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Ryu's eyes opened slowly, his vision blurring as his heart raced, his surroundings unknown. Ryu's vision cleared, and he glanced down at his waist, where a thick, blue rope made out of the same energy that was released from Tenjin wrapped around him. Ryu stretched the rope as he slowly slid his arms to his sides, but the rope was too tough to be broken. Ryu attempted to slid his arms up from the rope, but the rope slid upwards as his arms inched out of the rope.
Ryu glanced around the room he was in, a simple, minimalistic style planted around the room as the walls were painted a light blue, the floor underneath him soft with a tan carpet. In the small, square room, a long sofa was placed in the left to the door, which sat simply in the middle of a wall, and opposite of the sofa lied a large television on top of a black, wooden television stand. There was nothing else in the room.
Ryu levitated above the ground, flying back onto the wall opposite to the door. Ryu was a blur as he dashed towards the door, dropkicking it down. Ryu glanced around his surroundings, a kitchen to his right with a few chairs behind a breakfast bar. Doki dashed out of a room just as Ryu leapt towards a door, the teenager barking, "If you jump out of that door, you'll die!"
Ryu froze, whirling around as Doki slowly crept towards the young boy, the teenager continuing, "Right now, we're traveling across the border of time and space to arrive back home. If you jump out there, you'll freeze to death, if you're lucky. But if you don't, you'll just waste around in space for the rest of your life."
Ryu slid backwards as Doki slowly inched towards him, the young boy's eyes shivering slightly. Ryu glanced to his left as a strange man and Tenjin dashed to the scene. Tenjin held her hands up slowly, walking towards Ryu as she murmured, "W-We won't hurt you, H-Hoshiko. W-We just need you to help us. I-I swear I didn't want to fight you in any way."
Ryu's back lightly touched against the door behind him as Tenjin inched face-to-face with the young boy, her trembling eyes staring into Ryu's. Tenjin sat her hand on the young boy's cheek, and Ryu snapped his head away, attempting to dash away from the three, but the strange man appeared instantaneously in front of him, blocking his path.
"The two children said we need you to help us. Surely you can at least hear us out?" The man asked.
The man wore a dark green flak jacket over a black shirt, his sleeves detached, showing his bare shoulders, pants as dark as his shirt stretched down from his waist to his ankles, and a pair of dark sandals, the back of his feet and his toes poking out from holes in his shoes. He sported black, cuffed gloves, his right hand's glove holding a metal plate on the back of it, a strange symbol carved into the metal, and a head protector with the same metal plate and the same symbol.
Ryu's eyes narrowed at the man as he inched backwards slowly, and he glanced at each stranger in front of him slowly. Ryu closed his eyes, inhaling deeply as he straightened his posture. A golden flare slowly shone around him, then sparked up into a sharp aura of golden energy. Ryu's hair slowly spiked up, and he snapped open his eyes as they swirled into a sea-green color. Ryu pushed at the strange rope imprisoning him, energy sparking as he powered up his ki and struggled. Ryu's energy whisked away as he slumped forward, panting at his failure in disbelief.
"It's not going to break." The man explained. "Tenjin's chakra control is one of the greatest I've seen yet. She crafted the rope herself, and she made it tough enough to last even the toughest of treatments.
Ryu began to glow once more as a golden aura erupted around him, knocking Doki and Tenjin backwards in disbelief. Ryu grit his teeth as his hair spiked upwards once more, his eyes swirling into a sea-green color, then swirled into a turquoise one. Ryu's hair sparked into a golden flare briefly, and the mysterious man in front of him widened his eyes in surprise. Ryu exclaimed deeply as he shivered a golden explosion of energy erupting inside the spacecraft, knocking everyone in front of him onto their backs. Ryu snapped the rope of thick energy effortlessly, and he pierced his eyes onto the man in front of him as he stood back up, staring at Ryu in astonishment.
"...You... You've transformed into a... Super Saiyan... Amazing...!" The man gaped in awe as Ryu's unemotional gaze slid around the room he stood in, his golden hair flowing almost angelically.
"Turn this thing around or I'll do it myself, and I'm positive that we don't want that." Ryu ordered, his eyes sliding back onto the man facing him.
"I can't do that. You have no idea how much we've needed you these past 12 years-"
"I have a family and a home to protect." A dark figure flashed in Ryu's head momentarily as his eyes narrowed. "They come before you, or anything else."
"You think we don't?!" Doki barked, a sudden burst of rage erupting from inside the teenager. "We have families, too, y'know! And we want to see their smiles! I'm sick and tired of living in fear and despair of Akuma-"
Ryu's surroundings began to fade as a figure flashed in front of him, and in an instant Ryu was back in reality, his eyes shrinking. Ryu glanced up, murmuring, "What do you need me for?"
"We're fighting against someone named Akuma. He's the pure definition of despair. He goes from dimension to dimension, giving them despair, killing whoever gets in his way and anyone he simply wants dead. You're the only one who can stop him, with the power that lies inside of you." The man explained immediately.
"What power lies inside of me...?"
"...Are you playing stupid? You should already know."
"The only powers inside of me have been unlocked. Unless you mean my Saiyan abilities, I don't have what you need."
"You have the power of light, of positivity, of hope." The man's eyes widened in disbelief when Ryu shook his head slowly. "Then why must we retrieve you if you don't even have the power to cast away despair...?"
"Who sent you?"
"The leader of the Kazu clan, Benten. She's..." The man trailed off, then continued. "Hoshiko, please, will you at least listen to our tale, and decide what you'll do? If you decide to return home, that's where you'll go."
Ryu closed his eyes as his golden ki whisked away, his hair spiking down to normal, his eyes dimming into their subtly, icy color. Ryu diverted his eyes away from the three's pleading eyes, sweat trickling down his cheek as he murmured, "Sure. What do I call you?"
"You know my name, Doki. Pleasure to meetcha." Doki gave a nervous grin.
"T-Tenjin." Tenjin played with her index fingers.
"Isamu." The man nodded, glancing back in a nearby room, lightened with the colors beaming from machinery. "We're arriving at home soon, so everything will be explained there."
Ryu nodded, and the four of them waited as their spacecraft dashed out of the dark space that surrounded them, entering a bright place. The spacecraft the four stood in landed automatically, the door opening and a stairway snapping down immediately.
Ryu hopped down the stairway, glancing around his surroundings cautiously. Green grass danced around Ryu's feet, and the young boy noticed that the grass he stood on curved down into a large hill, the house on the hill miles away from anything, the only thing Ryu could see in the distance was green grass.
Ryu spun around when Doki tapped his shoulder, the teenager nodding his head at the building on the hill they stood on as he walked inside of it, alongside Tenjin and Isamu. Ryu stepped inside the house, glancing around wearily as he took each step, the young boy following the three in front of him.
The three stopped as they faced a door, and they moved out of Ryu's way, beckoning him to open the door. Ryu glanced at Isamu, then shoved the door open.
A lone, elegant woman sat on a pillow in a balcony, nothing but a small tree in the back right corner of the balcony and a dark sofa with three cushions lying on the balcony. A handful of the woman's silky white hair on the left side of her head was braided neatly, wrapped around the back of her head, and popped on the right of her head in a ponytail, the rest of her hair waving down to her neck. The woman stood up slowly, her soft, radiant blue eyes gazing onto Ryu's icy, piercing eyes.
"Hoshiko." The woman murmured softly as she inched closer to the young boy. "You may not remember me, as when we last gazed into each other's eyes, you were but a toddler. I... Am Benten Kazu. I am your mother."
Ryu's eyes narrowed in confusion as he murmured, "My mother is Son Chichi, not you."
"She may have adopted you, but I am biologically, and spiritually, your mother. Please, make yourselves comfortable, for all the explanations you seek will be given, but it may take some time."
Doki, Isamu, and Tenjin all sat on the sofa on the balcony softly, and, as Ryu closed the door, the young boy leaned against the door, gazing at Benten as she closed her eyes softly.
"16 years ago is when this all started. When I met your father... Bishamon. He was strong, handsome... I fell in love as soon as I met his gaze, and he slowly fell for me, as well. We made love, and thus, Akuma was born. But when he was born, we didn't get to choose anything about him, as a special tablet was inserted inside of him from the Shinigami themselves."
"Shinigami?" Ryu interrupted.
"Yes, the Shinigami. Long ago, before any human lived, 10 individuals were created, from someone we do not know. The group of 10 searched each and every dimension, trying to find a meaning to their lives. 5 of them realized that the life and nature they found was worth protecting, and they grouped together to form the 5 Gods that bestow upon us strength in trying times, called the Ikigami. But the other 5 individuals were disgusted in the life and nature they found, and devoted their time and lives to trying to end it all, and rebuild a world where they see it as perfect, called the Shinigami. The Ikigami and the Shinigami clashed once they both found that they were enemies, and, thankfully, the Ikigami defeated the Shinigami, but, due to their peaceful morals, they let the Shinigami live, hoping to see them change for the better. The Shinigami decided that the 5 of them couldn't defeat the Ikigami, so they would find the perfect lifeform to invest their power into, in hopes of said individual having the power to defeat the Ikigami."
"And the tablet inserted in Akuma was their way of making him their vessel to defeat the Ikigami." Ryu sighed, and Benten nodded slowly.
"But, once the Ikigami found out of the tablet the Shinigami used to corrupt an individual and make it theirs, the Ikigami did the same, only giving the vessel they chose complete will over themselves. The Ikigami will only give their power to the vessel, not completely controlling it and forcing it to do whatever they wished. As the Shinigami chose Akuma as their dark vessel, the Ikigami chose you, Hoshiko, as their hero."
Ryu's eyes slid away from Benten's as his gaze turned into a proud one, the young boy murmuring, "You're claiming that I'm your son, and that you and Bishamon... Akuma's...?"
Benten's eyes turned somber as a small smile lifted onto her face, and she nodded slowly, "Your brother. Me and Bishamon tried our absolute best, but, in the end... He was completely taken over with darkness. The tablet was inserted inside of him, and the only way to remove it was to remove it from his entire spirit, which would kill him. As he grew older, the darkness inside of him grew stronger, and one day... He went on a rampage. He slaughtered any and everyone in the Kazu clan."
"Kazu clan?"
"Yes, our surname comes from our clan, and our DNA and blood is a Kazu one. The Kazu clan started with one man, who's name was Kazu. His birth was rumored to be created by the same essence that created the beings of the Ikigami, but no one is certain. Kazu structured his own dimension single-handedly, with powers no one is certain of, and he traveled to other dimensions to get his ideas for his own dimension. While he was in one dimension, he met a lady, and the two fell in love, thus creating a chain of life, and creating our own clan. The Kazu clan once lived in a dimension of shinobi after Kazu's death in search of a new leader, but we moved back to our home after a terrible attack from a monstrous fox. After the demon fox's attack 14 years ago, I became the leader of the Kazu clan."
"If Kazu had the power to create a dimension, shouldn't he be stronger than anyone?"
"Yes, Kazu was one of the strongest individuals whom have ever lived, but so was his brother, Akumu, who was created alongside him. The two were close, but one day, Akumu decided that nothing but power mattered. He murdered Kazu in cold blood, and fled from the Kazu clan, and creating our rival clan, the Doryu clan."
Ryu's eyes widened slightly, and he murmured immediately, "Tell me about the Doryu clan."
"The Doryu clan... A clan of nothing but warriors and fighters. After Akumu killed Kazu, he found a nearly dead dimension with no human life. In that dimension lied the source of the Doryu clan's strength, the RyuJubi (Dragon Ten-Tails), and seeing Akumu's strength, he took him in and trained him, teaching him the way of the dragon. But that training wasn't enough for Akumu. Akumu had grown so powerful that he easily defeated the RyuJubi, and sealed it inside of him, making him the first Jinchuriki of the RyuJubi. The Kazu clan had suffered three losses in the past three wars we've fought against the Doryu clan, showing just how powerful our rivals are. All in all, the Doryu clan is a clan of Kazu members, but their Kazu abilities have been replaced with abilities of a dragon."
Ryu nodded slowly, his eyes narrowing in thought. She's making a bit of sense now. The scale-like pattern drawn on my right arm when I enter my Doryu form... It's the scale of a dragon's!
Ryu's eyes popped back up as he heard Benten lower herself to her hands and knees, bowing her head and murmuring, "The Shinigami consumed Akuma with darkness, but you, Hoshiko, you have been consumed with light. You are the only individual with the power to brighten Akuma once more. Please, Hoshiko, I am begging you. Help me save my son. Your brother."
Ryu closed his eyes as he heaved a sigh, hanging his head back. Ryu popped his eyes open as he asked, "...How am I supposed to believe that you're my mother?"
Benten stood up slowly, walking face-to-face with Ryu, and she sat her forehead on Ryu's lightly, closing her eyes. Ryu's eyes widened softly in surprise.
A young baby sat in a Saiyan space pod, and a man with scarlet red eyes and slit pupils, and black, spiky hair almost identical to Ryu's stood next to Benten as the two waved goodbye to the Saiyan space pod. The man had a tail resembling a monkey's, showing he was a Saiyan, and his slit pupils showed he had Doryu blood running through his veins. The man wore a Saiyan suit, and Benten looked exactly as she currently did.
The young one shoved his hands onto the pod he was in as he was lifted off the ground, and Benten sobbed uncontrollably as the baby disappeared from sight. The man next to Benten rubbed her arm as he embraced her, the two holding each other to ease their emotional pain.
Ryu's eyes snapped wide as his breathing turned into heaves, his eyes trembling as choked out, "Wh-wh-?"
"I'm positive you're smart enough to understand that flashback you witnessed. We had no choice but to send you away, or Akuma would kill you as soon as he turned too dark." Benten's eyes watered as she stepped backwards. "So please, now that you know that I am truly your mother... Will you aid me in my struggle? In our clan's struggle?"
Ryu's eyes stuck onto the ground as he drowned in his thoughts. ...How...? I... I thought I was the son of Son Goku for 14 years... How did he even find me...? Why didn't they tell me I wasn't their genuine son, instead of letting me believe I was...!
"...This... Akuma person. Was he truly controlled, and had no will in his life...?" Ryu asked. Benten nodded slowly, and Ryu nodded back. "I'll help in any way I can."
Benten's eyes watered until she was on the brink of tears, and she closed her eyes as a single tear trickled down her right eye. She brushed her tear immediately, and she nodded quickly as she mouthed a thank you. Ryu's eyes slid to the right as he added, "But once all of this is done, I'm returning back home to do what I'm here to do."
"Of course." Benten nodded, and her arms swung forwards as she began to hug her son, but she awkwardly snapped them back to her sides as she began to leave the balcony, beckoning Ryu, and the quiet three on the sofa with her, the five traveling to a different room.
In this room, yet another simplistic feel sat inside as nothing more than a large, square machine in the middle of the room, followed by four chairs on each side of the machine sat inside the room. Benten nodded at the machine, "This is the Kazu clan's purpose. We go from dimension to dimension to make sure it's timeline isn't corrupted, and we search around the multiverse to discover new dimensions. We are the explorers of the omniverse. The dimension where you were sent is one of billions, and Akuma wants to corrupt and end them all. We know for certain that Akuma is going to travel back to the dimension of the shinobi, where the Kazu clan once moved to, in hopes of getting all Bijuus and gain even more power. We can track Akuma down whenever he powers up, as this machine, the Wanderluster, will detect it."
"We're gonna ambush him before he can even get a single one." Doki grinned as he mashed his fist together enthusiastically, a small spark of flames lighting above his fists.
"Before we go there." Isamu spoke up, pointing at Ryu. "I challenge you to a quick sparring match."
Ryu's eyes narrowed in confusion, and Isamu added, "We know nothing about each other. It'll be useful to know what techniques you've learned, and maybe we could help each other improve."
Ryu closed his eyes softly as he nodded, murmuring, "I accept your challenge."
"Great." Isamu smirked softly.