Chapter 14

“No!” Goku shouted. “This can’t be! I want to go home!”

“You have no home now,” the Trampled Innocence answered, the voice of the many souls reverberating throughout the entire room. “This is your palace to rule. The reality of the afterlife is yours to govern.”

The pillars of white surged with a certain brightness and Goku recognized many of the same souls that formed the Trampled Innocence. The glowing was more than just physical but Goku could feel it within him. His soul was surging along with theirs, a certain exuberance flowing through his entire being.

As much as Goku hated the idea of being away from his family and friends, he could not help but share their joy. So many of the Trampled Innocence’s souls had their vengeance and even those that didn’t were glad that there was so much new life that was pure in heart and couldn’t be corrupted. The Majins formed in the Womb of Evil would have their growth stunted or might not exist at all.

Majin Buu certainly would have a smaller increase in strength during his next hibernation cycle. A major victory had been one over evil and the Trampled Innocence was beyond celebratory. Even so, Goku still tried to chastise them.

“I didn’t want this!” Goku shouted. “I hate this! I didn’t agree to it!”

“Oh but you did,” the Trampled Innocence replied. “When you agreed to the power Yamoshi gifted you, you sold your very soul for revenge against Freeza.”

“I don’t like this,” he said. “I knew I would die after burning up all the energy you gave me but…I didn’t know I would be stuck in this level of reality. When can I leave?”

“When the next Super Saiyan ascends to take your place,” the Trampled Innocence replied. “You will remain here until we bring into existence the next Super Saiyan.”

“Bring into existence?” Goku asked. “How do you plan on doing that?!”

“The same way we brought you into existence, Goku,” they replied.

“WHAT?!” Goku shouted.

“Oh yes…” they replied. “It took many years of careful planning to give birth and position you in just the right place to purge this world of all evil and replace it with only good species.”

“You-!” Goku shouted. “You planned all this?! But how?!”

“Many attempts were made…” the Trampled Innocence explained as Goku was swept away by memories he had never experienced.

The Saiyan king, Salada, laughed as his subordinates piled up body after body of the Tsubas. The mound of corpses was twelve feet high, dripping with blood as the red liquid flowed down their winged forms. The Saiyan king, bit off a piece of grilled Tsubas meat, perfectly content to sit up his makeshift throne of wood built by his soldiers.

Salada was having a grand time watching the Saiyan warriors lead a trail of shackled Tsubas to slave camps. There, the winged aliens would build homes and palaces for their conquerors. This was the one-hundred and twelfth planet the Saiyans had conquered in the name of Lord Salada. His wife, Queen Lettuk, painted her lips with rouge she found amongst the Tsubas royalty. She held up a mirror to her face while making herself attractive.

“Interesting the Tsubas have such good technology for a race as weak as them,” Lettuk said. “I’m really enjoying the make-up we pilfered. Do you think it’ll be useful for building spaceships to do more spacefaring?”

“That could come in handy,” King Salada answered. “After all, we have talked about wanting to conquer other planets outside our own galaxy. We spare the smarter ones if they build us some space cruisers capable of getting that far away. The rest…we don’t need them.”

“Oh but I’m going to need someone to apply my make-up!” Lettuk replied. “Remember when I tried using face paint from Planet Hera?! I messed it all up until those slave women we spared did it for me! I’m terrible at putting on facepaint!”

“Oh,” Salada said. “Okay. Anything for my favorite whore.”

Lettuk nodded and laughed as King Salada stood up from his throne the Tsubas had quickly fashioned for him.

“I’m going to go find some Tsubas women to…” he laughed. “Show my kingly presence. I think I’ll spare some for my harem. Many of them are very beautiful.”

“That harem of yours is getting bigger and bigger,” Lettuk said as she adjusted the mirror. “What do you have now…seven hundred women? I’ve lost count.”

“My advisers keep track of them,” Salada said. “If I remember while perusing the women, I’ll suggest the spaceship and make-up thing.”

“Thank-you,” Lettuk answered. “And get me something to eat. I’m starving. Preferably a banquet of rare meat and sweets. I haven’t had a desert in a week.”

Goku watched in horror at this display of brutality and gluttonous adultery, disgusted he was related to these pigs.

“The Saiyans were drunk on their rare power,” the Trampled Innocence explained as Goku saw the memories flash through his mind. “They were closer linked to any other species to the Soul Realm that recycles qi from dead beings to living beings. As a result, any time they were defeated in battle but survived they merely rose up stronger, fed by the dead souls’ qi. On the brink of death they were close to the afterlife and it triggered a chain reaction allowing them to tap into the very universe’s source of energy.”

Goku’s attention turned to the dead bodies that the Saiyan soldiers had been piling up on King Salada’s orders. He saw them beginning to glow before their ghostly faces rose from the mound of corpses, screaming in pain and anger. By the way no one turned to gawk at the anger of the murdered Tsubas, Goku figured no one could see them except him.

“However,” the Trampled Innocence said. “Their arrogance was their own undoing.”

Goku was transported back to the Realm of Souls but not in his own timeline. He was looking at the Realm of Souls as it had been more than a thousand years ago. The faces of the murdered Tsubas as well as many others surged through hundreds of pillars, glowing with a wicked golden light. The bright yellow was so bright Goku was almost blinded, the screams of the souls surging through them screaming in a rage that was deafening.

The light then flashed throughout the realm until all the Saiyan could see was bright gold. When he could gain visual of his surroundings again, he found all of these souls now flowing through one pillar. It had turned bright gold and churned violently with the faces of killed people.

“The anger of us murdered innocents was not a new phenomena,” they told Goku. “But the Saiyans were the straw that broke the camel’s back. Their plight upon the galaxy was so great that our anger and despair drew us to one another like a magnet.”

His surroundings changed once again as he found a Saiyan child picking up a wounded baby bird in a forest. The bird had crushed part of its wing in its fall and the young boy was healing it with his qi. As a yellow aura overcame the bird, it grew feathers over its naked body and began chirping. It flew out of the Saiyan’s hand and into the air as the child laughed.

“Yamoshi was our first attempt to bring about a revolution,” the Trampled Innocence said. “He would have been born strong thanks to Saiyan genetics but we provided him as much power as possible.”

“But why couldn’t you have just made all Saiyans pure?” Goku asked. “Certainly you could have converted every Saiyan in existence into a good person or have them all born with benevolent natures.”

“It is not that simple,” the souls replied. “We grow stronger with each innocent that was killed added to our amalgamation of souls. At this point in our numbers, we only had the power to bring one pure hearted Saiyan into existence at once. And even with our power, we cannot convert a Saiyan much older than a toddler into being good. Our power over the material world is limited and we did everything.”

Yamoshi began jumping up and down in joy at the sight of the wounded bird almost reaching the top of the trees’ branches.

“And most of all…” the Trampled Innocence said. “We gave him a kind heart. A heart so pure that it was pure white in the darkness of this world…”

Suddenly the bird was shot down by a blast of qi. Yamoshi screamed in terror as the small creature fell to the ground, set ablaze. The poor thing flopped in the grass, desperate to put out the flames.

Yamoshi rushed to its aid before a fist to the face set him falling to the ground. The Saiyan child held his bleeding cheek as he looked up to see a taller, older Saiyan pick up the flaming bird. It was King Salada, gripping the dying creature in his vice.

As the bird chirped in pain, Salada squeezed its tiny head with all the strength he could muster. The baby bird’s head exploded like a bomb, burned chunks of tiny guts and blood dirtying the Saiyan king’s hand. He then tossed the rest of the charred body away to walk over to his son.

He took his son by the head and began slamming his head repeatedly into a tree. The force with which Salada beat his son was so great a hole formed in the trunk he slammed him into. The Saiyan child’s blood smeared the trunk of the tree before King Salada was satisfied. At first Yamoshi screamed in pain and misery until he fell unconscious, his body going limp before Salada dragged him off.

“...and was reviled by the Saiyans,” the Trampled Innocence explained.

The image disappeared and Goku saw Yamoshi significantly older. He was a teenager by this point. He was standing in front of an army of Saiyans that were facing off against another battalion of Saiyan warriors. Beside him was his father, king of the Saiyans. Yamoshi looked afraid, his painfully reluctant to engage in battle.

“Attack!” King Salada cried.

Every Saiyan on each side charged headfirst into the battle. Except Yamoshi. He weakly attempted to fly towards an enemy Saiyan that charged him in the chaos, only to be smacked by the opposing warrior.

The long-haired man threw a dozen punches at Yamoshi per second, pummeling him into the ground. Not even once did the young Saiyan attempt to defend himself, merely jumping up to flee. However, just as he flew away, the enemy Saiyan grabbed Yamoshi by the ankle and flung him into the ground repeatedly.

The young Saiyan began crying as the older one treated his body like a ragdoll. The older Saiyan then let go of him only to fire a qi blast at the battered young boy. The sphere of light exploded on impact just as Yamoshi continued to fly away, his speed unmatched by any other warrior.

And what’s more was that Yamoshi had taken practically no damage from any of the enemy warrior’s attacks. Not only that but Goku could feel that Yamoshi’s qi was at least four times that of the warrior who attacked him. If the young Saiyan wanted to, he could swat practically anyone engaged in the battle like a fly.

“Yamoshi was so gentle he could not kill even the most evil of Saiyans,” the Trampled Innocence said. “He was truly dedicated to the ideal of peace, even when it cost him his humility. The idea of hurting others was so against his nature that he would rather die than give anyone a scratch.”

“That…” Goku said. “That reminds me of my son…Gohan.”

“Yes,” the Trampled Innocence said.

Yamoshi flew outside of the field they fought in, hiding behind a tree to cover himself. He curled up to his body, wrapping his arms tight around his knees and he broke down crying. Goku himself was brought to tears at the sight.

“Just as your son Gohan has faced unimaginable horrors despite being so young and innocent,” the Trampled Innocence said. “So has Yamoshi. It is without almost any exception that the most pure in heart and innocent of souls suffer the greatest in this world of unimaginable darkness.”

Yamoshi hid his face in his knees, his sobs aching Goku’s ears.

“Just as your Gohan was forced to witness death and war at an age when he should have received unconditional love,” the Trampled Innocence explained. “So did Yamoshi.”

The memories shown to Goku changed again. This time all he could see was the aftermath of the Saiyans conflict. And it was one of the most gruesome sights he’d ever witnessed.

Yamoshi walked across the meadow as he saw the horrors he fled from. The Saiyan warriors’ corpses had been burned by qi blasts, holes punched through them and beaten to a pulp. They littered the ground more than the flowers of the once lush meadow. Blood ran in rivers across the vibrant greenery.

Yamoshi stepped in a puddle of blood and began crying, rushing forward as fast as he could. The teenage Saiyan accidentally stepped on the limp heads and hands of the dead warriors, only eliciting more screams. He raced to the forest and arrived in the village that was just beyond the treeline. He then stopped in mid-run, his mouth agape in horror.

The women and children of the enemy faction had not been spared the fate of the warriors protecting it. Yamoshi slowly walked through the wrecked ruins of broken walls, caved in roofs and still-smoking buildings to find the dead bodies of women clutching their babies. Most of the blood he stood in was that of toddlers and younger.

Many of the women had a hole punched through them, the child they were lying on top of visible through the wound. Yamoshi turned away, too shocked at the horror, only to see a series of pregnant women lying dead not far away. They had all attempted to flee only to be brought down in a group.

Their wombs had been ripped open and the child left submerged in the blood of its own mother. Yamoshi tried to look away from it only to find many Saiyan children beheaded, their lopped off faces lying in piles. The teenage Saiyan began screaming in panic, his aura flaring in fury.

“WHY?!” he shouted. “WHY?! JUST WHY?!”

He fell to his knees, crying, before a certain sound gained his attention. He looked up to find someone approaching him. Yamoshi’s eyes sparkled with a certain relief as he stared at her.

All Saiyans Goku had seen before had black hair and black eyes. In fact, Goku was barely sure she was a Saiyan at all. Her power level was so low she wasn’t much stronger than an ordinary human.

The Saiyan had blond hair and blue eyes, the golden curls tumbling down to her waist. Her green eyes sparkled in the light of the setting sun. The white robe she wore flowed a little in the light wind.

The beautiful woman approached Yamoshi with her head bowed, clearly frightened. Once she met the teenage Saiyan, she bowed before him and ducked her head. Her voice quivered as tears flowed from her face and mixed with the blood around her.

“Please,” she said, trying not to sob. “Kill…kill me quickly.”

“Kill…” he said. “You?”

“I don’t want to die facing my family!” she shouted. “Just…do it and…get it over with!”

Yamoshi quickly quickly took her by the hands and lifted her up.

“I…” he said. “I…I’d never…kill anyone.”

The blond Saiyan quivered in fear.

“Wh-?” she stuttered. “Why? Are you…going to torture me?”

“Torture you?” Yamoshi asked. “No! I’m–I’m just looking for survivors. And…”

He ran his hand through her luscious hair.

“I don’t think I’ve ever come across someone like you,” he said. “I…I just wanted to find someone my father’s forces didn’t murder.”

The blond Saiyan drew close to Yamoshi, sensing a certain softness in his voice that she never knew a Saiyan could possess.

“Your father…?” the blond Saiyan asked.

“Only Yamoshi’s pain was of a magnitude Gohan could never imagine,” the Trampled Innocence said.

“You defied the great King Salada?” she asked.

“I…” Yamoshi said. “I just can’t bring myself to commit violence. It doesn’t make sense! And…and…!”

More tears spilled from his eyes.

“I can’t kill members of my fellow race just for being weaker!” Yamoshi said. “My father…he’s so paranoid of defective genetics tainting the Saiyan gene pool…he was willing to track down your village of weak Saiyans!”

He shook his head.

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“I couldn’t bring myself to engage in pointless bloodshed!” Yamoshi screamed.

“Weak…?” Goku asked. “Saiyans?”

“Yes,” the Trampled Innocence said. “One of our more insidious traps.”

Goku looked at the corpses around him to slowly realize what the Trampled Innocence meant.

“You…” he said. “You didn’t just make certain Saiyans like Yamoshi stronger…”

His body tensed up as he watched the blond Saiyan break out into tears, burying her face in Yamoshi’s chest as he held her slender figure.

“You made certain Saiyans weaker!” he shouted. “Like this entire village! You wanted this slaughter to happen!”

“Oh, very much so,” the Trampled Innocence said. “And we gave that particular Saiyan the ability to hide her presence from others.”

“But why?!” Goku demanded. “Why not do something that doesn’t involve the deaths of the weak and helpless?!”

“We only have so much influence,” the trillions of souls replied. “Us spirits can only interact with the mortal realm so much. However, we can control the power levels of many beings in the universe, especially the ones we have the strongest connection to. Those empowered by Majin Buu we cannot touch, like Freeza’s race…but the Saiyans. They were like puddy in our hands.”

“But why?!” Goku shouted. “I thought you wanted to strengthen the hand of the innocent against the forces of evil! Why go through all this trouble to let these people die?!”

“So that we could do this,” the Trampled Innocence answered.

The scenery around Goku changed once again. This time the memory he was being shown was even more desperate. Yamoshi and the blond Saiyan were hiding in a cave while it rained.

Both were scarred and bruised, the female Saiyan moreso. While Yamoshi was bleeding from both legs and had a small gash on his side, the blond Saiyan had fresh gashes on both arms, a bleeding wound on her back and two wounds on her left side. The young woman was lying on a bed of pressed leaves, grinding her teeth in pain. Yamoshi was at the edge of the cave, squinting through the darkness the rain had cast.

Goku saw two Saiyan warriors running through the forest around them, tromping through the wet forest floor. After enough leering through the rain, Goku could make out the duo was King Salada and a slightly shorter Saiyan with a bowl cut of black hair.

“Did you see where they went?!” Salada shouted. “I thought they made a break for it through these woods!”

Yamoshi was clinging to the stony edge of the cave, his face a mask of fear. The female sat up, watching the two men look around the woods. Just as Salada and the other Saiyan scanned the area, including the cave, they both sighed in defeat.

“Well there’s no place they could’ve hidden here,” Salada said. “Guess we may as well head to another place to check.”

“I agree,” the other answered. “They’re nowhere around. Probably fled a few miles away.”

And on that note they soared above and took to the skies. Once they were gone, Yamoshi turned to the wounded Saiyan and placed his arm underneath her back. The female groaned in slight pain before wrapping one arm around his neck.

“How…” Yamoshi asked. “How did you do that?”

The blond Saiyan looked up at him, her eyes fluttering in pain as breathe became more shallow.

“I’ve always had…” she said. “This power. The power to…to make it as though I don’t exist.”

She ran her hand down his left cheek, tears welling up in her eyes.

“I was only able to save myself from…” she said. “My parents’ village. Once I saw everyone dead…I figured it was time for me to die as well.”

She smiled as her smile grew wider.

“With no one to love me…” the female Saiyan said as tears welled up in her eyes. “There would be no reason to live.”

“I…” Yamoshi answered. “I agree. That is why I don’t believe the other Saiyans’ lives matter. Their entire lives are filled with brutality…and they believe in nothing but proving their strength. All I wanted…”

Yamoshi’s tears then spilled onto the female Saiyan’s face.

“Was a friend,” he said. “And you…you gave me new meaning to my life…by becoming my first friend.”

The blond Saiyan looked up at him and leaned forward to press her lips against his before withdrawing.

“And you…” she said. “Were mine.”

Yamoshi tightened his grip around the blond Saiyan, enraptured by her warm kiss as he ran his hands through her golden hair. The female Saiyan spilled tears onto the young man’s shoulder as she wetted his shirt. She sniveled as he continued running his fingers through her hair.

After another kiss, he let her down to the bed of leaves, Yamoshi trembling in nervousness. The female Saiyan looked up at Yamoshi, the fear gone from her eyes. The tears now flowed from the corner of her eyes as newly budded joy sparkled in her eyes. Yamoshi and the female Saiyan grasped the other’s right hand, staring at the other in gentle delight.

“I don’t want to miss a single moment of life without you,” Yamoshi said. “I don’t want to leave this world of gentleness and kindness you’ve shown me.”

“I…” the blond Saiyan said. “I feel the same way. I don’t ever want to leave this world of love you’ve shown me. Yamoshi, please…never leave me.”

“I can’t!” he said. “I mean…I won’t. I…I don’t know how to…now that I’ve met you.”

Her eyes almost closed, as if his words alone gently lulled her to slumber.

“My life is now…” she said. “Yours. If you want it.”

“I’ll take it,” Yamoshi said. “I’ll take your life onto my shoulders. And I promise it will never fall off my back.”

He leaned down to kiss her once again, holding his head just above her lips.

“To the very end,” he said.

But just before he could kiss her, the scene changed once again. The cave was gone and so was the forest. The darkness of the rain-soaked forest was replaced with a canyon dyed red by the setting of the sun.

Yamoshi and the blond Saiyan were surrounded by hundreds of Saiyan warriors who were all laughing at their victims’ misery. The plateau they stood on was larger than Goku had ever seen, maybe miles wide. The female Saiyan was screaming in pain, holding her chest as it had a thin hole in it. She flopped on the ground while kicking in her own blood, holding her wound to prevent further blood loss.

“What-?” Goku asked. “What happened?!”

“The Saiyans were still looking for the last weak Saiyan and the runaway prince,” the Trampled Innocence replied. “They were very far away from the lovers’ true location. However, we led them to the ship Yamoshi planned to use to escape. And we took away his lover’s cloaking ability. We can only change the power of beings’ who we willed into existence, otherwise we would have destroyed the Saiyans much sooner.”

“That’s horrible!” Goku shouted. “Th-th-that’s unforgivable! There’s no reason for that!”

“Oh but there is,” the Trampled Innocence replied. “There very much is.”

Yamoshi also looked pretty tired, his body covered in burn marks and blood. Chunks of flesh were ripped from his body and he was struggling to stand. Behind the two renegade Saiyans was the burnt wreckage of a ship, making Goku realize they tried to flee the planet on it. As Yamoshi barely had the strength to stand up, his father approached him. The young Saiyan glared at his father, flaring as much qi as he could.

“Why…?” he said. “Why won’t you just leave us alone?!”

The king didn’t respond, merely chuckling at the boy.

“Well?!” he shouted. “Answer me!”

King Salada chortled as he towered over his son, clearly amused by his son’s insistence to live. Yamoshi jumped at his father, swinging his fist at him, only for Salada to sidestep the attack and knock his son to the ground. Yamoshi tried to stand up, only to have his father’s boot planted firmly in his face.

The young Saiyan fell to the ground with his body limp, his aura disappearing. He strained his neck to watch as his father grabbed the female by the scruff of the neck. She screamed in pain as she attempted to wriggle out of his grip, Salada laughing.

“Leave you alone?” Salada asked. “When you would ruin the gene pool with her defective children?”

The blond Saiyan gasped for air as tears flooded Yamoshi’s eyes.

“That would taint our race’s blood with her filthy heredity,” he said. “I will not have our golden reputation as the greatest warriors the universe has ever known be muddied by her very existence.”

“Please-” Yamoshi said. “I will do anything to-!”

“Shut up!” Salada said as he squeezed her neck harder.

His iron grip caused the female Saiyan’s face to turn blue, the woman scratching at his fingers to let her free.

“And as vile a parasite as she is to our kind,” he said. “You are worse.”

“Worse?” Yamoshi asked.

“You are easily among the strongest Saiyans I have ever known,” Salada said. “One of the most powerful members of our race…you might have even defeated me had you been my age…you had just that much potential!”

He then punched the blond Saiyan, causing her a fresh new scream in pain.

“But now here you are!” King Salada shouted. “Throwing it all away for this one girl!”

Salada threw the girl to the stony ground, pressing her boot on her fair neck. Yamoshi stretched out an arm to her, trying to reach his lover’s hand. His fingers were just within his grasp as his father continued taunting him.

“You could have had every whore in the galaxy, all the wealth in the world and a million battles won!” the king claimed. “But since your childhood all you’ve done with that great power is act like a little pansy!”

He pressed his boot down harder on the blond Saiyan, her weak cry of pain growing weaker.

“You act like a little girl!” Salada shouted. “You’re amongst the most miserable little worms I’ve ever come across…and I don’t even know what I did wrong.”

He took his boot off the female Saiyan’s neck just to kick her away. Salada then kneeled down to face Yamoshi. He then took the young Saiyan by the head, his palm squeezing hard as his son screamed in pain.

“I did everything I could to turn you into the brutal killing machine meant to be a Saiyan king,” Salada said. “I taught you to fight, tried to make you a man by subjecting you to battle and strengthening your resolve and pain tolerance by electrocuting you…and all it did was make you softer.”

He then slammed Yamoshi’s head into the hard stone, the young Saiyan crying blood flowed from his broken nose.

“Well no more,” he said. “I will make you into a worthy Saiyan prince. An elite worthy of becoming my successor. Someone who shall rule over my people long after I am gone and lead them with pride and power.”

He then walked over to where the female Saiyan was lying. Yamoshi tried to grab her hand as they each stretched the other’s arm toward each other. The blond Saiyan’s fingers finally reached her lover’s hand, the two intertwining as best they could to prepare for their last moments.

“And I know that it is not through torture you through physical pain,” Salada said. “But I will do so through showing you the brutality of losing others!”

King Salada stomped his foot down on the blond Saiyan’s head. A burst of blood and brain matter spewed from the impact spot, some of it painting Yamoshi’s face red. And with no head, her hand went limp, her fingers no longer wrapping around the other Saiyan’s.

Yamoshi stopped crying, his tears dried up as he looked at his headless bride. His mouth was agape, barely a sound escaping from his lips. King Salada laughed.

“Yes,” he said. “I can tell…this will be what changes you into a real Saiyan.”

Goku could see a wind pass over Yamoshi, the breeze rustling his clothes. If he looked close enough, he could almost make out a face in the movement of air. Something in Yamoshi’s eyes changed, certain sharpness appearing where there was only gentleness. And then, Goku heard the quiet voice that sounded like untold millions speaking at once.

“Are you ready?”

Yamoshi didn’t respond audibly, his eyes too locked onto the headless woman in front of him to reply immediately. He was too lost in sorrow, too taken up with the shock of seeing her dead. He was frozen in place. Goku shook his head, mortified at what he just saw.

“You didn’t have to do this,” he said, tears stinging his eyes. “You didn’t have to drive him to this amount of despair.”

“Oh but we did,” the Trampled Innocence replied. “No one with a heart as kind as Yamoshi’s would have killed anyone without severe pain.”

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The sharpness in Yamoshi’s eyes grew. They changed from black to a glistening teal. Something happened. Goku could tell Yamoshi had changed. He wordlessly decided something.

“But within that kindness,” the Trampled Innocence said. “Is a paradox.”

A violent whirlwind slowly surrounded Yamoshi as he stood up. King Salada began laughing before the gust of wind surrounding him began scratching his body. Thin gashes of blood appeared on his face and arms.

The Saiyans encircling them began to quiver as more wind kicked up, occasionally knocking them on their feet. King Salada’s expression of superiority and grandiosity changed to fear. Lightning shattered the sky above, the clouds dyed black with a hint of green.

“If a person with no evil experiences the worst of punishments,” the Trampled Innocence said. “Their belief in justice shatters. They can no longer hold the morals they once clung to for dear life. And when that happens…a monster is born.”

And that was when Yamoshi grew. His clothes ripped to shreds as his body shot into the air vertically. Golden fur burst from his body, every limb widening further and further until they were larger around than tree trunks. As his teeth became fangs, faces of the souls composing the Trampled Innocence burst from the surface of Yamoshi’s body. Their faces of molten gold pressed against his body, screaming in anger as they empowered Yamoshi.

His form was maybe twice as tall as Vegeta when he became a Great Ape. Gigantic didn’t even begin to describe it. The Saiyans encircling him were more practically ants in comparison.

Yamoshi turned to stare at a random Saiyan warrior with a bowl cut, someone Goku recognized as the Saiyan attending King Salada through the forest. Upon staring at the man, he exploded. His blood painted the warriors standing beside him a dark red as they screamed in panic.

The newly transformed Saiyan then began looking down at another group of Saiyans forming the tight ring around him. Half a dozen more burst into bits of blood and flesh. The Saiyans then panicked, each one besides Salada fleeing as the king backed stared up in disbelief.

However, once Yamoshi let out a great roar, the fleeing Saiyans were caught in a violent windstorm and thrown like ragdolls through the air. A wall of wind formed where Salada’s army had gathered in the barren area as they became nothing more than debris kicked up in the storm. Goku could see the ghostly figures of those murdered by the Saiyans streaming through the tornado, all of them cackling in delight.

“You think you would get away with murdering us?” a spirit cackled.

“You Saiyans really thought no one would punish you for your insidious deeds?” another taunted.

“All the families you’ve slaughtered?” an angered soul cried. “All the women you’ve tortured and abused? The children you killed without mercy?”

“Who are you?!” King Salada demanded. “Where did you come from?!”

“We are the victims of your many conquests,” millions shouted at once. “Those you brought pain and misery to for no other reason than to quench your bloodthirst. And through your own arrogance and treating your son like a dog, we have come into being!”

“NO!” Salada shouted. “No that…that can’t be!”

“Your son was our pawn all along, King Salada!” many shouted in unison. “He was born as your destroyer! Brought it into this world with the sole purpose of destroying the Saiyan race!”

“That’s not true!” Salada shouted. “I would never bring a person who would endanger the greater species into existence! You’re lying!”

“Oh but you did that yourself,” the whirlwind chided. “You killed your son’s lover…and rather than let them live in the comfort of the other’s warm embrace, you took that chance from your son.”

The whirlwind died down and before stopping altogether. Once the tornado stopped, the bodies of all Saiyans taken up into it flopped against the plateau’s surface below. Most were dead, their limp bodies being dyed in their own blood. Those that were alive weakly attempted to stand before falling to the ground.

Among those alive was Yamoshi’s mother, Queen Lettuk, who coughed up blood as she attempted to rise. The giant ape’s eyes diverted to the woman before he grabbed her up in enormous hand. King Salada flew toward Yamoshi as the queen screamed in terror.

“Stop!” Salada shouted. “As King I-!”

Yamoshi slapped him away, the Saiyan hitting the ground before leaving a crater in the plateau. He slowly stood up to see Yamoshi laughing as he tortured his mother. He was pulling at her left arm with his thumb and left index finger, the rest of her body secured in his right hand.

“Gaaahhh!” Lettuk shouted.

“Stop it!” King Salada cried. “Please…Please stop it!”

“Oh no,” Yamoshi said. “I’m having too much fun.”

Yamoshi continued laughing before Lettuk’s left arm tore from her socket. The queen’s blood spilled onto his hands before placing his thumb on the front of her face and his index finger on the back of her head. Her screams became muffled before he pressed hard on head to burst it like a ripe watermelon. Yamoshi held the mutilated corpse up to his face, giggling at the sight.

“You know, father,” he said. “You’re right. I believe battle and killing does have its own rewards.”

He then flung his mother’s corpse in front at his father’s feet. Salada looked up at his son while quivering in fear. He shook his head as Yamoshi smiled down at him.

“Oh,” Yamoshi said. “I have a special surprise for you, father.”

Yamoshi then yelled at the top of his lungs, the entire planet shaking as a result. The entirety of the barren lands was consumed with red fire, the flames engulfing almost every Saiyan besides Yamoshi. King Salada screamed as the tongues of fire wrapped around him before drowning out his cries of fear and pain. Once he disappeared, the Trampled Innocence whispered into Yamoshi’s ear.

“Your Qi Vendetta,” they said. “What will your ability be? And what will you exchange for that power?”

Yamoshi looked down at the only body not covered in fire, carefully picking up the blond Saiyan’s corpse.

“For my Qi Vendetta…” he said. “I want her…to experience the greatest the afterlife offers. I want her to be given every luxury, to never be denied warmth or comfort. I shall call it…Lover’s Gift.”

“And what will fuel this ability?” the Trampled Innocence asked.

Yamoshi looked down at the headless body, the giant hands quivering.

“The screams of burning Saiyans,” Yamoshi answered as he closed his hands. “As I bring Hell to their doorstep.”

The next memory was more terrifying than any Goku had seen yet. The flames of Hell had engulfed everything in the entire planet of Salada. Yamoshi had killed off the entire population of Saiyans living on Salada, the planet literally being sent to Hell. After Yamoshi had destroyed it, he moved onto every planet the Saiyans had conquered.

The destruction he spread was engrossing. Just as Goku had done, he flew through space at a blinding speed without needing to breathe air. Upon arriving to the next parts of the Saiyans’ empire, he made the place bereft of all Saiyan inhabitants.

Yamoshi released the spirits of the Trampled Innocence to carry out the slaughter. The Saiyan himself relished in the massacre, laughing with a wide grin as he smashed them like ants. The Saiyans had almost as little defense against the incorporeal ghosts of those they slaughtered as they did the Super Saiyan who brought the army. It was not long before barely a remnant of the Saiyans were left, the few that escaped Yamoshi’s slaughter fleeing in high speed spaceships.

But just as Yamoshi would have chased them to the end of the galaxy, he ran out of energy. Goku watched as the golden Great Ape with disparate faces pushing against his body began losing his bright yellow color. As he bit the head off a Saiyan warrior, his bright yellow aura and color evaporated from around his body. The souls composing him dissipated in greater and greater numbers until none were left.

Yamoshi, sensing his demise, looked into the sky and screamed in anger. As he roared, a large white egg covered in bright yellow liquid shot from his mouth. After it was ejected into the atmosphere, another egg erupted from his gullet. Egg after egg erupted from Yamoshi’s mouth was the last Goku saw of him before the great beast vanished.

Goku now saw Yamoshi as he had when first entering the Realm of Souls, the Saiyan nothing more than a white silhouette with a Saiyan tail. He could sense the Saiyan was saddened, his head lowered in defeat. He looked down at his pure white hands, obviously unenthused.

“So what now?” he asked aloud. “Am I just…just stuck here?”

“Yes,” the Trampled Innocence said. “We have absorbed you into the Realm of Souls. You will now rest here as the ultimate determinator of the universe.”

“But…” he said. “I want to see…I want to see my beloved. That is my purpose…to enjoy and to take care of her.”

“You cannot go to where she is,” the Trampled Innocence said. “She was sent directly to Heaven as per your wish. The only way you can leave now is if we choose another host.”

“A new Super Saiyan, huh?” Yamoshi asked. “Well then…I best get started right away.”

And Goku’s surroundings changed yet again.