervention."

"Well Icer and his best men are all dead," Beerus retorted, "so I think their ability to destroy planets has significantly diminished."

"Then why not just leave?" Whis countered.

"Why don't you leave?" Beerus shot back.

"My orders were not to protect any individuals, but merely to ensure the survival of the planet Arcosia and the Arcosian species."

Beerus rubbed his chin for a second, in thought. "Don't you think that with most of their power gone, this Hakaishin of yours might not find them very useful to him anymore? Why don't you ask him?"

"I could do that," Whis replied, "But I would have to first wait several years for him to wake up."

Beerus growled again. "I've had enough of your excuses! This planet is rubble, one way or another!"

Raising his hands above his head again, the feline formed yet another massive, glowing sphere of ki, this one slightly larger than the last, and threw it directly at Whis.

"Haven't you learned anything? That won't work," the mysterious man said, but Beerus smirked, as he began a strange gesture. Clenching both hands into fists, he crossed his arms at the wrists, and then spread his arms apart as wide as he could, fingers splayed. In response, the death ball, which had yet to reach Whis' position, split into 8 smaller but otherwise identical spheres, which rapidly rushed away from each other and then began approaching the planet, all from different directions.

"Ha! I'd like to see you block all of those!" Beerus laughed triumphantly. Whis glanced at the encroaching ki blasts, then turned his face back to the Nekosei-jin. For the first time, Whis' face had lost that calm, aloof expression, although his current expression was more one of annoyance than of anger. Still, Beerus considered that a triumph. The cat-man's grin faded quickly, though.

Raising one hand, Whis fired several simultaneous, glowing blue ki blasts, which rapidly overtook the larger, orange, sun-like spheres, and deflected them all away from the planet, until they detonated harmlessly in space.

"Okay, I didn't like seeing that as much as I said I would..." Beerus laughed nervously.

Whis stared at him, the arrogant expression returned to his face, although now it was tempered with what Beerus thought was a measure of respect, although he could have just been imagining it.

"That was a clever trick indeed," Whis began. "But you have no chance to get past me, no matter what you try. I will give you one last warning, leave immediately, or I will have to hurt you."

Beerus raged. "Why? I was so close! Why won't you let me finish the job!?"

"Only the Hakaishin has the ultimate right to decide which worlds live or die," Whis said simply.

"Then - then..." Beerus was getting hysterical, his frustration mounting to massive levels. "Then... I'll become the Hakaishin!"

He wasn't sure, but he thought he saw Whis' eyes widen a bit at this, but he didn't take time to confirm that, as he began gathering ki for a third death ball.

Before the deadly sphere could even form, however, he suddenly felt an immense pain in his stomach, and looked down, finding a blue fist firmly entrenched in his gut. He hadn't even seen his opponent move. Coughing up blood, the ki he was gathering dissipated, and Beerus fell into unconsciousness.

Whis regarded the defeated feline. Raising a finger, it began to glow with an bright blue light. He held the finger up to the inert creature's temple.

"I could just kill him," Whis thought to himself. "A simple ki beam through his brain would be all it would take."

Pondering the decision for a few more seconds, he finally lowered his finger, and the glow died. "No, I think I won't. This one is interesting. He has potential."

[Polyphase Avatron]

BTW, I will be dividing this story into arcs, and that last chapter concluded the first arc, the Icer arc. Next up is what I am going to call the Other World arc.

[Mystic Buu]

BTW, I will be dividing this story into arcs, and that last chapter concluded the first arc, the Icer arc. Next up is what I am going to call the Other World arc.

Other World arc?I really don't have a clue what will happen in that arc.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Well you'll just have to wait and see, then.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Chapter 15

Beginning of the Other World arc

Beerus slowly regained consciousness, his vision blurry. The first thing he was aware of was an acute pain in his abdomen, where the mysterious being who called himself Whis had punched him. He could feel that several of his recently-healed ribs had been broken again from the shock of the impact.

As his vision began to return, he noticed a blurry face looking down at him impassively. Rubbing his eyes, the image finally resolved itself - and Beerus gasped.

"You!" He exclaimed, raising a hand to release a ki blast directly at the offending face.

Whis simply bobbed his head to the side and then back again, evading the glowing orange bolt. It left a hole in the wall and continued streaking off harmlessly into the sky.

"Well, I see you're awake," he began, that smug, disinterested smile from before never leaving his face.

Beerus leapt to his feet and attempted to throw a punch, but his arm was intercepted by the blue-skinned creature, who held it in an impossibly tight, vice-like grip, resisting all of Beerus' efforts to free himself.

"Sit," Whis said, a note of threat entering his voice. The feline felt compelled to obey. As he did, Whis finally let got of his arm. Beerus licked the fur where his arm had been caught, trying to dull the pain.

"What's going on here? Where are we?" He asked, looking around. He was in a bed, in a small room that seemed vaguely familiar.

"We're back on your home planet, Beerus-san," Whis explained, the air of menace gone from his tone, his manner now jovial. "Surely you recognize it? Our host told me you have stayed here before."

Looking around, Beerus finally recognized their location - this was the same room he had slept in while training with the Nekosei-jin Kami! Somehow, they were back in his sanctuary.

"How did we get here?" He asked in confusion. "The ship only had room for one passenger."

"Ship?" Whis looked confused for a second. "Oh, you mean that vessel you dragged into orbit. It's still there. I brought us here using the power of my staff." He gestured to indicate the strange device.

The purple-furred cat was still unsure how the strange black orb and blue ring on top of it managed to stay afloat.

"How did you know where my home was?"

"I have been watching you for a while, ever since you fought off the first Arcosian invasion of this world."

"Who are you, anyway?"

"As I said, my name is Whis," the mysterious being began. "I am the attendant of the Hakaishin."

"Tell me more about this... Hakaishin."

"Of course. Just as the Kaioshin provide the impetus for planets to be born-"

"What's a Kaioshin?" Beerus interrupted.

"You really don't know anything, do you?" Whis laughed. Beerus scowled, but he knew better now than to provoke this being.

"The Kaioshin," Whis continued, "are the highest-ranking gods who oversee the universe. As I said, their ambient power provides the catalyst that allows planets to form. But," he waved a finger, "a balance must be maintained. The universe cannot become too crowded. So just as the Kaioshin are the Gods of Creation, there must be a Hakaishin, a God of Destruction. His job is to destroy excess planets, freeing up their material for new planets to form. There are five Kaioshin that oversee the universe, but only one Hakaishin. He spends most of his life sleeping."

"Sounds relaxing," Beerus commented.

"Indeed. But, when he awakes, all of the gods, from the guardians of individual planets like this, all the way up to the mighty Dai Kaioshin, are struck with fear. The Hakaishin does not choose his targets based on any edict of others, but destroys based on his own individual judgment. Even populated planets may be selected. The rest of the gods are forced to simply watch as he wreaks destruction across the universe."

"He sounds like a pretty strong guy."

"Indeed. Far stronger than you." Beerus snorted again at this comment, but Whis continued. "However, he is not as strong as he used to be."

"Why is that?"

"Even though, as a god, his lifespan is far beyond that of mortals, he is still doomed to die eventually. The current Hakaishin has been serving in his role for millions of years. He is getting dangerously close to the end of his life."

"So what happens when he finally kicks the bucket?"

"It will be up to me to choose a successor to take the position. Even a mortal can be granted the station of a god, if they prove themselves worthy."

Beerus suddenly recalled the comment he had made earlier, in the heat of battle. "Then... I'll become the Hakaishin!"

"Are you offering me the job?"

Whis laughed, making the feline scowl again. "No. You are far too weak."

Beerus hissed angrily at this, but didn't attempt to object. This Whis person was, by far, the strongest being he had ever encountered. If his master was anything like him, Beerus knew he couldn't compare.

"But," Whis raised a finger, "I am still in the process of scouting the universe for viable candidates. If you can increase your strength significantly within the next few years, you could make the list."

"Really?"

"Yes. I see great potential within you. Are you interested?"

Beerus considered this. Naturally, he was interested in becoming stronger, and this would give him a goal to strive towards. If he did manage to become the next Hakaishin, then he could make sure that no one threatened his planet or his people again. He could finally deal with the Arcosians and any other would-be conquerors for good. And, if what Whis said was true, everyone in the universe would fear and respect him. Plus, he would get to sleep as much he wanted!

"Okay, you've got my attention. This sounds like something I want."

"Excellent!" Whis clapped.

"What do I have to do?"

"We'll get to that later. First, I think it is time we inform our hosts that you have finally awakened."

Whis left the room, and Beerus tried to follow, but soon doubled over in pain from his injury.

"Dammit..." he coughed, collapsing back onto the bed.

Less than a minute later, Whis returned, along with the Nekosei-jin Kami and his attendant.

"Beerus-san! You're awake!" The old cat said.

"Yeah," Beerus replied, "But I've been in better shape."

"Oh! I can take care of that," the small, green assistant said. He walked over to the side of the bed and held his hands over Beerus, and they began to glow with a strange light.

"What's he doing?" The purple-furred feline asked.

"My attendant is trained in the healing arts," Kami explained. "You should be feeling the effects very soon."

Beerus' own body now started to glow, and the pain in his stomach began to fade. The attendant finally lowered his hands and returned to Kami's side.

Beerus was incredulous. He jumped out of bed, running his hands over the sites of his previous injuries. He was as good as new! He didn't feel even a bit of pain, and his ribs felt as if they had never even been damaged.

"That's amazing!" He exclaimed, staring at the small, green imp in disbelief. "If only you were around when I was on Arcosia, things would have been a lot easier!"

"That reminds me, is it true that you defeated Lord Icer?" Kami asked.

"Yep," Beerus said, taking the opportunity to boast. "I kicked his ass, just like I said I would!"

"Incredible," Kami said. "Icer and his empire have been the scourge of this galaxy for decades. Until you appeared, none could oppose him. Now our galaxy might finally have peace. I am so proud of you, Beerus-san!"

Beerus bowed politely, basking in the praise.

The green attendant then spoke. "Shouldn't Kaio be told about this?"

"Ah! Yes," Kami said. "Thank you for reminding me. He will certainly want to know."

"Kaio?" Beerus asked, confused again.

"One of the gods who watches over this area of space," Whis explained. "He is the one that your Kami reports to."

"Also, where did that hole come from?" Kami asked, eyeing the fist-sized puncture in the wall made by Beerus' ki blast.

"Uh, heheh, sorry about that..." Beerus said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"It's not important now," the ancient feline replied. "I should go contact Kaio immediately."

He left the room, his short, green attendant following.

"So where does this Kaio guy live?" Beerus asked Whis.

"In the Other World." Whis answered.

"Other World? I've heard of that before. What is it, another planet, like Arcosia?"

"No." Whis raised a hand, and his staff flew into his palm. Raising it, it began to project an image, showing an odd, dome-like structure.

"The universe is divided into separate realms. Places like this planet and Arcosia exist in what is known as the Mortal Universe, which is the largest division. It is home to the four galaxies and the vast majority of life in the universe. Below the Mortal Universe is the Demon Realm, and above it is the Other World. The latter is where the souls of the dead end up. Evil souls go to Hell, while good souls go to Heaven. Some beings, usually the strongest fighters, are even allowed to retain their bodies after death, to continue to train."

"So is this Kaio guy actually dead?"

"No. In addition to the dead, the gods also call Other World their home. That is, all except the gods of the planets in the Mortal Universe, as well as the the Kaioshin, who have their own separate realm, and the Hakaishin, whose temple is located elsewhere. The gods are normally the only living beings in all of Other World. From there, they can oversee the Mortal Universe with their powers."

Beerus was about to ask another question, but suddenly Kami returned, looking distressed. Whis tapped his staff on the floor, and the image it was projecting disappeared.

"Is there a problem?" Whis asked, his mood amiable as usual.

"I-I can't contact him!"

"What?"

"Kaio-sama! I can't contact him! He isn't responding to my telepathic calls!"

"Maybe he's busy," Beerus suggested.

"No, he has refused to listen to me before, but I can still sense him when I try to contact him. But now it's different - he just isn't there!"

"Hmm. That is odd," Whis said. "Perhaps I shall go investigate."

"Hey, take me with you!" Beerus requested.

"You want to come to Other World?"

"Yes! You said there were strong fighters there, maybe I can train with them."

"If you wish to become worthy of the title of Hakaishin, you need all the training you can get," Whis said. "Very well, you may accompany me."

Beerus followed Whis out into the open, standing on the floor of the sanctuary.

"So how does this work?"

"Just stand next to me," Whis said. "And we will depart."

Beerus did as he was told, and suddenly a strange, white glow enveloped Whis and himself. Without warning, they suddenly went zooming up into the sky.

Kami and his assistant watched them leave.

"He's just as rude as before," the attendant said, annoyed. "He never even thanked me for healing him!"

[Polyphase Avatron]

Chapter 16

It took a while for Beerus to get used to the peculiar feeling of weightlessness inside of the energy globe created by Whis' transportation technique. It was sort of like being in space, except the air was as thick as it had been before they left, and there was some kind of invisible surface he could stand on. Whis just stood there, unperturbed by all of this, as if it were the most natural thing in the world to him.

The scenes outside flashed by at a speed the feline could barely follow, and instead of the darkness of space as he expected, it soon gave way to a landscape of bright, colorful lights, still too blurred to make out.

Just when Beerus was finally getting used to this strange experience, the two of them slowed, and then landed on what seemed to be a carefully-cut lawn of green grass.

"We have arrived," Whis stated simply, as the glowing white energy around them dissipated.

Beerus inspected their surroundings. They were apparently on a planet, the gravity was higher than he was used to, but it didn't pose any real problems. All the way to the horizon (which was very close, strangely) the planet was covered in grass, except for a road paved with white stones. The sky was a strange shade of purple, and an even stranger plane of orange clouds was visible below it, which seemed to continue on into infinity.

Curiously, Beerus levitated off the ground, and flew forwards. A few seconds later, he reappeared from the opposite horizon, landing beside Whis once again.

"This planet is pretty small," he commented. "Only a few kilometers across, I'd guess."

"Such things are common in the Other World," Whis replied.

"Are you sure this is the right place?"

"Of course. This is the North Kaio's planet. But, as your Kami said, he is not here."

"Are you sure? I saw what looked like some kind of house on the other side, maybe we should check it out."

"There is no need. I cannot sense Kaio here. This planet is empty."

"So what do we do now?" Beerus asked.

"We will visit King Yemma. He should have answers for us."

"Who?"

Whis sighed. "King Yemma, the judge of the dead. He decides whether souls go to Hell or Heaven. He also works with the Kaios, so he should know what is going on."

"So let's go, then!"

Whis motioned for Beerus to stand beside him again, as he generated that odd white glow, and they took off.

This time, the trip was much shorter. Before Beerus could even get his bearings, the glow dissipated once again, and he found himself and Whis standing on a paved, elevated road, which was suspended over more of those odd, orange clouds. In front of them was a large, palatial building, where many such roads seemed to lead to. Moving down the roads, in single-file lines, were strange, gaseous - looking blue blobs. Curiously, Beerus reached out to touch one of them, but his hand simply passed through the creature.

Whis flew into the air, and proceeded towards the palace, and Beerus followed. Soon, however, they heard angry shouting from below them.

"Hey! No cutting in line!"

It was a short, blue-skinned being with two white horns and a megaphone.

Whis flew down to meet him.

"We are here to see King Yemma," Whis said politely.

"You're gonna have to wait your turn, buddy," the ogre replied. "We've got a lot of souls to process. So if you want to see him, just stand in line like everybody else." As he said this, he ushered a few more of the strange blue blobs past his checkpoint.

"I am sure King Yemma will make an exception for us," Whis said, his tone now taking on a note of menace, the same one he had used when threatening Beerus back at the sanctuary. "Tell him that Whis is here to see him."

The ogre, oblivious to the threat, tried to dismiss him. "Sorry buddy, no can do. If we just let anybody cut in line, there would be chaos. Now go back to the end of the line and wait your turn."

Whis scowled.

*************************

"Hell, Heaven, Hell, Hell, Heaven, Hell, Hell, Hell, Heaven, Hell..." The giant ogre stamped papers as fast as he could, sending souls off to their destinations. Just then, he was interrupted as one of his workers ran in.

"King Yemma!" Exclaimed the panicked blue ogre. "Intruders!"

The gargantuan ogre looked surprised. "Intruders, you say?" Who would try to invade here?

"We couldn't stop them, they're demanding to see you!"

"How many of them are we talking about here?"

"Just two, sir, but-" his words were cut off as he spotted something outside the room. "They're here!"

The ogre quickly ran and hid behind Yemma's desk.

Yemma was quite angry now. "Who dares to invade the check-in station and disrupt my business!" He roared.

In response, a slim, elegantly-dressed, blue-skinned figure slowly walked into view. Yemma's angered expression immediately gave way to one of fear, as he began sweating profusely.

"W-Whis-sama!" He gasped. The smaller ogre looked up, confused why his boss would be so terrified of this person.

Whis, back to his usual disposition, bowed politely. "Greetings, King Yemma."

"I-I apologize for any trouble my workers have caused you! I'll be sure to discipline them harshly later!" The giant ogre said, still terrified.

The blue ogre gulped at this.

"I-If you're here," Yemma continued, "Does that mean that-" His tone became a conspiratorial whisper. "The H-Hakaishin is a-awake?" Yemma said these words with even greater apprehension than before, if you could believe that.

"No," Whis replied, smiling. "He is still sleeping."

Yemma breathed a sigh of relief, wiping the sweat off of his brow. He still looked slightly nervous, but most of his fear had evaporated.

At this point, Beerus, who had been observing from just outside the room, finally stepped into view.

"Wow, this Hakaishin guy must be really scary if even the judge of the dead is afraid of him," he commented.

Yemma scowled at this new arrival, as if looking for someone to vent his frustrations on. "Who is this?"

"This is Beerus-san," Whis introduced him, "a promising young fighter from the North Galaxy. He was the one who defeated Lord Icer."

"Really?" Yemma's demeanor changed upon hearing this. "Icer did come through here just a while ago, but I sent him to Hell before he could say anything about how he died." He looked again at Beerus, this time with a newfound respect. "So you killed him, huh?"

"Yeah," Beerus said, not overlooking the opportunity to boast. "He should have known better than to mess with me and my planet!"

"I have to congratulate you, Beerus-san," Yemma said. "With Icer out of the picture, I'll have a lot less work to do. Of course," he added, sparing a hesitant glance at Whis "Your boss, when he's awake, typically sends me more souls in a day than Icer and all of his goons did in a year."

Whis simply laughed, and Yemma joined in, nervously.

"Anyway," Beerus cut them off, "the reason we came here is because North Kaio isn't on his planet. Do you know where he went?"

"Oh, is that all?" Yemma replied, seeming more relieved than before. "Of course I can answer that. All of the Kaios are currently on the Dai Kaio's world, preparing their teams for participation in the Other World Tournament."

"Other World Tournament?" Beerus repeated, but Whis grabbed the feline's arm and indicated that it was time for them to leave.

"Thank you for the information, King Yemma," Whis said, as he escorted Beerus back out of the building.

"What's this deal about a tournament?" The purple-furred cat asked.

"The Other World Tournament is an event that is held irregularly on the world of the Dai Kaio," Whis explained, "where the greatest fighters of the Other World compete for the title of champion."

Beerus looked excited upon hearing this.

"But," Whis said, raising a finger, "It is only open to those who have died and been allowed to keep their bodies. No living participants are allowed."

Beerus' face fell upon hearing this. "That's not fair..."

Whis smiled mischievously. "If you are so set on competing, I suppose I could kill you now, and then you could be admitted."

"W-what!?" Beerus shouted, backing away in fear.

Whis broke into a loud, somewhat obnoxious laugh. "That was just a joke! You need a better sense of humor!"

"It wasn't very funny," Beerus muttered under his breath.

"Anyway, even though you cannot participate in the tournament, there are many opportunities for training on Dai Kaio's world," Whis explained. "If you like, I will take you there."

Beerus nodded, and the two of them were soon enveloped in the familiar white glow of Whis' staff, as they flew off into the sky.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Just wondering, is anyone still reading this, or am I just not getting comments because I haven't had a major fight scene in a while?

[Mystic Buu]

Just wondering, is anyone still reading this, or am I just not getting comments because I haven't had a major fight scene in a while?

I read this,but I don't want to comment on every chapter.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Ok. You like the way it's going, though?

[Mystic Buu]

Yeah.At first I thought that this will be a short fanfic about Beerus defeating Arcosia and then Whis comes and takes him.But this is going very good.

[xmysticgohanx]

Just wondering, is anyone still reading this, or am I just not getting comments because I haven't had a major fight scene in a while?

I read this,but I don't want to comment on every chapter.

Same

[Polyphase Avatron]

Sorry for the delay. I've got a rather long chapter to make up for it.

Chapter 17

Beerus soon became impatient - this trip was taking significantly longer than the previous two had.

"How long until we get there?" He asked.

"The Dai Kaioh's planet is quite far from the check-in station," Whis responded. "The overall trip should take about thirty minutes."

"Thiry minutes!?" Beerus exclaimed in frustration.

"Well, we have already been traveling for around twelve minutes, so we have another eighteen minutes to go."

"That's still too long!"

Whis laughed. "Don't tell me you're incapable of being patient for such a short time."

Beerus scowled in reply. "Normally I could, but there's a major problem." As it to clarify, his stomach growled loudly. "I haven't eaten anything since I left Arcosia!"

"That's your own fault. I'm sure you could have gotten a meal at the sanctuary or the check-in station had you simply asked."

"I was too distracted by all of this Other World stuff!" The feline exclaimed.

"Well, you will just have to hold out for the rest of the trip, then," Whis said, remaining impassive.

"I know, you can turn around and go back to the check-in station," Beerus suggested. "Then I won't have to wait as long."

"No," Whis said simply.

"Does that mean you can't turn around, or you won't?"

The strange, white-haired being didn't answer.

"Oh, come on! I'm starving here!"

"I don't have any food," Whis finally said. "But, if you like, I can entertain you while we wait."

"Entertain me? How?"

"A song," Whis said, smiling. "I'll have you know I'm quite the accomplished singer."

"Let's hear it then," Beerus said. If only he knew how much he was going to regret this.

His ears were immediately assaulted with the most hideous cacophany he had ever heard. In desperation, he used both of his paws to fold his ears down across the sides of his head, but it did nothing to diminish the terrible screeching sound.

"Stop! Stop! STOP!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, barely able to be heard over the horrendous ululations.

"Hmm?" Whis said, pausing. "You don't like it?"

"Don't like it!?" Beerus was incredulous. "The sounds Icer made when he was coughing up blood in his death throes were more pleasant to listen to!"

Whis looked off-put. "You just don't appreciate my talent. Well, look on the bright side."

"What bright side?"

"At least I made you forget about your hunger."

"And now you just reminded me again," Beerus said, and began clutching his stomach in mock-agony again. Whis sighed.

*****************************

When they finally arrived at their destination, Beerus was still making exaggerated moans of hunger, and constantly complaining that he was going to starve. Whis just rolled his eyes.

The purple-furred cat finally starting paying attention to his surroundings.

"This planet seems bigger than that last one, but still pretty small. Where's the food?"

Before Whis could answer, the feline began sniffing the air, and his eyes immediately grew larger and he started drooling as he picked up a distinctive smell.

"Food! That way!" He took off, running across the planet, and was soon beyond the horizon.

Whis just stood there, bemused, and then set off to find the North Kaioh.

Beerus tracked the smell to a large, white, mansion-like building. The front door was open, so he just headed inside. Following his nose, he found a large dining room attached to a kitchen, full of many tables with plates, and about a dozen strange-looking alien creatures eating. One peculiar thing about them was that they all had a strange, pale-yellow ring floating above their heads somehow suspending itself in mid-air, which sort of reminded him of the ring that floated around Whis' neck. He pondered on this for a bit, but then his hunger overwhelmed him, so he immediately took an empty seat and began eating the food placed in front of it, some kind of pasta. Within seconds, he had licked the plate clean, and a blue-skinned ogre servant appeared to take it away.

"I don't think I've seen you around here before," the ogre said. "Are you new?"

"Yeah, new," Beerus replied. "Gimme more food!"

"Right away," the ogre said, and soon returned with a bowl of curry, which the feline downed just as quickly.

Just as he started on his third dish, a bowl of flavored rice, he felt a presence from behind him, and a large shadow fell over him.

"Hey, you're in my spot!" A deep, booming voice announced.

Beerus turned around, and found himself looking up at a gigantic, red, dragon-like creature, at least four meters tall, with thick, leathery wings and a sharp horn protruding from its nose.

"Too bad," the feline said dismissively. "I got here first." He turned around and resumed eating.

"This spot is reserved for me!" The dragon roared.

Beerus turned around once again, and simply stuck his tongue out at the beast, then went back to eating.

The dragon was infuriated, and raised a clawed hand, preparing to strike this impudent creature, but he was interrupted by a harsh, shrill voice from behind him.

"Alright you slackers, break time's over! I'll give you ten minutes for your food to digest, and then it's back to training!"

"But I never even got to eat! This guy-" the dragon objected, but the voice cut him off.

"No excuses! Everyone out, we're on a tight schedule here!"

With much groaning and muttering, the group of aliens all filed out of the room, save for Beerus, who was just finishing his fourth dish, a plate of sushi. Soon, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

Turning around, he saw the owner of the voice from before - a rather short, squat, green-skinned creature, wearing a robe with a strange symbol on it, whose head was topped by an unusual pair of antennae.

"Did you not hear me?" The being shouted. "Lunch time is - wait a second..." He leaned in to examine Beerus more closely. "You're not one of my fighters! In fact," he waved his hands over Beerus' head, as if to confirm that something he expected to be there was not. "You're not even dead!"

The feline waved his hands over his head, finding nothing. He then figured out that this strange creature was talking about those rings the others had. They must be indicators that the person wearing them was dead.

"Yeah, well, you aren't either," he replied, pointing out his accuser's own lack of a halo.

"Of course I'm not dead, I'm the North Kaioh!"* he exclaimed.

"You're the Kaioh?" Beerus said, standing up to his full height, at least two heads taller than the diminutive creature. "I expected someone bigger."

"What? How dare you? Who are you, anyway? How did you even get here? Living people aren't supposed to-"

He was interrupted by a soft, silky voice from behind him.

"Beerus-san is here as my special guest, in search of training. I would appreciate it if you would accommodate him."

Kaioh turned around, immediately falling to his knees in terror at the presence he was confronted with.

"W-Whis-sama!" He gasped. "Does this m-mean the H-Hakai-"

"No, he's still sleeping," Whis answered, before the question could be completed.

"Oh, good" Kaioh breahed a sigh of relief, wiping the sweat from his brow. "But do you really expect this guy-" he gestured to Beerus "-to receive training here? This is a very exclusive place. Only the best of the best deserve to train here."

"I think you might find Beerus-san to be a very promising student," Whis said. "After all, he was the one who defeated Lord Icer."

"W-what?" Kaioh did a double-take. "Icer is dead?"

"Yeah," Beerus said, always loving the chance to brag about his victory. "I sent him to Hell personally."

"That's great news!" Kaioh was ecstatic. "That jerk and his flunkies have been terrorizing my galaxy for decades! I kept petitioning the Kaioshins to do something about him, but they never got back to me! You really beat him?"

"Uh-huh," Beerus said. "It was a tough fight, and I was in trouble for a bit when he-"

"I don't need to hear your life story," Kaioh cut him off, returning to his previous, harsh demeanor. "Right now I have training to oversee. I'll talk to you later." He rushed out of the room, Beerus and Whis following.

The pair found the North Kaio shouting at a dozen or so aliens, the same group from the dining room, who were standing in two rows on an open field, performing a complex, synchronized series of body motions.

"Come on, faster! You can do better than that! Bitor, you're falling behind the others!"

A short, insect-looking being, apparently Bitor, started complaining. "What's the point, Kaioh-sama? The tournament starts in just a month, there's no way we'll be able to beat the South team!"

"Not with an attitude like that, you won't!" Kaioh replied. "Just for that, I'm assigning you an extra thousand laps around the palace when this exercise is over!"

The insect creature's face fell at this, but he quickly sped up his pace. Just then, the dragon from before noticed their two observers.

"You!" he growled, staring down Beerus.

"Hey, concentrate on the training!" Kaioh shouted, not yet seeing what the dragon was reacting to.

"But Kaioh-sama, that's the guy who stole my lunch!" The winged being objected, pointing at the offender in question. Kaioh turned around and noticed the two standing a few meters away, watching.

"Forget about that! You need to focus on your training!" Kaioh rebuked him. "Besides, I doubt you would stand much chance against the guy who beat Icer-" he immediately covered his mouth, realizing the mistake he had made. But it was too late. As soon as the dragon head this, he screamed.

"WHAT!?" His roar was accompanied by an omnidirectional wave of invisible ki that knocked several of his training partners off of their feet.

Paying no heed to his comrades, he charged Beerus, getting right up in the feline's face. "Is that true?"

"Yep," Beerus said, feeling he would get yet another opportunity to brag. "I kicked his ass!"

"HOW DARE YOU!?" The dragon shouted, forming one of his claws into a fist and aiming it at the cat-man. He dodged out of the way, and the punch connected with the ground, creating a sizable crater and throwing up a cloud of dust.

Whis, who had calmly sidestepped the blow, continued to watch from the sidelines.

"What's your problem?" Beerus asked, irritably. "Was Icer your friend or something?"

"Of course not!" The dragon replied, lauching a flurry of rapidfire blows, none of which landed as Beerus casually weaved between them. "Icer was the one who killed me! I fought to the death to protect my planet from him, but in the end he destroyed it, and me with it!"

By this point, the dragon had changed tactics, and went for a headbutt, trying to impale his foe on his sharp horn. Beerus caught the horn in one paw, holding the dragon-like being immobile for a time.

"What are you mad at me for, then?" He asked. "You should be thanking me!"

"Fool!" The dragon opened his mouth, and a red glow emerged, quickly forming into a powerful ki beam. Beerus let go of the horn and seemed to vanish into thin air before the beam hit him, reappearing behind his opponent an instant later.

"Icer was mine to defeat! You have denied me my revenge!"

"Revenge?" The feline warrior said, as he jumped over a swipe by the dragon's tail. "In case you haven't noticed-" he flew up and flicked the halo on top of the dragon's head, producing a ringing noise. "You're dead."

"Once my training was completed, King Yemma was going to grant me a one-day pass to return to the mortal realm and avenge the death of my people!" The dragon said, trying to clothesline Beerus with one of his wings, an attack that was easily avoided. "But you have taken that away from me!"

"Calm down! This isn't part of the training schedule! You have to-" The rantings of the North Kaioh were interrupted by Beerus.

"What did you expect me to do, just sit back and let him kill me and my race?" Beerus countered. "If I were you, I would just be happy Icer and his goons aren't killing people anymore, regardless of who it was that beat him."

The dragon seemed to pause to consider this, but then his face contorted with rage once again.

"But it was supposed to be me!" He charged Beerus one more time, but the feline disappeared from sight before the blow connected. and then reappeared, hovering over his massive foe. "I've had about enough of this," he said, as he delivered a devastating elbow drop to the back of the creature's neck. The dragon's eyes bugged out of his head from the shock of the blow, and then he collapsed on the ground, unconscious.

"Look what you've done!" Shouted Kaioh.

"Relax, he'll live," Beerus said, dusting himself off.

"That's not the point! Wiver was my strongest fighter! Now he'll have to take time out from his training schedule to recover from his injuries!"

"You're kidding. That guy was your strongest fighter?" Beerus said, laughing dismissively.

"This is no laughing matter! The North team needs all the training we can get if we don't want to end up in last place again!"

"Hey, I'm from the North galaxy," Beerus said. "Maybe I could join your team."

"In case you haven't noticed yet," Kaioh said sarcastically, "you're alive. The Other World tournament is only open to the dead! Go get yourself killed and then come back to me. Either that, or find a spare halo somewhere!" He laughed at his own joke, but then a spark entered his eyes.

"Hey, wait a second..."

Kaioh held two fingers to his head seeming to concentrate for a second, then disappeared. Beerus was surprised, as he was unable to track him.

"Where did he go?"

"Probably back to-" The fighter identified earlier as Bitor said, but before he could finish the North Kaioh reappeared, just as suddenly as he had left.

"Heh heh heh, I was saving this up for a prank, but this just could work." He was holding what appeared to be one of the ubiquitous halos.

"A fake halo. No one will know the difference! Here, try it on."

He handed the ring to the feline, who, tentatively, held it above his head. Surprisingly, it floated when he let go of it, and continued to stay in place, no matter how he moved his head and neck.

"With you on our team, we just might stand a chance after all!" Kaioh chuckled.

* As this takes place in the distant past, this isn't the same North Kaioh we're familiar with, it's a previous one, hence why his skin is green and not blue.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Chapter 18

Beerus experimentally tried a few backflips, and hovered upside-down. The halo remained in place.

"Hey Whis, check it out!" He called. "I'm going to get to fight in the tournament after all!"

But there was no reply. The Hakaishin's attendant was nowhere in sight.

"Oh, you didn't notice?" Kaioh said. "He left a while ago. Flew back to wherever he came from, I guess."

"Huh, whatever," the feline said, mildly disappointed. However, he was too excited about the upcoming tournament to dwell on it.

At this point, a group of several ogre servants arrived, carrying an oversized stretcher, which they lifted Wiver's unconscious body onto, and carried him away, towards the white mansion. Beerus watched them leave, impassive.

"So what now?" he asked.

"Show me your power," Kaioh replied.

"What?"

"Power up your ki, to its maximum level. I want to see how strong you are."

"Okay," Beerus said, cracking his knuckles in anticipation. "But I suggest you all stand back."

North Kaioh and his students did as the cat-man suggested, and he let out a loud howl, a glowing purple aura forming around him.

Rocks and dirt began floating into the air, a powerful wind began blowing around him, and the ground trembled. Beerus continued raising his power, until the entire planet was shaking. Even he was surprised at the strength he had unleashed, as it was significantly beyond the power he had been able to muster against Icer.

Finally, the earthquakes and wind calmed, and Beerus stood, glowing with a fierce aura, while Kaioh and his students finally looked up from their cowering positions, covering their heads.

Kaioh approached the feline, looking pleased. "Wow, that's a lot more than I expected. No wonder you were able to defeat Icer!"

Beerus smirked with this praise.

"But-", Kaioh continued, putting a hand on his chin, "you're still not as strong as Butaga."

"Who?" Beerus asked, letting his aura subside as he powered down.

"The South team's champion - a total monster," Kaioh explained. "But, with a month of my training, you just might stand a chance."

"Really?" Beerus said, looking quizzically at the diminutive god. "I don't mean to be skeptical, but you don't seem all that strong."

"Impudence!" Kaioh yelled back at him. "Sure, I might not be that strong personally, but I'm one of, if not the, most accomplished martial arts trainer in all of Other World! All of my team-" he gestured towards the group of aliens behind him, "are stronger than I am, but none of them would have gotten to where they are now without my special training techniques and knowledge! Show me more respect!"

"But your team is the weakest of the four, isn't it?"

This just made Kaioh angrier. "Only because Icer and his empire killed off most of the promising fighters in the galaxy before they could become strong enough to challenge him! I work with what I can get, okay?"

"Fine, fine," the feline said, raising his paws in a disarming gesture. "So you can make me strong enough to beat this Butaga?"

"That remains to be seen. You've shown me your power, but now I want to see your fighting skills. Boys?" He turned to address the other fighters-in-training.

"Yes, Kaioh-sama?" They responded in unison.

"I want you all to attack Beerus-san here at once. Give it everything you have, don't hold back!"

Nervous murmurs and whispers broke out among the group. Most of them had at least heard of how dangerous Icer had been, and Beerus had killed him. Combined with how easily he had defeated Wiver, their strongest comrade, none of them were feeling particularly confident.

"Um, Kaioh-sama," Bitor began, voicing the group's thoughts. "Are you sure about this?"

"Of course!" He turned to Beerus. "You're not going to actually hurt them, just knock them out. Using nothing but pure hand-to-hand skills."

Beerus nodded. "I can do that." He cracked his knuckles once again, causing the group to step back nervously.

"Okay, go!" Kaioh yelled. The North fighting team hesitated for a second, but then they all charged the newcomer. The first ones to reach him were a pair of rotund, orange-and-green colored creatures with spiked skin, who tried to box their opponent in from opposite directions. Beerus dodged their attacks and then used both hands to slam their heads against each other, sending them both unconscious.

Next came a short, but heavily muscled fish-like creature, who attempted to get in under Beerus' guard and trip him up. He easily countered by flying out of range, but then found himself targeted by several ki blasts, from Bitor and a few others. This had been the insectoid creature's plan, as while Kaioh-sama had prohibited Beerus from using ranged attacks in the fight, he had given the others no such restriction.

To Bitor's surprise, Beerus simply flicked each blast away with his index finger, and then disappeared, reappearing in the midst of the ranged attackers, taking them all out with a few quick punches and kicks.

There were only four opponents remaining, and they all charged the feline warrior from opposite directions. He dodged their blows and knocked them out, one by one.

Once he was done, he landed and bowed gracefully to Kaioh. "How was that?"

"It needs work," was the short god's blunt reply.

"What?"

"Your power is overwhelming, but your technique is sloppy," he lectured.

"Sloppy!?" Beerus was annoyed at this accusation.

"Yes, too many wasted movements. I counted at least 68 opportunities for you to take them out quicker than you did. You'll never beat Butaga at this rate. Who was your previous master, anyway?"

Beerus thought about this question for a bit. "Well, the Kami of planet Nekosei allowed me to train at his sanctuary, but he never actually instructed me. I guess I'm self-taught."

"That explains it," Kaioh said, slapping his hand to his forehead. "Come on, we have a lot of work to do."

*********************************************

Over the next month, Beerus was subjected to the harshest training regimen he had ever experienced. Even the room of spirit and time was like a vacation compared to this. He barely got to sleep, only ate for a few minutes each day, and was constantly being forced to learn new techniques, train with weights weighing many tons each, meditate, and go through all kinds of exercises he had never even heard of before, and the whole time he was constantly being yelled at by his drill sergeant of a Kaioh. Still, he felt that the training was paying off - he could feel his power and skill growing.

One day, roughly a week before the beginning of the tournament was scheduled, he was in the middle of practicing high-speed martial arts in an open field, when two new faces appeared over the near horizon.

"Keep working," Kaioh said. "I'll be back in a bit." He turned and walked towards the interlopers. Beerus couldn't help but steal a glance as well.

One of them was short, yellow-skinned, with antennae just like the North Kaioh. The other was a massive, hulking brute, rough skin a deep golden hue, with an oversized snout sporting two sharp dangerous-looking, curved tusks. This creature wasn't as tall or massive as Wiver, but somehow gave off a much more intimidating presence. Beerus found himself shivering involuntarily.

"So," the shorter of the two began, in an arrogant voice. "What's this I hear about you thinking your team can win? Are you really that delusional, Northy?" The being, obviously the South Kaioh, laughed obnoxiously.

"You just wait," North Kaioh said, defiantly. "I have a secret weapon this time!"

"Oh yes, I've heard, your brand-new wildcard fighter," South Kaioh mocked. "Is that him?" He gestured to Beerus, who was still going through the training motions.

"Beerus-san is the strongest fighter the North Galaxy has produced since, well, ever!" North Kaioh boasted.

"Heh, that's hardly saying much," his counterpart replied. He approached the purple-furred fighter and observed his motions, the rapidfire punches and kicks he was practicing. "He looks kind of scrawny to me."

"Scrawny?" Beerus said, pausing for a second to glare at the South Kaioh.

"Back to work!" North Kaioh yelled, causing Beerus to sigh and resume his exercises.

At this point, the large, hulking, boar-like creature approached Beerus, tapping him on the shoulder.

"You really think you can beat me?" the massive being asked, in a deep, gruff voice.

"You're Butaga, right? I guess I won't know if I can beat you until I meet you in the finals," Beerus replied, smiling confidently, despite his words.

"Assuming you make it that far, rookie," Butaga replied. "If I were you, I wouldn't count on it."

Irritated by this, Beerus decided to test this being's strength, and threw a punch. His fist was caught easily, and he had to struggle to get it free.

"You should probably just drop out now," Butaga said, snorting in laughter. "It will save you a whole lot of pain." With that, South Kaioh and his student departed.

"Okay, now I really can't wait to kick his ass," Beerus said, hissing.

"Her ass," North Kaioh corrected him.

"What?"

"Butaga is a female."

"Really?" Beerus' jaw dropped comically. "Aliens sure are weird..."