DISCLAIMER

The following is a fan-based

FICTION

Dragon Ball, Z, GT, Super and other products related to Dragon Ball are all owned by Akira Toriyama, Shueisha, and Bird Studio.

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Prologue: Is it okay to find a way out of this cold cave?

This… this is incredibly bad.

I admit I should have understood that something was wrong when I ended up waking up in what looked to be a vacant cave located in some remote mountain range.

Panic rouse from the instant discovery, and my hands trailed at the pockets of my dark blue jacket and matching pants to try and get my phone out.

The device was nowhere on my person. I looked around, hoping that it was somewhere around but instead I ended up studying the complexity of the cavern I've woken up into.

I wasn't close to the entrance, but I could see light coming from it… along with some heavy snowing happening in the meantime.

I stared at the only entrance just for some time, either shocked by the current instance I was forced to deal with or because of the fact my brain just wasn't coping fast enough to the avalanche of crap that I had been thrown in.

Gritting my teeth at the cold temperature as my current clothes barely worked to keep me warm, I tried to find any other ways out of that freezing nightmare without perishing in the process.

The cave was big, but it was barely illuminated and showing me none of the path that led inward.

I gulped nervously, feeling a little bit of fear at the possibility that I couldn't be the only individual lingering within this cavern.

I stared at the dark abyss, but it didn't stare back much to my immediate relief.

It was a minor reprieve from the worry that was accumulating from that situation, and yet I was still facing the dilemma.

Wandering outside with heavy snow still falling all around would end in an undeniable ugly death.

Staying there was just silly and suicidal. The cold easily starting to bring me closer to hypothermia and I wasn't even considering it an option as of now.

Delving deeper in the cave was… a gamble. I could find some animal- or even a goddamn monster considering the circumstances that led me there.

I wasn't ready for a sudden horror scenario.

Taking just a couple of moments to think over this ugly predicament, I felt even more compelled to take the big risk.

I was starting to really feel the cold through my clothes and I was shivering madly as of that moment.

I needed to move, my logic was swift to dictate the importance of getting away from the source of cold and thus I decided to slowly wander off from the entrance and deeper in that mysterious cave.

My steps started to get louder the more my sight was deprived because of the pitch black darkness surrounding my proximity, my panic somewhat stabilizing as I continued to walk through the veil of shadows.

Calming down was a good thing to try even though the situation warranted uneasiness, as I needed to be the most attentive for what could've been lurking in the nearby corners.

There was an ominous silence and I shivered as I finally got to a point where the cold had lessened compared to where I had woken up into.

No explanation, no mean to contact those I had left home. I was left with only the certainty that I was alive.

…

Maybe.

Maybe this was actually hell and I somehow wounded up there after some stupid and unexpected death.

I could see it, and it wasn't a pleasant thought to have while I tried to focus in the efforts of finding peace in that terrifying darkness.

But because I hadn't nothing to look at, nothing to truly hear about other than my steps, I felt my mind stray away from the current objective, something that was so confusing, so unsure.

And I focused on certainty itself, which was that I had to be alive.

I couldn't just imagine that this was hell as… there were no true demons, nothing demonic in nature and… this seemed like a normal cave.

If not for the fact that I just woke up here without any recollections of how I ended up here.

I sighed, shaking my head at the silly fact that my attention span just wouldn't spare me even now that I wished for some peace.

Humming wasn't working, and my patience was slowly melting down at how unfair my current conditions were.

I was feeling some strain, the strain of being subjected to this circumstance starting to affect my optimistic thought.

This just wasn't normal, my brain was scrambling to still understand how did I get there.

Agitated and confused, I was too distracted and incapacitated to see by the darkness all around me as my feet finally meet with some novelty.

A stone, a pebble, or something a little bigger but still made with sturdy material.

I blinked, eyes widening instinctively as I felt the sudden rush of pain approaching as I tripped forward.

I expected to faceplant on the floor, at least that would have been a negligible issue.

Yet my shock tripled instants later as I felt my face go beyond the floor and… I fell.

Air shifted around me, a constricting pressure building up on the skin, mostly on my face as I felt the rush of plummeting from an unknown height.

Panic swelled again, this time logically and coherently as I felt my throat tightening up and making it unable for me to scream.

To think that gravity would've been the agent of my ultimate demise…

I expected cold, unforgiving ground to be my final destination, and I closed my eyes in a moment of self-disappointment over the fact that I ended up screwed up like this.

Regrets were there, anger was there too, but the former were stronger than the latter.

Too little, too late.

I wasn't seeing my life flash before my eyes, I was seeing the messes I had left behind as I fell towards my death.

I would've sighed, but I just conceded sudden defeat at the unfairness of the circumstances.

But while my sureness seemed to hold still over this fall, reality decided to play me for a fool as I did arrive to something cold and unforgiving.

It was also liquid, muddy, and terribly dirty.

A small lake of water greeted me as I went deep a couple of meters, yet my brain didn't shut down at the sudden hit from lady luck.

I was mostly saved, my eyes squinting up as trying to adjust at the traces of dirt slowly falling towards the depths, and I swam upward as fast as I could.

My body didn't hesitate, the freezing water sparking up all the inner process of my non-corpse to actually get out of that saving-grace-turned-in-a-deadly-trap.

I gasped as my head popped out of the water, my arms and legs coordinating after years of swimming lesson to quickly reach the closest edge of the lake.

Any strain went forgotten by my hands as I pushed myself out of there, quickly splaying on the ground and coughing any of that foul water out of my lungs.

I stood there for a couple of seconds, my mind reassessing the situation as I felt even closer to actually get some hypothermia out of that quick bath.

Still, I was alive and… I had been given a chance to continue to dwell even deeper in that cave.

A silly endeavor considering that I almost died because of this decision, yet my resolve was growing out of the fact that it wasn't as dark as before.

I could see a turquoise light coming from afar.

It was soothing, it just offered a friendly perspective that perhaps this decision wasn't truly horrible.

Except that I've almost died there.

With my clothes drenched in cold water, I quickened my pace to avoid risking my health even more.

I was able to look around and where I was stepping around, avoiding a couple of pebbles but noticing no more holes around.

I sighed as I finally stopped at the origin of the light, tilting my head in confusion at the odd crystal I had found.

Then another one quite closer and… another a little further.

It was a line, it was a prepared route. Relief washed over my entire body as I knew that perhaps there was a chance that I had indeed found a way out of that nightmare.

My pace increased even more and… I started to run.

I rushed through the small corridor illuminated by the crystals, hoping to find another exit to this cavern and…

I stopped as I reached the end of the corridor, my eyes narrowing all over the humongous room that I was led into.

The place was massive, maybe one of the greatest rooms I've ever been into and… there were three distinctive elements that jumped to my attention.

The entire room was well-illuminated, with various crystals creating quite the eerily planned setting of what seemed to be a terrible place where to be after what I've been through.

Two tall doors were on the other side, but those were closed shut and… I was well-aware that I didn't have not even an ounce of the strength required to push them open.

Finally, I stared at the strange pedestal in the middle of the room, and the odd hourglass-shaped bottle sitting there.

The bottle itself looked to be made in some white clay and the very detail that got me wary about it was the strange symbol plastered on it.

A red rhomboidal shape with white letters engraved in it- no, it wasn't English.

...Wait, is that Japanese Kanji?

I groaned at myself, remembering how I had missed the opportunity to learn Japanese just a while ago thanks to a cheap course.

I wasn't sure it would've worked, but I think some of these letters would've made sense if I had done it. Possibly.

Yet I couldn't just stop myself from reaching out and see what it was actually, curiosity demanding to see what was contained in that oddly-familiar bottle.

I took a couple of steps, looking around the room for any traps having been laid down for me to actually fall for and… nothing happened.

More steps, more relief washing over me and… lots of questions over what kind of place I was.

The Japanese- or Chinese letter told me that I was in Asia, or somewhere which had some correlation with Asian-based alphabets.

It wasn't much helping, but it did confirm a strong suspicion of mine.

I was very far from home.

And I didn't have anything to communicate with my own family.

Dread returned, but this time it didn't have my fear to stir trouble within my mind over what was happening right now.

I was numb to the fright I should've been feeling before such an unpleasant situation, yet my eyes were fixed on the bottle itself as I paused in front of it and reached out to pick it up.

The container was surprisingly light considering its dimensions and the material it was made of, enough to stop me in my actions as I studied a little more the letter visible there.

Upon closer inspection, I was quite sure that I was looking at a Japanese Kanji as I could still recognize the kind of style that I was more certain being not the 'stiff' style used to write Chinese letters.

There was a cork, one that easily came off as my left hand pulled it off and… I glanced inside.

A transparent liquid greeted me and its smell was… none. There was no smell.

…

I frowned, shaking the bottle a little and staring at the ripples spreading over the liquid as I felt more compelled to call it the very name I think was best appropriate for such a mysterious liquid.

This was water and… why.

I looked away, a grim look adorning my face as I tried to digest the fact I might as well have been trolled over this matter.

The buildup, the suspense, the religious-ominous subtone of this room. This was all a setup for a prank.

Was this a prank? Was this just some candid camera brought up for the sake of tricking me in some pseudo-anime BS?

Difficult to believe it as a possibility as I could feel that I was close to get some hypothermia out from the sudden dive bombing into a cold lake of putrid water, but I still couldn't understand why was this common water being left in such a 'powerful setting'.

I wasn't going to blame people for the location- actually, I was going to blame people for the location.

Whoever had wanted to make some epic scene out of this either was insane, or just wanted to prank people really hard. Which was also insane for a normal person to do.

I stared at the liquid again, glaring at it for having literally screwed me up as I now had no means to actually leave this place.

I was stuck after having been baited right to this very area.

This was so unfair and… well, I think I knew how to return 'some' of the favor I had been forwarded with this BS.

I held the bottle tightly, bringing the opening near my lips as I started to lift it up and chug down the water inside.

While I couldn't make any damage in a place that was already quite crappy, I certainly could do something about the water being left there around for unfortunate people to pick up and drink.

But as I continued to gulp down more of that seemingly normal water… the more I noticed that something felt off about it.

It wasn't satisfying my thirst. There was none of the usual relief that normal water should've been giving me and… I could feel some strange pangs all over my chest.

At first it was negligible, then a sudden and intense wave of unpleasant heat started to spread all over my body.

I tensed up instantly as I realized that the heat was actually pain.

My entire self went stiff as the intense agony took hold of all functions, forcing me to drop the bottle and let its content spill on the floor.

I fell forward, contorting as I tried to regain control over my senses, yet I quickly found out that my nerves felt like they were burning.

I was yelling in pain, screaming as much as I could as to perhaps gain the attention of someone- anyone that could've gotten me out of that situation.

Unfair. This was unfair.

Too much, this was- this was getting way beyond the kind of pain I was accustomed to.

The agony persisted, my head growing lighter as I felt my lungs contracting and having a terrible time getting air in and out.

The intense experience was excruciatingly long, enough to make me lose perception of my surroundings as I struggled against my immediate pain.

But as I continued to fight back the pain, I also noticed the liquid coming from the bottle had finally reached down below my face.

I stared down, my eyes flaring a degree of horror as I spotted that the 'water' wasn't water.

It was green, not transparent and the color was enough to highlight what I might've just drunk.

Poison? This was making way too much sense for me.

I was in pain, I couldn't move, and if it was truly some poison, then I was going to die any minute now with how much I had taken.

I shivered, I felt the panic swelling again as I knew that there was no saving grace there.

There was no 'lake' to avoid my 'fall'.

I was dying, I could feel it.

Yet the emotion felt more and more difficult to think about as the horrid intensity going through my body increased to an unbearable level.

I tried to crawl away, but I just couldn't feel any of my senses.

My sight was compromised, and so was my smell, my mouth was souring up and… I couldn't feel anything with my touch.

The ordeal continued for a while… but then something odd happened.

The pain reached its peak, the zenith, and soon I felt the unpleasant warmth recede back from my limbs.

The process was slow, but soon I could start feeling my mind and body regain some control over the situation.

Time passed, but I was soon freed by the unwavering notes of agony.

I stood there, breathing tiredly as the torture had taken a tool over my capacity to think and move.

But while I tried my best to slowly recover from what had just happened, I could feel something prodding from my lower behind. It was itching, lively so, as if trying to spring out of my clothes.

I tried to reach out, feeling like the sensation itself, the constriction of such absurdity, was leaving me drained, weakened.

It was about the very moment that I reached there and pulled my pants a little to let the strange sensation out that I saw a small shadow over me and soon the 'sensation' moved around for me to see.

It was furry, it was brown and… it was a tail.

…

No. What the fuck?

This- This couldn't just be-

WACK!

Something struck the back of my head quite harshly, the strength enough to put me out of commission instantly.

With my consciousness slipping away and my mind shutting down, I could only see a new shadow moving closer before staring down at me.

"It would seem like… she was indeed correct."

…

W-What?

That little question was the only thing that I could get out in my thoughts before I was fully asleep.

Meanwhile, the figure that was responsible for my unconsciousness slowly used its wooden staff to lift me up by the edge of the clothes behind my jacked, slowly pulling me away from the large cave and right through the now open doors.

Uncertainty was now my only truth.

AN

This project has been… buzzing inside my head for some months now. I had thought well from actually going and writing down a simple DBZ fanfic as I had yet to catch up with DB Super Anime and Manga (both will have some influence with my plans as I do plan to mash ups some elements from both despite their different timelines).

What is this? An experiment. Not even I'm sure what I will do from there as I know it's a huge commitment to keep up with the massive issue about 'power levels', techniques and other variables in DBZ's fights. And no, it will not just be 'raw power wins all', the main priority will actually be mastering strength over going through major boosts as soon as possible.

What is the Year? Next chapter will hopefully contain the glimpse over the proper Year. You can all speculate, but the only hints I can offer is: A) It's set DBZ; B) This Year was never used for a SI story, this is a unique setup I had planned out to offer a limited amount of time for the MC to evolve into a proper warrior; C) It's before DBZ's end.

Who is the MC? As explained in the answer up above, the MC is SI so… yeah, quite odd as many would just call out a power-fantasy (but I can assure you all, that I would probably bail that opportunity, no matter how cool it would be to shoot Kamehamehas like there's no tomorrow); Also, there will be a degree of difficulty that will 'defy' the plot in which the story is set into.

Is the MC a Saiyan? Technically yes, but also no. While the tail would suggest that, his current biology isn't one correlated to a normal saiyan. And no, his unique biology doesn't make him instantly stronger or enable some Cheat early on (I like MCs sweat for power, never to let them slide into sudden Godhood).

Will this actually contain Xovers? Debatable, I'm still considering it up. Perhaps I will set up a poll so that people can decide whenever or not I should try out my hands in xovers. MC will start pretty weak compared to most of the Z Warriors, and perhaps throwing in some acceptable Worlds will help things up in the process. I'm thinking to make polls for worlds to let the MC dabble into. But from what my readers in SB and SV are voting in the early polls, it will probably end up with the Xovering will only be partial (only techniques), so this will be a regular story, not a full-fledged Xover.