Honor Trip

Special Press Release #1

May 12, 2012

Part 1: Release of "Showdown with Future Cell" Chapters Rescheduled to May 26 and 27 Due to External Commitments of Importance

My dear friends and dedicated readers,

Due to extensive business commitments, volunteer activities, assistance of friends in need and my imminent move from Virginia to Washington, D.C., Chapters 41 and 42, which comprise the "Showdown with Future Cell," are not going to be released May 12 and 13 as originally scheduled, despite my efforts and intentions to have them completed by these dates.

I decided that rushing production of the chapters so that they could be complete by the originally-scheduled release dates would have been a significant disservice to your reading experiences and to the story's integrity and quality adherence. With this extended deadline, I will have the opportunity to write these chapters with greater meticulousness, elaboration, depth, refinement, and action value than would have been the case had I made them shorter and rushed the processes.

Many of you can recall the period of time earlier in the history of Honor Trip in which chapters were released according to irregular production schedules, with some consecutive chapters released more than three months apart from each other. My decision to increase the rate of production so that a chapter would be released every three weeks was made with the intention of providing you with a more consistent, quality reading experience that you would be able to enjoy more often.

I knew from the onset that this would be an ambitious task, as I wanted to increase the rate of production in a period of my life in which there have been vast increases in the quantity and intensity of my professional responsibilities and other commitments. It's therefore quite reasonable that there will be instances in which despite my best efforts, the time frame of releasing chapters every three weeks will not always be able to be strictly adhered to, especially in periods when my professional and other commitments are at greater-than-average quantities and intensities, as had been the case over the past three weeks.

With all this explained, please accept my humble apology that the chapters were not released the weekend of May 12 as planned, but be confident that rescheduling the release dates will enable me to write these chapters so that there are of inherently greater quality and enjoyment value for you.

Part 2: A Response to Your Reviews for Chapter 40, and an Elaboration on the Viability of Future Cell surviving Trunks' Final Finish Buster and the Plot's Progression

As many astute readers have observed, the fact that Future Cell managed to not only survive Trunks' Final Finish Buster in Chapter 40 but do so in conjunction with Cell, Trunks, and their allies in Otherworld neglecting to confirm whether his energy signature and presence were in fact within the confines of Otherworld collectively can be perceived as a series of illogical and overly convenient event progressions – unless reasonable explanations are provided.

Since Honor Trip seeks to uphold a superlative standard of logical and quality storytelling, and since I sincerely value your feedback and rigorously endeavor to enable this series to make as much sense as possible while accommodating pre-existent canonical elements that not always were of the greatest of logical integrity, I decided that an elaborated explanation as to my decision to have the story progress in this manner would be appropriate.

In the planning and development stage for Chapter 40, I considerably pondered whether to end the chapter at the point in which the published version ends, or to extend the chapter beyond the published end to include additional details and developments that would have supported the legitimacy of the scenario of Future Cell surviving the attack in the way he did.

I ultimately decided to implement the former option to emphasize the desperation of Cell and Trunks' situation, and your legitimate questions have arisen as a result.

To address your specific constructive criticisms, (which, as always, are greatly appreciated), I'd like to explain why I decided to have Future Cell survive the Final Finish Buster and impale Trunks, in his normal state, with a Full-Power Death Beam. Had I decided to extend Chapter 40 beyond its published end, my intentions as to these decisions likely would have been clearer, but as I ended the chapter at the point I did, I shall elaborate upon these points now.

Reason 1: Enabling Cell and Future Cell to fight each other in a significant capacity before the end of the Future Cell Saga

I realized in discerning how to best end the Future Cell Saga that throughout the saga, despite the fact that it has been the "current" featured saga for more than one year as of this writing, that Cell and Future Cell have not yet had the opportunity to fight each other in a substantial capacity and that to end the saga without enabling this to happen would be detrimental to the saga's overall quality and would be a significant missed opportunity if not included. While this indeed extends the saga, (as Future Cell already has managed to survive on many occasions despite near-death), it is not, in fact, repetitive because Cell and Future Cell have not yet had the chance to properly fight each other (which will happen as a result of events in Chapter 41 that will increase Cell's abilities).

The fact that Cell and Future Cell will have the opportunity to fight each other on somewhat even terms in the coming chapters will enable this grand battle of liberated good versus predetermined evil to take place, and will be emblematic of Cell's commitment, despite his tactical mistakes after having the chance to live a different life, to overcome his past beliefs and fight for freedom. Defeating Future Cell would be a highly symbolic representation of Cell's triumph over the horror of whom he had been and the evil intentions that Dr. Gero had wanted him to fulfill.

Reason 2: Reflections of another reality, one that would have possessed a different flow of events had the divergence in Chapter One not occurred

Especially astute readers might have noticed that throughout the Future Cell Saga, there have been numerous references, some subtle and others overt, to events that might have come to pass had the divergence from the canonical Dragon Ball universe that took place in Chapter One not occurred. Indeed, while the Future Cell Saga and Honor Trip as a whole have taken a vastly different course than the events of canon, there have been various moments in the Future Cell Saga that have referenced events which occurred in canon after the moment the divergence occurred in Chapter One, although the specifics of the events are different in Honor Trip.

It should be clarified that these reflections of events are not merely symbolic of what could have been – eventually, the fact that these reflections are present will become extremely relevant to the Honor Trip storyline.

Among the reflections that have occurred in the Future Cell Saga are:

- a version of Goku's removal from a type of existence as part of an effort to defeat a version of Cell;

- a version of Cell, in desperation, using his Power-Weighted form after being vastly overpowered by a Super Saiyan 2 son of a full-blooded Saiyan;

- the Super Saiyan 2 warrior damaging the Power-Weighted version of Cell so severely that he involuntarily purges from his body a component fighter that had enabled him to achieve his perfect form, thereby returning to a previous form;

- a version of Cell regaining his perfect form after near-death;

- allies in Otherworld failing to confirm that a version of Cell is dead after what seemed like his certain death; and

- Trunks, in his normal state becoming impaled by a beam of energy from a Super-Perfect form version of Cell.

The specific ways in which I want to present the fight between Cell and Future Cell will enable the events of Honor Trip to reflect various additional specific events that occurred in canon.

Reason 3: Closing a potential Instant Transmission plot hole that canon never adequately explained

The establishment of the Instant Transmission technique in canon led to various potential plot holes in official Dragon Ball media derived from situations in which it seemingly could have (and tactically should have) been used and yet was not. One of the most blatant arose from anime filler (considered canon by some) in which King Kai revealed to Goku that he knows how to use Instant Transmission, as this causes King Kai's actions during the Namek sagas, most prominently not transmitting Goku off Namek in the moments before its explosion, to be inherently illogical.

Among the potential instant transmission plot holes is a subtle one that occurred at the end of the canonical Cell Games Saga, but which has dramatic implications.

There are two parts to this plot hole, and they are as follows:

1) With Cell's knowledge of Instant Transmission and superior tactical mind, during his beam struggle with Gohan, in the moments in which he was not clearly losing the beam struggle, it seems possible Cell could have instant transmitted out of the struggle, appeared behind Gohan, and kicked/punched/otherwise forced him into the highly destructive energies, which potentially could have sealed Cell's victory.

2) Due to the nature of his anatomy, and his own knowledge of his ability to regenerate from one cell, it seems possible that Cell, in the moments in which he realized he was being swallowed up by Gohan's victorious Kamehameha, could have instant transmitted out of the blast, either to the energy signature of anyone on the planet (Gohan included), or to an energy signature off-world. The fact that he doesn't do this is never explained, and therefore is a plot hole that has never been resolved. If an explanation had been clearly provided by Toriyama as to why Cell didn't use Instant Transmission, there would be no plot hole, but alas, it seems that we, the fans, need to derive an explanation to make sense of events and uphold the integrity of the canonical plot's progression. Among the potential explanations to this plot hole could be that Cell:

- hadn't at all considered using Instant Transmission to escape the attack;

- hadn't considered it before Vegeta's surprise attack that knocked him off-balance, and then afterward considered using but and didn't have enough time to fixate on an energy signature;

- had considered it before Vegeta's attack and was fundamentally distracted by Vegeta's energy attack to the extent that he did not have enough time to refocus before being consumed, whether solely because he didn't have enough time or because his available concentration and mental processing were so fixated on staying alive against Gohan's energy attack through attempting to emit more counter energy that he did not have enough available concentration to devote to Instant Transmission focusing within his available time period; or

- had been hampered by the surrounding energies of Gohan's Kamehameha, which somehow made him unable to successfully use the technique (among these four potential explanations, this seems the least plausible).

In the course of the fight between Cell and Future Cell, and in an expanded explanation in the upcoming chapters of how Future Cell managed to survive Trunks' Final Finish Buster, I will seek to resolve this plot hole.

The answers to the following three questions are greatly relevant to this plot hole:

- If a fighter who knows Instant Transmission is in the midst of a beam struggle (clash of energy attacks in which both fighters are attempting to overpower each other's attack), can that fighter, if he is not clearly losing the struggle, instant transmit out of the struggle?

- If a fighter who knows Instant Transmission is in the midst of a beam struggle and is clearly losing the struggle, can that fighter, at any point, instant transmit out of the struggle?

- If a fighter who knows Instant Transmission is in the process of being consumed by an energy attack, can that fighter, at any point, instant transmit out of the attack?

As is the case with the plot hole itself, my perspectives on the answers to each of these questions shall be more extensively explored in Chapters 41 and 42, which will thoroughly explain, as part of the answer to the plot hole, how Future Cell could have logically and plausibly survived the Final Finish Buster.

The upcoming chapters not only will elaborate upon the logicality and plausibility of Future Cell's surviving the Finish Buster, but also will elaborate upon the logical reasons as to why Cell, Trunks, and their allies in Otherworld did not confirm that Future Cell was dead after the Final Finish Buster.

I wholeheartedly acknowledge that there are material differences between this scenario and the one presented in canon (beyond the fact that in canon, the Z-Fighters on Earth and Goku and King Kai in Otherworld did not use their energy-sensing abilities to see if a version of Cell had actually died after what seemed like certain death, while Honor Trip has different groups of characters in Otherworld and the mortal realm neglecting to confirm Future Cell's death). The key material differences are that:

- in canon, the technique that the Z-Fighters erroneously believed was the cause of Cell's death was unleashed in Otherworld, while in Honor Trip, the technique that was erroneously believed to have killed Future Cell was unleashed in the mortal realm; and

- while in canon Cell's regeneration from one cell added an element of surprise to the Z-Fighters' combat experiences against him because he had not beforehand demonstrated this ability and had not known himself to be capable of such regeneration, by the time of Honor Trip Chapter 40, Future Cell already had shown himself to be capable of using the technique and Cell and Trunks knew of the ability, such that they should have at the very least considered the possibility that one of his cells might have survived and that he might regenerate.

Indeed, had Cell and Trunks honestly believed that Future Cell could have survived the blast, and had they confirmed with Otherworld whether Future Cell had in fact died, Trunks would not have returned to his normal state and would have maintained his Super Saiyan 2 form until Future Cell was finally defeated.

However, as shall be revealed in Chapter 41, there is a plausible explanation for why Cell and Trunks honestly believed Future Cell to be dead as a result of the Final Finish Buster despite knowing that he could both regenerate from a single cell and use Instant Transmission, and why they did not bother confirming with Otherworld whether Future Cell had in fact died and been relocated there. Likewise, there is a plausible explanation as to why none of the allies in Otherworld bothered confirming whether Future Cell had died despite knowing of his abilities.

Does Future Cell's possession of such abilities decrease tension in the story because of his seeming insuperability? Not truly, as his possession of those abilities makes defeating him much more challenging, causing final victory over him to be all the more noteworthy. It also should be remembered that at the end of the canonical Cell Games Saga, Gohan had to overcome Cell's single-cell regeneration and Instant Transmission abilities, and his successful defense of the universe against an evil possessor of those abilities was all the more memorable because of this.

Future Cell indubitably epitomizes the archetype of "villain who refuses to die," but even those who are seemingly invincible aren't truly so.

I am sincerely looking forward to publishing Chapters 41 and 42, and thanks to all of you for being awesome.

Sincerely,

American Vigor