Dragon Ball — Chapter 139

Dark Su Yu's eyes narrowed the moment she saw Su Yu arrive. Something cold dropped in her chest.

She couldn't see through her.

Impossible. Even if Su Yu had comprehended the power of time, she herself had comprehended the cycle of life and death. They should be at the same level. She should be able to read her like an open book.

She couldn't.

Dark Su Yu forced her expression back to neutral before anyone noticed the crack. She wasn't about to let them see the panic clawing at her.

"Well, well." She let a slow smile curl across her face. "If it isn't the other me. Finally crawled out instead of hiding like a turtle?"

Her tone was pure sarcasm. Su Yu's face didn't move.

"Is that your last will?"

"Whose last will it is remains to be seen." Dark Su Yu's smile sharpened. "But since you're here , let your teacher come say hello!"

Chronoa tore through the void and reappeared. Corrupted by dark power. Transformed into the Time Demon God.

"By the way," Dark Su Yu said, tilting her head, "you should thank your teacher. Without her, I wouldn't have defeated Zen-Oh nearly so fast. I'm just curious , can you really bring yourself to attack her?" She let the pause stretch. "Even if you've mastered time and can reverse it, it's probably useless. Your teacher Chronoa is the Time Demon God now. She's immune to temporal abilities." A soft, delighted laugh. "Hehehe."

Su Yu looked at her other self.

She had known. Long before this moment, after fully mastering the power of time, she had simulated this future countless times in her mind.

"True," Su Yu said. "Simply reversing time is useless." A beat. "But who told you that's all I can do?"

The panic surged again behind Dark Su Yu's eyes. She buried it. "Stop bluffing. You can't fool me."

"Bluffing?" Su Yu raised an eyebrow. "I don't need to bluff to deal with you."

She raised her hand.

A colossal hand materialized in the air, every surface covered in profound, shifting runes. Su Yu closed it into a fist and the universe cracked.

The space around them dissolved into something wrong. Colors that had no name bled into each other. The geometry made no sense. Everyone present felt it simultaneously: a vision of their own past, their own future, every moment of their existence unspooling and converging into a single endless current.

The River of Time.

Dark Su Yu recognized it instantly. The memories of the Feather God lived inside her , she knew exactly what she was looking at.

She still couldn't believe it.

She pulled it out that fast?

The panic stopped being something she could suppress.

Su Yu guided the giant hand into the River of Time. She moved through it with precision, arriving at the exact moment Chronoa had sealed herself away. She pulled that version of Chronoa forward and, with her other hand, casually imprisoned the Dark Su Yu of that era.

History shifted.

The Dark Demon God Chronoa ceased to exist. Not just now. In the past as well. Every moment she had ever occupied was gone.

And then Su Yu kept going. Every timeline where Dark Su Yu had appeared , erased. Every battle. Every atrocity. The fierce clash that had just ended minutes ago: gone, as though it had never happened.

Universes that had been annihilated blinked back into existence. Perhaps, from their own perspective, they had never vanished at all.

Mechikabura felt the shift. His face went pale. He turned and fled back to the Demon Realm without a word.

Su Yu didn't stop him. She let him go, let his underlings scatter. She had already seen their futures. They weren't worth her attention.

Dark Su Yu stared at her. The words came out hollow.

"You only just comprehended the power of time. How could you—"

"The power of time?" Su Yu shook her head. "I knew that comprehending time alone might not be enough to beat you. So when I entered the Time Scroll, I split into countless clones. Each one walked a different path."

"Impossible." Dark Su Yu's voice cracked hard. "Comprehending other laws doesn't happen that fast — it's impossible—"

"But I mastered the power of time afterward."

Dark Su Yu went still. "That was afterward. Which means—"

"Correct." Su Yu's voice was calm. "The power of time is time. From the future, I could reach back and manipulate the past. And Zen-Oh gave me his authority , no restrictions, anywhere in this multiverse. That's why I could comprehend so many laws so quickly."

Silence.

Dark Su Yu's teeth ground together. If only she'd known. Every multiverse had its own Heavenly Dao restrictions, walls that made comprehending multiple laws nearly impossible. She had known that. She had counted on it.

She hadn't counted on Su Yu absorbing Zen-Oh's authority and walking right through those walls.

"Then why not just destroy me right now!"

"Simple." Su Yu's fist closed. "Erasing you that easily wouldn't be enough. I want to destroy you with my own hands."

The hatred hadn't gone anywhere. Rewriting history hadn't touched it.

"Don't worry," Su Yu added. "I'll suppress my power to match yours."

She didn't wait for a response. She swung her fist and charged.

Her Saiyan blood had been straining at the leash for a long time.

Dark Su Yu recognized the opening for what it was , her only real chance. She went all out and surged forward to meet her. Their figures blurred together, trading blows so fast the shockwaves alone pushed every bystander back.

"Why doesn't Sister Su Yu just destroy her?" Time Patrol Pan asked, watching the clash. "She already erased Dark Su Yu from the past. She could just, "

"Because she's genuinely angry," Time Patrol Gohan said quietly.

He knew Su Yu's temperament well enough by now. She didn't fight like this unless something had gotten under her skin for real.

Dark Su Yu found out quickly enough. Su Yu had suppressed her power to match , but the gap in reaction speed and technique was a different matter entirely. What began as an even exchange shifted within minutes. Then it wasn't even close.

Su Yu lifted Dark Su Yu off the ground with one hand.

"Cough, " Dark Su Yu laughed despite herself, rough and ragged. "I never thought I'd actually lose this time."

Then her eyes steadied. "But can you really destroy the Abyss? If you can't , killing me means nothing. One day its darkness will return."

Su Yu looked at the evil smile on her own face. The anger had burned through. What was left was something quieter.

"You don't need to worry about that," Su Yu said. "Your existence was part of my plan to destroy the Abyss from the beginning."

The smile faltered.

"Plan?" Dark Su Yu repeated. "What do you mean?"

"Eliminating the beings in the Abyssal Realm was always going to be difficult. Their dark power is strange, and the Abyss itself is worse. But during the fighting, I noticed something." Su Yu's voice didn't change. "When Abyssal aberrations destroy each other , they don't come back."

The understanding hit all at once.

Dark Su Yu laughed. Not a short laugh , a full, open, delighted laugh that filled the space around them.

"Hahaha , so that's it. Throwing yourself into the game. A deadly gambit for rebirth." She was still grinning. "Worthy of me. Worthy of the Feather God. I don't resent losing. Not even a little. Hahaha!"

Su Yu closed her hand.

Dark Su Yu's body dissolved into streams of light and flowed into her. The moment it was done, something settled , a wholeness that hadn't been there before. Su Yu's aura deepened, stronger than it had been even moments ago.

She reached into the River of Time one more time and pulled out Zeno Prime, who had sacrificed himself.

He stared at her.

"You , this is, "

"I've restored my original power," Su Yu said. "The responsibility for this multiverse goes back to you. I made some modifications while I was at it. When a universe develops a cancer, there's now an automatic cleansing mechanism. You won't need to erase them yourself."

Zen-Oh's face had been tight with grief. At those words, something in it eased. A small smile appeared.

"Also," Su Yu continued, "the universes you erased before have been restored. The rest is yours to manage."

"Are you leaving?"

"Yes. I can't stay." She glanced out, past the arena, past the multiverse itself. "The Abyss still hasn't been destroyed. And my power is too much for this place , I'd break it if I stayed too long."

This Dragon Ball multiverse was too fragile now. Like glass.

"Thank you," Zen-Oh said quietly.

"Don't thank me. I recovered because of all of you."

Footsteps. Time Patrol Gohan pushed through to the front.

"Su Yu , you're really leaving?"

She nodded. "I have to. You heard what Dark Su Yu said. If I stay, the Abyss will come here eventually."

A pause.

"Then..." Gohan's jaw tightened. "Can I come with you?"

Su Yu looked at him. Then she shook her head. "I'm sorry, Gohan. You're too weak right now. It would be too dangerous."

He heard it land. A bitter smile pulled at his mouth. The girl who had once been nowhere near his level was telling him he was too weak.

It was true. That was the worst part.

The next second, Su Yu pressed her fingertip to his forehead.

Something opened in his mind , a cultivation technique, complete and fully formed.

"This is what I practiced in my previous life," she said. "Train hard. I believe in your talent, Gohan. You'll catch up."

Gohan's fist closed at his side. "I will. I'll catch up to you , I swear it."

He meant it. He wasn't going to let her face whatever was out there alone. He would get there.

Su Yu smiled , brief, real. "Good. Work hard." She turned, looking across the faces gathered around her. "I won't drag this out. Master. Goku. Vegeta. Pan." Her voice was steady. "I hope we meet again someday."

She raised her hand in a wave.

Then she flew , up, out, past the boundaries of the arena, past the multiverse itself , and the Time Patrol squad watched her go until she was nothing but a point of light, and then not even that.

Beyond the infinite multiverse, Su Yu began her new journey.