章 451: A Gift

While Alex was busy with Beerus, back in the Misty Manor Videl was still trying to adjust to the sudden changes around her.

After crying for nearly an hour in Hestia's arms, Videl was now somewhat calm as she slowly sipped on the second cup of tea Hestia had given her. Though she still gave the occasional sniffle.

"Feeling a bit better?" Hestia asked after a little while, to which Videl slowly shook her head.

Not expecting anything different, Hestia nodded and continued,

"Well that's to be expected. But maybe you'll feel a bit better if you had some friends to help you out, and I know some kids who are dying to meet you." Videl looked up at that, only to see the door burst open suddenly as a horde of children rushed into the room.

"""Miss Hestia! Miss Hestia!""" The children called out excitedly as they flocked around both Hestia and Videl, confusing the girl until the oldest of the bunch, another girl that appeared to be around the same age as her with emerald green hair, said to her with an outstretched hand,

"You must be Videl, I'm Myuu." Not knowing what else to do in this situation, Videl cautiously accepted Myuu's handshake while muttering,

"Nice to meet you....." In the face of her awkwardness though, Myuu didn't miss a beat as she promptly sat right next to Videl and said,

"It'll be nice having someone else the same age as me around, I hope we can be friends!" In the face of Myuu's earnest behavior and desire to be friends, Videl didn't quite know what to say at first, even before she caught sight of the former's lightly webbed fingers and finned ears.

"What are you?" Videl suddenly found herself blurting out, her curiosity overriding her caution. Thankfully though Myuu didn't seem to take offense to the question, as she had already learned from her papa's wives that there were a LOT of people who didn't know about her species.

"I'm a Dagon! The rest of the people like me live next to the ocean, but mama and I live here with papa!" As Myuu mentioned her papa, Videl noticed that the rest of the children who had barged into the room, who were now surrounding Hestia and begging her for a story, all had monkey-like tails. Clenching her fists tightly, Videl asked in a small voice,

"By 'papa', do you mean him?" For a moment Myuu didn't say anything as she watched Videl's face, as if she was scrutinizing her before answering.

As the oldest and closest in age to Videl, Myuu was the only one amongst Alex's children that knew the truth about the link between the two, that her papa had accidentally killed Videl's father. She didn't blame him though of course, as in Myuu's eyes her papa was always right in everything he did, even if he made a mistake.

Though she hadn't been willing to socialize with Videl at first when her mama warned her that she was likely to hate her papa, Remia had explained it to Myuu by telling her imagine if someone took her papa away from her as well. She then asked her how she would feel towards such a person.

So, despite the look on Videl's face as she asked about Alex, Myuu tried not to let it get to her as he replied,

"Yep! My papa is the Dragon Emperor! Not by blood though!" That made Videl look at her in confusion, prompting Myuu to hop off of the couch and point her butt towards her, displaying her lack of tail.

"Papa saved me from some bad men when I was little, and my real papa died before I was born, so I decided to adopt papa as my papa!" Remembering the day she first met her papa, Myuu was smiling widely despite the horrible things she went through before Alex and Shia found her in the sewers.

Videl was watching this as Myuu sat back down next to her, before a horrible thought suddenly occurred to her.

"Will he....try to make me call him papa too?" Not just Myuu, but Hestia and several of the children looked up at Videl's question. Myuu however quickly said,

"No no, papa wouldn't do that. He did tell me that he intends to teach you how to fight and get stronger. But don't worry, I'll help you when we start training!"

Recalling how Alex seemed to be trying to 'teach' her when they met before, Videl felt a little bit of relief that he probably wouldn't try to make her into his daughter. But when she thought of being taught to fight from him, Videl frowned as she said,

"But I want to learn actual martial arts, not the stupid tricks fake people like him use!" Myuu cocked her head to the side at that, and uttered confusedly in response,

"'Tricks'?" Videl nodded and explained,

"Yeah, tricks! My dad told me when we watched old videos of the martial arts tournaments together, the people that won before he fought used stupid tricks to distract everyone from how bad they were at martial arts! And that they all quit before he competed because they were scared of him!"

Though Videl was like the exact opposite of how she was a moment ago, Myuu genuinely didn't know what to say as she began talking about 'tricks'.

"What do you mean by 'tricks' though?" She asked curiously, to which Videl explained,

"I mean things like flying or shooting lights from your hands! Those are all impossible for people to do, so they must be tricks with wires and stuff! My dad told me about it before!" Saying so matter-of-factly, Videl huffed as if that was that, leaving Myuu at a momentary loss for words before he said with a flat voice,

"You mean like this?" She then produced a sphere of energy in the palm of her hand, stupefying Videl as she saw it firsthand.

"Yes! Those are just tricks!" She stated firmly, stubbornly refusing to believe that people could do such things.

At a momentary loss of words, Myuu wondered how she could convince Videl that it WASN'T a trick. She then leapt to her feet energetically, before saying to the rest of the kids,

"Hey! Let's go play in the backyard for a while!" Though her suggestion was met with numerous whines and complaints from the rest of the children, since they were in the middle of one of Hestia's stories, the goddess herself clapped her hands lightly and said,

"That sounds like a great idea! You can all show Videl around the manor and tell her about your favorite places to play!" With Hestia saying so, the children quickly filed out of the room as Edith and Mai both seized one of Videl's hands apiece to drag her along.

Though she was surprised at the sudden turn of events, that was only the start of the numerous surprises she was going to get.

***

Back on Beerus' planet, Alex had just finished putting away the entire mountain of food when he received a message from Kuroka.

While he had been eating, the Grand Supreme Kai had been telling Beerus the specifics regarding the tournament, as well as the reason Alex was having it to begin with.

"So you're telling me, that our universe is one of the lowest in terms of average strength, and that means the Omni King would most likely Destroy us in a little over ten years along with the rest of universes that aren't in the top four?"

"Yep, that's right!" Alex declared as he stood, drawing Beerus' attention back to him as he snarled,

"That's not even remotely funny." Alex however answered with a serious expression,

"I'm not trying to be. You can feel free to check with him yourself, but IF I'm right then you could just hasten the end of your universe." When he heard that Beerus' entire body twitched just from the idea of going before the Omni King, before Alex continued,

"Or, you can go along with my plan and try to raise your rating before then. It's not a bad idea with all the threats that seem to pop up in this universe." Though he clicked his tongue, Beerus didn't say anything due to the fact that Alex did have a point.

In fact, he could even acknowledge that they WERE a low ranking universe compared to the other eleven, primarily due to how many threats that always seemed to pop up. Freiza's entire family line for one, who could never train a single day in their life and still grow up to possess the strength to rule over entire sectors of the universe with an iron fist. Then there was Majin Buu, who was so powerful that he was even able to defeat, and then consume, the Grand Supreme Kai.

With other names such as Moro and the newbie Cell popping up in his mind, Beerus couldn't help but to mutter,

"Come to think of it, I'm actually amazed that we still have a universe to begin with with all these people constantly appearing..." Nodding in agreement, Alex stated,

"That's why I'm trying to help the people of this universe get stronger, so that they could be able to stand up to such beings themselves if needed. As things currently stand, there would only ever be two people who would be able to stand up to such threats, which would mean the universe wouldn't be that safe once they eventually died."

Unfortunately Beerus had no choice but to agree with Alex's words and actions, as if these beings continued appearing and destroying more and more planets without leaving room for growth, then he would be out of the job. And if that happened, then he himself could very well be the next one erased by the Omni King due to him no longer being needed.

However, there was one thing he didn't understand.

"Why bother me? I'm a Destroyer, I wipe out civilizations and eliminate planets, I don't help them grow." Nodding slowly in agreement, Alex then said,

"True, but I'm not expecting you to help them grow. All I want from you is to be a bit more mindful of WHICH planets you Destroy, and to show up to watch the tournament in six months. Basically, putting the 'fear of God' into people." Blinking a few times in surprise, Beerus smiled evilly as he commented,

"Now that, I can do!"

"Then we have an agreement!" Alex said happily, before continuing,

"Just as well though, I need to go now since my 'Queen' has finished collecting something I asked her to find for me." Sensing something in Alex's voice, Beerus asked,

"Oh? And what is it that this queen of yours found that could be so important?" Alex smirked as he replied,

"Instead of telling you, would you like to see for yourself?"

...

With his business with Beerus finished for the moment, Alex returned to Capsule Corp on Earth while Elaine returned to Asora. There, he entered the main workshop where Bulma and her father worked on their inventions, except he found two Bulmas covered in grease as they worked together on a new invention.

Shortly after Alex left the group to go to the planet of the Kai's the other day, future Trunks had returned in a remodeled time machine that was now also big enough to allow two other people to travel with him, his mother and Mai. He had of course defeated the version of androids 17 and 18 that had been the original reason he traveled back to begin with, before going on to destroy the larval stage Cell that still existed in hiding in that timeline.

Now Trunks and the other two had officially moved into their time in order to escape the future potential threats Alex warned him about, something that left a bitter taste in all three's mouths. Though apparently they only came back since Bulma theorized that, if they weren't around, then maybe the remaining people of that Earth would be able to rebuild their lives in peace.

""Hey!"" Alex suddenly looked up as both Bulmas reached a stopping point, and noticed he was there.

Though there had been a little bit of drama when they first met due to one being roughly twenty years older than the other and so on, Alex had settled the drama by using Regeneration magic on both of them until they were the same exact age, in their lowers twenties. Now the only difference between the two was that the Bulma from the future had decided to dye blond highlights into her light blue hair, which made her match more with her mom and older sister.

Waving his hand at them, Alex returned their greeting before asking,

"So what are you guys working on there?" As if they were completely in sync with one another, both Bulmas proudly puffed out their chests and declared,

""This is our latest invention, the space-time room!"" Though they both acted proud of their latest invention, Alex just deadpanned at them as he retorted,

"Isn't that just a rehash of the space-time orbs that we made with magic?" This time both Bulmas deadpanned at him, before the one from the present stated,

"So what if it is? Us 'mere mortals' can't use your fancy magic, so I'll one up you by recreating your stuff without any magic whatsoever!" Bulma then thrust her chin up as if she were proud of what she said, until Alex tossed her something.

"What's this?" She asked while scrutinizing the thing.

"It's a drive containing numerous blueprints of machines that Lala created. She doesn't care about things like wealth, recognition, or patents, and made every single one of her designs public knowledge in Asora. There should already be a design in there that will turn any closed space, like a closet, into an area that can be expanded and customized however you want. The most recent ones even allow for time manipulation within, and all without magic."

When Alex finished speaking Bulma slumped to her knees and muttered with empty eyes,

"I give up...Lala is too ridiculous....." Seeing her past self's depressed state, future Bulma couldn't help but to ask incredulously,

"Is Lala really that good?" Having never met her before, the future Bulma had a hard time imagining someone as ridiculous as her past self described. Alex however nodded as he said,

"Give her an hour, and Lala will probably give you a time machine she made out of spare parts, or something equally extreme. The only problem is that her inventions have the unfortunate habit of.....malfunctioning in somewhat ridiculous ways." As he trailed off a faraway look appeared in Alex's eyes as he recalled all the various, and perverted, misadventures he'd gone through because of Lala's inventions.

After reminiscing for a moment, Alex cleared his throat before continuing,

"Ehem. Anyways, you'll get a chance to meet her soon anyways since I already asked her and the rest of my peerage to come meet me here. Think you can get everyone on this side together for a bit Bulma? There's something I want to show you all." Recovering somewhat from her slump, Bulma stood and cleared her throat this time before saying,

"Yeah, I'll send out the message. No guarantees they'll show up though since some of the guys are probably busy training after seeing the difference between you and them."

Bulma then went and used a handheld communicator to send a message to everyone, as the technology in this world was still equivalent to the eighties and early nineties of Japan, before saying to Alex,

"Ok, they should be here within the hour. And while we wait for them to arrive the two of us can go shower to wash all this grease off." The words were barely out of Bulma's mouth when Alex asked her with raised eyebrows,

"You know, I worked up quite the sweat earlier myself. Mind if I join you ladies?" Though future Bulma appeared interested, present Bulma immediately shouted,

"No! Not gonna happen buddy! We're not the type of bimbos you can trick into joining your collection of sex toys!" She then seized future Bulma's hand and started dragging her away so they could shower together, which made her seem disappointed.

Alex then listened through his 'Domain' as the two women began discussing his request to join them in private. Future Bulma wanted to know why present Bulma refused his advance, especially since Alex was exceptionally powerful, both politically and physically, handsome, wealthy, and overall better than Vegeta Jr in every way, especially with his recent attitude.

Interrupting his snooping though, a group of five people materialized out of nowhere outside of Capsule Corp, Bardock, Gine, Raditz, Chichi, and Goku. Though he was tempted to continue snooping on the two Bulmas, and maybe even play a prank on them, Alex ultimately decided to let them wash up in peace as he went out to greet Goku and the others.

"Hey there-" Alex began once he saw them, before Chichi suddenly launched herself through the air while directing a kick at his face.

"Give me back my son you kidnapper!" She shouted with fury, even as Alex smoothly dodged her kick and acted as if nothing happened.

"So anyways-" He began a second time, only for Chichi to shout while swinging around for another kick,

"Don't ignore me!" Shaking his head in exasperation, Alex gently caught Chichi's attack this time before saying to her,

"Chichi, I did not kidnap Gohan, and neither did Sona. He CHOSE to attend the Academy in order to go to school like a normal kid, and interact with other kids his age." Despite Alex telling her the truth of the matter, which everyone else knew, Chichi refused to accept it and whimpered desperately as she collapsed to the ground disheartedly,

"My poor baby....all alone and confused....crying for his mommy....." In the face of her crocodile tears, Alex just sighed before conjuring a projection from the few times he'd checked in on Gohan, and said,

"He's actually doing pretty good over there. Gohan and Brunch both already made quite a few friends, he's made himself known for his strength, AND he's already impressed the majority of his teachers with how smart he is." As he spoke Alex showed the group images of Gohan happily chatting with other kids his age, admiring the sights of Asora as Millicas showed him and Brunch around, and otherwise enjoying themselves in their newfound school life.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

Rather than being assured though, Chichi wailed as tears streamed down her face, and she cried out,

"I-I-I KNEW IT! GOHAN ISN'T STUDYING AT ALL! HIS ENTIRE FUTURE IS GOING TO BE RUINED!"

Everyone around Chichi gaped at her in amazement from the fact that, even though Gohan looked to be perfectly happy, healthy, and active, all she cared about was that he wasn't stuck behind a book 24-7.

Shaking his head at her, Alex decided to bring out his secret weapon to pacify Chichi. First using magic for confirmation, Alex then said,

"You know, I doubt all this stress and worrying will be good for the baby." Though it took her a moment, once Alex's words sunk in Chichi looked up at him and asked,

"What baby?" Alex pretended to be confused as he asked her in return,

"You didn't know you're pregnant?"

"..."

For a moment no one said anything, before Chichi suddenly leapt up and declared,

"Hospital! I have to get to a hospital!" Though she was rushing to confirm if what Alex said was true, Gine took Chichi's hands in her own and excitedly declared,

"How wonderful! And this time Bardock and I will be around to watch him/her grow up!" Even as she said that, Gine paused before awkwardly asking,

"Oh yeah, where do you get your incubators here on Earth?" Goku and Chichi both looked at Gine in confusion, and asked in unison,

""Incubators?"" This time gone looked confused as she replied,

"Yeah? The pods that you put a newborn in for the first few years of their life." Chichi stared at gone and Bardock in dumbfoundment before she exclaimed,

"You mean Saiyans leave their children in pods for the first few years after they're born!!!?" As the group learned more about the difference between Saiyan and earthling child rearing, Alex decided to slip away silently as he sensed a new group of people approaching.

This time it was the Vegeta family, consisting of Sr, Jr, and future Trunks. Compared to Goku and his family, who had spent the last few days getting to know each other, the Vegetas and Trunks had of course jumped right into training. While both his father and son were working on catching up to him and Goku, Vegeta Jr specifically had been desperately trying to ascend to the SSJ2 to close the gap between himself and Alex.

His efforts so far were in vain though apparently, as the moment he touched down Vegeta took on look at Alex, and stormed off angrily.

"Forgive him your majesty. My son is just having a hard time adjusting to all of this." Vegeta Sr. said as he kneeled before Alex. A melancholic look appeared on his face though, as he added, "I suppose it's mostly my fault for not setting a good example of what a king is."

Alex nodded slowly in agreement as he replied,

"I'd say it's the opposite of the 'don't meet your hero' situation." Vegeta Sr voiced his agreement on the matter since it was almost exactly like that.

Ever since the day Planet Vegeta was destroyed by Freiza, one of the few remaining Saiyans, prince Vegeta, had continued living his life as if he were the ideal of the Saiyan race.

He was brutal, destructive, merciless, and most of all, cruel.

Any who crossed him or even slightly inconvenienced him were killed, while even if the few remaining members of his race died, he scorned them for their weakness.

Even when he learned the truth of his people's destruction, that his planet was destroyed by Freiza and not an asteroid, Vegeta didn't care and initially blamed his own people for their weakness that led to their slaughter. Though he did seem to care about it later, his biggest issue had always been Frieza using him like a puppet afterwards.

His attitude was entirely opposite one of a king, where one needed to be ruthless and powerful, as well as both wise and compassionate.

Even his father, who had been known for his cruelty and ruthlessness, had a hidden compassionate side. If the Saiyans hadn't been wiped out then Vegeta would have most likely learned of this and become wiser and more kind, but instead he had been raised within the ranks of the Frieza army where they encouraged only cruelty and ruthlessness.

While Alex knew Vegeta would mellow out eventually, it would take over seven years from their current point in time, and that was if everything went as it did in the original story. So, he could only hope that having his father and future Trunks present would help speed the process along.

Alex then spent the remainder of their time waiting chatting with the other Saiyans, trading stories of different battles they'd fought, while everyone else slowly but surely arrived.

First was Master Roshi, who arrived via helicopter that was filled with a gaggle of girls that he had picked up with his newfound youth. Then was Yamcha, who had also just arrived from a nearby date with one of his many girlfriends alongside Puar. After him was Krillin, Piccolo, and then finally Tien with Chiaotzu and Launch, who had a much different attitude regarding her daughter attending the Academy, and was pleased to see how well she and Goan were fitting in.

Last to arrive was Grant, who had gone to seclude himself to do a bit of soul searching after meeting Alex, as the Bulmas finally finished cleaning up and getting dressed. As he approached them Grant looked to Alex and said,

"Alex, can we talk for a minute?" Curious, Alex followed Grant a short ways away from everyone until they were out of earshot, to which the other reincarnator asked him,

"How do you do it?" Cocking his head to the side in confusion, Alex asked him back,

"Do what?" For a moment Grant didn't say anything, before clarifying,

"How are you able to do the things you do so easily? You change the way things are supposed to be without hesitation, and you'll go into battle without worrying if you'll die or not. Also we're the same age, but you've already ascended to the SSJ4 and are more powerful than I could probably ever be. Not to mention that you're an actual Emperor who rules over even gods. How?"

As Grant asked him that, Alex didn't immediately answer him.

Though they hadn't spent much time talking the last few days, what little time they did talk had given Alex quite a bit of insight into Grant himself. The guy was only ten when he had been reincarnated, much too young to have been corrupted by the dark aspects of the human psyche.

Instead he, a literal child, had been thrown into the dream-like situation of being able to live and fight alongside his favorite characters and heroes, while Alex and the others had focused on either gathering power, or living their new lives. With how dangerous this universe was though, with beings like Frieza and Cell appearing every few years, it was understandable that Grant had developed a hesitation towards fighting due to not wanting to die against them, and not being able to come back through the Dragon Balls like the others.

Thinking for over a minute on how to respond, Alex finally asked Grant in return,

"Grant, what do you have here?" The other Saiyan cocked his this time in confusion, before asking,

"What do you mean?" Smiling wryly, Alex surprised him by saying,

"For the first part of my life I was a lot like you, wanting to follow the 'story' and use certain events to my advantage. My goal however, was to create a harem with all of the beautiful and amazing women that existed out there in the multiverse." When he heard that Grant's face turned red from embarrassment at the idea of a harem, but Alex continued,

"However as time went on I realized I couldn't keep doing things like that forever. Merely my existence itself would cause problems regardless of how much I tried to hide, and there became things I wanted to protect no matter what." As he said that Alex produced a wallet fold stack of pictures that showed every single one of his children and wives in it.

As Grant realized just how big Alex's family was, he continued,

"My choices now are either to continue charging forward to get ahead, and get enough strength to overturn anything that dares to stand in my way, or to risk losing it all because I hesitated for a single moment.

"I want to ensure that no matter what happens in the future, I regret none of it. I may spend a lot of my time training my ass off(though not so much recently), but I also make sure to spend as much time as possible caring for my children, making love to my wives, and interacting with my people.

"Truthfully, though I say I'm aiming to win in this competition between us reincarnators, I haven't thought too much about the actual endgame. I just focus on enjoying my second life to the fullest, and working to be better than everyone else."

As Alex finished speaking, Grant felt like he began to understand the difference between them a bit better.

Alex had always been charging forward, working to better himself and those around him while refusing to bow down due to not wanting to lose the people he had gained. He on the other hand, had always remained passive. Grant was more than eager to train with Goku and the others, but he rarely ever put his strength to the test and fought himself, not wanting to risk his life since he knew that they'd always be able to bring back anyone they might lose with the Dragon Balls.

"I think I understand a bit..." Grant eventually said, to which Alex nodded in approval. In his eyes, Grant was almost like a little brother that needed some guidance, but was unable to get it due to their unique circumstances, similarly to how Beth had never been able to get over the trauma of her death.

What surprised Alex though, was when Grant then pulled something out of his travel pack, a purple fruit with swirled markings all over it that didn't look like any other fruit one would find. Alex however recognized what it was the second he saw it.

"A Devil Fruit?" He asked curiously, to which Grant nodded before confirming,

"Yes, the Gomu-Gomu no Mi to be exact." Alex's brows shot up when he heard that, as he hadn't known Grant got the same Devil Fruit that Luffy used in One Piece. He then continued though,

"I've had this fruit on me ever since I turned five. Ever since then I hesitated on eating it because I didn't want to lose my ability to swim, instead swearing that I'd wait until the day we needed its ability." Grant then surprised Alex even more as he held it out to him and said with resolution in his voice,

"I want to give it to you. Use it yourself, or give it to someone else, it's your choice Alex. I've been hesitating so much, I'll give up on it." Instead of taking the fruit though, Alex instead asked him,

"Are you sure Grant? If it's been about losing your ability to swim, couldn't you have just used the Dragon Balls to wish for that back?" Grant's eyes widened when he heard that, as he asked out loud,

"Wait, I could have done that!?!" Alex place palmed at him when he heard that, reaffirming his decision to discuss with the Dragon team their inability to use the Dragon Balls properly, instead of just using them to fix their mistakes afterwards.

Though shocked by this sudden revelation, Grant shook his head and stated,

"It doesn't matter though, I already decided to give the fruit to you Alex. And I'll be fine without it anyways, I'll just have to work harder to become a stronger Saiyan, plus I have my Zanpakutō." As he said that, Grant patted the handle of the massive great sword that was strapped to his back.

Shaking his head at him as he did so, Alex finally said,

"Alright, I'll find someone who'll want to eat a Devil Fruit, even if it is the Gomu-Gomu no Mi." As he said that, Alex accepted the fruit from Grant's outstretched hand. However, the moment the fruit came into contact with him, Alex felt an unusual feeling come over him, while a sound like drums began to echo in his head.

*DUM DUT DA DA🎶*