The arena was still crackling from Android 13's final collapse when the sky darkened.
A mechanical hum spread across the stadium—low, metallic, unnatural.
Buu tilted his head. "Huh. That's new."
Before anyone could react, dozens of metallic pods descended from above, slamming into the ruined tiles around them. The Red Ribbon emblem glowed red across their armored hulls.
Smoke hissed out.
And then they appeared—fully armed Red Ribbon soldiers, surrounding the arena in a perfect circle. Heavy rifles, shoulder cannons, shock grenades—enough firepower to obliterate a city block.
The announcer dropped his microphone. Spectators screamed. Panic rippled through the stands.
A tall commander stepped forward, voice amplified through a helmet speaker."BUU! Step away from the tournament grounds immediately. You are ordered to surrender the four–star Dragon Ball in your possession."
Buu blinked, unimpressed. "No."
The commander stiffened. "We have hostages. Cooperate, or they all die."
In an instant, Red Ribbon troopers locked mechanical clamps onto several clusters of spectators, dragging them forward and forming human shields. Children cried, adults trembled, families clung to each other.
Bulma's eyes widened in horror. "You monsters…"
The commander pointed at Buu.
"Dragon Ball. Now."
Buu looked at the terrified crowd.
He shrugged.
"I don't see how this is my problem."
The whole stadium froze. Gasps. Screams. Disbelief.
Mai hissed under her breath, "Buu—!"
But his expression didn't change.
He simply didn't care about other.
Bulma clenched her fist, but even she understood—what the Red Ribbon did next… was on them.
The commander snarled. "OPEN FIRE!"
"Wait—!" shouted several soldiers at once. But the order had already been given.
A volley of plasma shots burst toward the sky.
And everything went wrong.
One android turret—mounted improperly—jerked sideways from recoil and unleashed an uncontrolled barrage across the spectator stands. Red Ribbon rifles, set to maximum output, overheated instantly and discharged wild beams into the hostage clusters.
Bulma's heart stopped.
The soldiers panicked.
"WATCH YOUR FIRE!"
"THE SYSTEM'S JAMMED!"
"SOMETHING'S OVERRIDING US—!"
More blasts erupted—chaotic, uncontrolled, ricocheting across the arena.Civilians screamed as explosions tore across the upper bleachers. Bodies fell—victims of the Red Ribbon's own weapons, their own panic, their own incompetence.
The commander spun around.
"WHO ORDERED THE AUTO–ENGAGE!?"
"We didn't!" a soldier shouted. "It activated by itself!"
From above, Fu—hidden just beyond the stadium's rim—smirked behind his glowing glasses."Oops."
Back below, the Red Ribbon line broke. Soldiers scrambled to regain control of their weapons. Metal clashed. Sparks flew. Someone triggered a failsafe, and three drones exploded midair, showering scrap and debris everywhere.
Bulma trembled with rage.
Mai stepped forward, eyes burning violet.
Buu cracked his neck.
Before the Red Ribbon soldiers could regroup, Buu vanished.
A pink flash—
A soldier's cannon melted into slag.
Another flash—
Three rifles snapped in half.
A third—
A full combat pod detonated, sending its pilots flying.
Bardock's team moved next, emboldened by fury.
Tora rushed the nearest squad, breaking through their formation with brute force.
Fasha threw an explosive ki disk that sliced through a drone swarm.
Borgos grabbed two soldiers by the helmets and slammed them together like cymbals.
Mai fired a precise shot into a sniper's scope, shattering it and knocking him unconscious.
Bulma followed with a blast of pink energy that tore the legs off a mech, sending it crashing to the ground.
The Red Ribbon line collapsed instantly.
"RETREAT—RETREAT—RETREAT—!"
But Buu appeared above them, hovering lazily.
"No. You come to play… you stay to play."
He raised one hand.
Pink ki spiraled outward, forming a vortex that wrapped around the fleeing pods. Metal warped, twisted, and crushed inward like paper.
Soldiers screamed and dropped their weapons.
Bulma and Mai moved beside him, releasing coordinated bursts that eliminated the remaining drones. Bardock's team blocked the exits, finishing off every pod and machine in sight.
In less than a minute, the Red Ribbon army—an entire battalion—was wiped out.
The commander, trembling, crawled backward across the cracked tiles."Please—wait—! We were following orders! It wasn't my call—!"
Buu landed in front of him.
He didn't smile.
He didn't speak.
He simply flicked the commander's forehead.
The man flew backward, crashing through the broken wall and skidding across the dirt outside the arena, unconscious.
Silence returned.
Smoke rose from the destroyed stands. Civilians who had survived huddled together, trembling—not from fear of Buu, but from the trauma of what the Red Ribbon had done.
Mai looked at them with softened eyes.
"They came here for a tournament… not war."
Bulma exhaled shakily, fists clenched.
"Red Ribbon will pay for this. Every last one of them."
Bardock approached, crossing his arms.
"Then we make them pay. All of us."
Buu wiped dust from his shoulder.
"Yeah."