Dragonball: RPG Remembrance

A/N: "The following is a fan-based work. Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Dragon Ball Super, Dragon Ball Heroes, Super Dragon Ball Heroes, and Dragonball Xenoverse are all owned by Funimation, Toei Animation, Shueisha, Dimps, and Akira Toriyama. Please support the official release."

Chapter 5: We'll do this for as long as it takes…

"...He showed then his true character. At the cost of his life, he did what was right, shutting the server down as his last conscious act…" - A large plaque, hanging below a small statue.

Kokai Arena - 281st Amateur Tournament

"Bro, you made it just in time!" A guy yells, waving to his friend through the crowd.

"Ha, sorry! I mistimed a mission and barely made it. Has Duke…?" His friend asks as he settles into his seat.

"No no, they are just getting started! But bro, look at that guy's name!" He exclaims, pointing.

The guy squints, focusing. "Woah…I mean, it's gotta be fake, right? Like the KII guy, or the ones with the special characters before they turned that off."

"Ha! Bro, the look on your face!" His friend laughs, slapping his shoulder.

"Welcome to the 281st Amateur Tournament!" The announcer yells as all four stages are at last populated with fighters.

"FIGHT!"

No sooner had the announcer spoken, all eyes on Duke, see the tall Saiyan all but disappear. To most, he was invisible, so fast that not even a blur could be seen. Smurfs, while not often seen in Tournaments, were often watched with much glee and enjoyment. An easy bet to make at the gambling booths, someone easy to cheer for as their win was nearly certain. That this poor, Kll wannabe was able to get completely merked was cause for celebration to most.

As Duke disappeared, the crowd could be heard to gasp, preparing to cheer, as he reappeared before his opponent. His fist, practically coated in energy, blurred forward, slamming into-

-my open palm, halting his punch in its tracks. His attack had been aimed at my jaw, clearly meant to instantly disable or perhaps even kill me...His PL had not increased, never wavering from the 50k it had started at. My own, originally only at 15k, had jumped to 100k in an instant. It had taken no effort at all. The Arena is gone to me, hazy, only the man in front of me in focus.

Behind me, the arena cracked outward in a wide v, the energy behind his attack continuing on, leaving me unaffected. He floated there, eyes bugged out, startled, as the crowd fell silent. With a yell his Aura ignited, his PL surging to 150k, as his knee came forward, aimed for my chest. My forearm caught it as my PL crested 200k, pushing it back down. His PL continued to rise, as did my own, back and forth, as his blows crashed into me. 300k, 500k, 800k. Each attempt to hit me was blocked, parried, or dodged, our PLs quickly swelling into the millions, rushing swiftly to the tens of millions. My body moved, simply moved, as though I'd spent a thousand years training to fight just this man.

His attacks, growing more furious by the second, simply pushed me to the next level in our race. At last, he overextended, his fist just to the left of my head. My mind screamed that this was not a feint, and I reacted. My leg slid forward, between his, as I rotated right, my shoulder now facing him, his fist in front of my face. The back of my fist slammed into his solar plexus, lifting him off the ground. Left hip rotates, coming forward, left knee rising, as I move forward on my right, pushing off the ground. My knee slams into his jaw, snapping his head back, beginning to rotate his body into a flip.

My energy explodes around me, my aura igniting for the first time, as my energy doubles, doubles again. In slow motion, I rotate up, and spin, the back of my fist crashing into the side of his head, as the world snaps back into focus. With a loud explosion, he is gone, one of the walls of the Arena now sporting a man-sized hole. My PL drops suddenly, as my feet once more touch the arena floor.

There is silence.

"Ah-I..that…" The man whispers, as his friend gibbers incoherently beside him.

He looks around him, the audience that had arrived to watch Duke's swift path to victory, locked in stunned silence.

He turns back to the Arena, staring down at the kid bearing the name of their hero.

"THAT WAS FUCKING AMAZING!"

A loud voice cried from the crowd, at last jostling them from their stunned expressions, quickly rising in a roar of cheers and applause. The arena nearly shook with it, did actually shake with it, considering how strong the people that made up the crowd were.

"And the winner of Fight 3 IIIISSSSSS KLLLLLLLL!" The Announcer yells as a new pop-up appears at last.

Entrant 27,454

Your match has concluded. Tap Here to return to staging.

I did not hesitate.

"What do you mean another forfeit?!" I yelled, causing several people nearby to nearly jumping from their skin.

Entrant 27,454

Your match has been scheduled. Tap Here to go to the stage.

Entrant 27,454

Your match has concluded by forfeit.

I'd seen twelve of these so far.

Entrant 27,454

Your match has been scheduled. Tap Here to go to the stage.

Entrant 27,454

Your match has concluded by forfeit.

Correction, I'd seen thirteen of these so far.

"Oh god damnit. I came here to fight!"

Entrant 27,454

Your match has been scheduled. Tap Here to go to the stage.

I waited a moment, expecting another alert, but when it didn't come I felt elation for the first time in an hour. I tapped quickly, and with a blink, I was gone.

I appeared, nearly blinded by the lights all around me. The Arena I'd appeared in was significantly larger than the previous one, as many times as five times larger. The crowd was nearly the same. I was thankful I'd thought to limit my senses before hitting the prompt, or else I may have exploded with information overload.

"Ladies, Gentlemen, and all those in-between, around and beside…welcome welcome welcome…to the Finals of the 285th Amateur Weekly." A loud voice says, echoing over the screams and cheers of the crowd.

"And what a tournament it has been, am I right?" He asks, resulting in somehow larger cheers. "For the first time in Tournament history, we have a finalist who has fought only a single battle on this bracket."

I frowned, disappointed. I had quite hoped for many more fights than I'd gotten. It would appear that showing off in that first fight had cost me more than just losing would have.

'Yet…the thought of losing for any reason other than being bested feels…wrong to me.' I thought as the announcer continues. 'I'd feel terrible…how odd.'

I looked across the arena stage, at last, spotting the first opponent to actually be willing to fight me. It was easy to see why now that my eyes were on him. He was level 9, but his PL was over 4m just resting, watching me closely. His arms were crossed in front of his chest, watching me as closely as I watched him. His face, as pink as his arms, was neutral, if perhaps a bit quizzical. Whatever question he had I would never learn, however. As we stared, my PL began to rise. I had started at 20k, as I had previously. His face grew pensive, then interested, as my PL finally rose to, and stopped at 4m to match his own. The man, Clovis, narrowed his eyes.

"FIGHT!"

I couldn't identify what race he was, so imagine my surprise when he moved, leaving another copy of his body behind. He was not a Buu, as Suu had been, no version of Frost Demon I'd yet seen. His body moved oddly, as though the edges were waving in the heat, every twist, or turn of his body seemingly at odds with the rest. On his third step, another clone, and then fifth as well. On the seventh, his first clone disappeared, and on the ninth so did his second. Every odd step now a new clone, a previous one disappearing. It would seem that whatever ability this was, it had a limit. Each felt exactly the same as he did, his PL unchanged, seemingly reflected by each of the clones.

He moved sideways, and suddenly, all of his clones popped behind him to appear in a line beside him. His hand was raised, a pulse of fiery orange energy coalescing within his palm. Each felt as real as the other, with no difference between them, as with a yell, he released the attacks. Instead of moving, my energy surged around me, my PL shooting higher in an instant, as the beams collided with me. It happened so swiftly that I barely even had a chance to determine how high I'd gone, before my PL had dropped once more, the energy having been neutralized by my own. He burst through the cloud around me, surprised perhaps to see me unaffected, but otherwise undaunted, as his fist shot forward, to slam into my chin.

At least, it would have had I not moved, his fist just barely missing my head as I leaned left. Surprisingly he popped, a clone of his tearing through the cloud as if by Deja Vu, but with the slightest adjust as his fist was aimed slightly more left. I had not been expecting it, so this hit connected, knocking me backward, out of the cloud. I landed on the arena floor, skidding slightly, but was quickly back on my feet, as he caught up to me. His kick was caught, and when he popped, his follow-up clone had adjusted to attack differently. Having seen the trick, however, it was easy to adjust as well, the new kick knocked aside. This one popped as well, a third taking its place, and a pulse of energy as a beam of energy was flying towards me.

I stepped forward, meeting the beam head-on with my fist, the explosion of energy causing another cloud of arena dust to billow around me. I turned to the right as he appeared, my outstretched leg, a kick I had released in anticipation of his appearance, connecting with his sternum as he entered. He folded around the hit, being launched backward as his clone appeared, a blast of energy from my palm erasing this one from existence. The third, sensing the danger it was in, tried to stop its approach, but to one that could sense its energy, hiding in the smoke did nothing for it. With a pulse of my own energy, I was there, my punch so hard and full of energy that it shredded the being, an explosion of blood and gore all that was left to smear across the stage.

The energy was so strong that the blow caused an explosion of energy, the cloud clearing around me. The man, Clovis, was on one knee, clutching his head as blood poured from his mouth and one ear. It seemed that his clones, as powerful as they were, carried their damage back to him by some unknown mechanism. Three clones once more, but with a pop, all were gone. His PL surged, the arena around him shattering as he appeared before me, his energy burning brightly at 16m, as his fist crashed into my face. In an instant I was launched backward, flying rapidly towards one of the walls of the arena, towards a loss.

For some reason, his attack reminded me deeply of something…something that I couldn't place. I was certain, however, that I should have died just now…had died, perhaps, once, long ago. There was fear, and rage, as something within me snapped. With a roar, I was gone, appearing on the stage once more, as my energy soared higher than I'd ever expected. My aura, normally nearly clear, was shot through with sparks of gold. My PL was higher than even I thought it could go. During my test, I maxed at 382.5m, but now it was even higher at 487m. A memory, unbidden, came to mind but was tossed away as I caught sight of my still dark hair. The world was frozen, and with a push of my energy, I was at the man's back. I realized then, of course, that I did not need so much power, and that at any second someone could sense the new truth depths of my power. Like a dousing of ice water, I released the old on my power, dropping nearly instantly to only 20m, as my kick slammed into the back of the man.

I will admit that I'd put too much power into it, the full 20m, when under normal circumstances only a quarter or so per hit could be used in an instant. His body buckled around the hit, his back snapping, loudly, and clearly, as he was folded in half from the place of impact. His energy disappeared as the world snapped back into focus, his body launched away from me, slamming into the grass around the arena, bouncing, and through the side wall. As my feet touched the stage once more, I couldn't help the smile that came uncontrolled to my face.

The screams and cries of adulation poured over me, the cheers and applause washing over me. I had won…I was the winner. I was the champion. I was-

"DISQUALIFIED?! WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN DISQUALIFIED!?"

"Of all the stupid fucking bullshit decisions," I murmured, staring at my win/loss record. "How was I supposed to know I couldn't kill him? 'Did you not read the rules?' fuck off."

I was upset, rightly so in my opinion. Death was meaningless here. It was a fucking game! I'd even asked someone, after being escorted from the Arena, what happens when you die. After getting an odd look, and being asked if I was the 'Real Kll', I was told that, dying was in fact meaningless.

"Oh right, dying." The small Namekian had told me. "You wake up in Otherworld, and depending on your country of origin, you end up traveling to one of the Kai's planets for training. If you have any designated friends, they get a quest to find the dragonballs to wish you back early, but if they fail, or you don't have anyone, you are auto resurrected after a week. Honestly, I got so much training done in Otherworld that it was kind of a boon. I doubt I'd have won my first tournament without it…speaking of, why did you kill that guy? You got disqualified!"

It would seem that this rule was well known…I'd walked away without answering, upset with myself. It was no matter, in the end. If I stayed unleveled, I could always join the next tournament. Otherwise, I'd have a new set of qualifications to meet to get into the interim tournaments, but that was no matter either. I was, however, upset that I hadn't even gotten the second-place prize.

'Stupid stupid stupid.' I thought as I made my way back to the mission board.

Another oddity, but after thinking back to what I'd learned, it made sense. Tournament time, and game time, were not counted together. In fact, the several hours I'd spent there were Real Time hours, which were not dangerous at all, and so did not count against the dilated game time. It was a good thing, as that meant Suu would be back even sooner now. Which would be nice, as maybe she could help me log out…

"Kll?"A voice said, off to my side.

I turned, expecting a player, someone else to ask me if I was the 'Real Kll', but was surprised to find one of the many NPCs, this one marked as a Combat Training NPC, staring at me. I was creeped out, thinking back to the store NPC, the Tutorial NPCs, and Suu's insistence that they don't address us by name. I stared at him, as he stared at me. Someone bumped me from behind, seeing as I'd simply stopped walking in the middle of the pathway. After a quick apology, I'd turned back towards the NPC, only to see that they finally looked away, back to calling out to the crowd, asking if any wanted combat training.

His name tickled my brain, but at the same time hurt, a longing in my heart, as though I'd once lost someone dear to me. I studied him but was unable to remember anything further. He was older, a taller Saiyan around 16 or 17 perhaps. I was struggling to remember anything about him when I was startled by an explosion behind me, on the far side of the walkway.

I whipped around, trying to spot the disturbance when it made itself visible. For a second I could see the NPC moniker above her head waver, before disappearing completely, her name turning red, then golden.

'Lucia…' I thought, as she began to scream.

"Leave me alone!" She yelled, as her energy surged around her. "Let me go!"

A player tried to grab her but was smacked away, as she snarled. Her growl was somehow attractive, and memorable all at once. For a moment I could imagine… I shook my head, as she screamed, a bright beam of light scouring a crowd of onlookers, destroying them in an instant.

"Oh my god!" Someone nearby screamed as panic suffused the crowd.

"FREE ME!" Lucia screamed, her power doubling, tripling, growing exponentially as her energy surged, shifting to gold, then blue.

I prepared to move, to interfere, despite her energy rapidly hitting the billions, continuing to grow, when two things happened in quick succession. Two players appeared, one a Saiyan, the other a Frost Demon. The Saiyan, bathed in orange fire, his energy impossible to quantify, was called Syndryl and was marked as an Admin. The Frost Demon was solid black, tall, a crown of spikes jutting from his skull, named Juke, marked as a Moderator. As they appeared, the Frost Demon moved forward, his fist slamming into the Saiyans stomach, doubling her over. The Saiyan moved without moving, simply being in a new place, his palm against her forehead. He spoke, but I could not hear it, and with a surge of energy, Lucia exploded in a wave of code.

The crowd of onlookers, so close to panic and fleeing, instead cheered. The two staff members looked around, searching for any further issues, before disappearing as swiftly as they appeared.

'Free me…free me…free me.'

A/N: I'm writing a bit faster now! First, shout out to samuelvicinanza for reviewing most of this story over the past few days. I've read every single one! The only reason I haven't replied to you yet, to answer questions, is not wanting to ruin your streak. Thanks so much, you helped write this chapter, unknowingly.

Secondly, and this is most important…I have prewritten the finale to Dragonball: RPG Remembrance. The path to get from here, to there, is set and clear to me. A few small changes, perhaps, some small details to be changed maybe. For the most part, however, the final chapter is done and ready to go.

After this chapter, chapter 5 is posted, I am expecting two longer chapters, and then the finale. There will be no epilogue chapter. I'm aiming to hit 300k total words for this story, but we shall see.

So. If you want to get to the finale as soon as possible, NOW is the time to go back, and review any chapters you have not. We're over 60 at this point, and a lot of you have not reviewed the older chapters. Perhaps give the story a fifth read?

As always, thanks for being here with me! I couldn't do this without you.