In the heart of the Null Zone, silence had a shape. It curled around Goku like a slow-moving tide, thicker than shadow and heavier than gravity. His body floated, adrift in a space that refused to be defined. No stars. No time. Just a hollow drumbeat echoing through eternity.
He opened his eyes. They burned faintly with silver. His aura barely flickered. The moment he tried to move, the space around him collapsed inward, like the dimension itself was recoiling.
"Where… am I?" he whispered.
A voice answered, but not in sound. It was thought—etched into his bones.
"The place between truths. The memory of the world."
Before him appeared the same figure from the end of the fracture. Tall, cloaked, faceless. Not the Curator. Something older. Something watching even the Curator.
"You are the Echo."
Goku frowned. "I'm Goku. A Saiyan. A warrior."
"No," the voice replied. "You are the vessel. You were born not from life, but from loss. Energia forged you in the moment the gods tore themselves apart."
Goku tried to speak, but images flooded his mind—blinding visions of a throne made of suns, a sword forged from collapsed stars, and warriors screaming as the sky split.
His heart pounded.
He saw himself—but not as Goku. A being of pure light, standing at the center of it all.
The figure stepped closer. "You were sealed. Made to forget. Made to serve balance. But the seal is failing. The others are awakening too."
Goku clenched his fists. "What others?"
"The echoes. The fragments of the first guardians. One walks with chakra. One with cursed sorrow. One with laughter that breaks the sky. They will remember, too."
A spark lit behind Goku's eyes. "Luffy… Naruto… Gojo…"
"And one more."
The image of Blackbeard appeared, his eyes glowing with swirling dark galaxies.
"The betrayer. The one who chose to consume the Source rather than protect it. He remembers, and he hungers."
Goku floated silently, his breath finally steady. "Then I have to get out of here."
"You will not. Not as you are."
The figure reached out. A burning symbol appeared in Goku's chest—half-sealed, barely beating.
"When the seal breaks, your past will return. But so will the burden. And the choice: save the world… or restart it."
Back in Civitas Prime, the war room buzzed with layered energies. The Luminary floated above a massive crystalline table etched with swirling light paths—portals, nodes, and fractures all mapped with surgical precision.
Naruto slammed a fist on the edge. "He took Goku. And we just let him?"
Gojo shrugged, spinning a cube of cursed energy between his fingers. "We didn't 'let' anything. We got checkmated before the game started."
Saitama stood near the back, arms crossed. "So what's the plan? Punch the void?"
Sasuke, his Rinnegan glowing, pointed to a flickering line on the map. "This fracture pulse—it opened in three places simultaneously. If we synchronize our energies, we might be able to slip one person through."
Yuji stepped forward. "Then I'm going."
Naruto turned. "You sure?"
Yuji nodded. "Sukuna's been whispering ever since the Null Zone opened. I think… I think he's afraid."
The Luminary tilted its head. "He would be. The Null is where all gods were once made. And unmade."
Luffy hopped up onto the table. "If there's only room for one, then I'm going too."
Sasuke arched a brow. "That's not how one person works."
"Don't care. I stretch," Luffy grinned.
Gojo sighed. "Fine. We cheat the rules. Again."
The team began to channel their energy—chakra, cursed power, haki, ki, and even instinctual will—into the fracture map. The table groaned, light bursting from its core.
"Gate's opening!" Sakura shouted. "But not for long!"
With one last surge, the portal flared. Luffy and Yuji dove in—vanishing into the rift.
Inside the Null, Goku fell to one knee. The space was shifting. The figure had vanished, but its final words echoed in his mind.
"They will come for you. But what returns may not be who they seek."
A ripple cracked the air behind him. Two forms burst into the space.
"Yo!" Luffy waved, his body already starting to distort. "This place is weird!"
Yuji landed in a crouch, eyes glowing. "We found you."
Goku stood. "It's not over."
As the three prepared to leave, the Null began to scream.
Something had followed them in.