[ OP: Hironobu Kageyama ‒ Fight, Oh Fighting Road ]
Konus Doesn't Understand! Can An Ashura Be Content?
"This time, I'll take out the trash in an instant!"
"That's what you said last time, and look where that got you! Please just think this through so I don't have to-"
"Beat it, weakling! You should have no problem healing me again, so do your job and observe!"
[ BGM: Unknown ‒ Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle: LR SSJ3 Goku & SSJ2 Vegeta Finish Attack 1 ]
The white feather-winged young man leapt from their covered position with a ripping wind and back into the fray, rapidly approaching his "quarry": a band of three saiyans, the spiky-haired one in the middle serving as their leader.
"(Heh. I've seen right through you, this time!)" he smirked, weaving through the long-haired saiyan's initial hail of ki blasts and raining blows upon the massive, bald fellow, avoiding one of his strikes with finesse and striking him in the jaw with a pirouette.
"Ss… slippery little bastard!" Nappa growled, his eyes suddenly turning red and his body erupting with dark ki. Raditz did much the same, only with a pained yowl, as both charged at him.
"I've memorized your attack patterns, fools. None shall so-much as graze me, now!" He affirmed himself, gaining a glow in his wings as he tackled Raditz, laying into him like a whirlwind before spinning beneath Nappa's witless punch. The fighter formed a helix around himself before bursting into light, sending them both tumbling away with a bidirectional stream of blasts.
"Not bad…" Wabi muttered. "Wait… HEHNDALL! REMEMBER, IF YOU TAKE OUT THOSE TWO TOO FAST, THEN-"
"Oh, enough with that whining! Shut up until you're needed!" He sneered, as two waves of energy charged in each hand before casting them out, sending the two saiyans into oblivion.
"Hah! Serves you right for what you've done, fo-"
A blur suddenly shot into his sternum.
"(...!?)"
The spiky-haired one let out an unhinged chuckle. "Sorry. You were wide open!"
"DAMMIT! KAKAROT ABSORBS THEIR KIRI IF YOU'RE TOO HASTY!"
"Keuh… I won't be trifled wITH-" he hissed, before Kakarot laid into him with manic glee, brutalizing him with every vicious movement as he enjoyed the battle before knocking him to the ground.
"Hah! You cheap asshole, you're no fun at all." He landed with a destructive thud. "But gee, it'll sure be fun to tear off those wings! Wonder how those'll taste over a fire…!"
Hehndall turned to Wabi. "DO YOUR JOB! QUICKLY!"
"RIGHT, I'M-"
Before he could advance, a new face landed before his temporary partner.
"...!"
"...?"
"..."
Wabi abruptly broke out into a smile. "Oh tanking jyoms, you're not dead!"
Kazikum stood up. He had a peculiar bleeding stain in his black v-neck shirt, but looked quite unbothered by it. Briefly checking the watch he now donned, he looked back at the loopy saiyan before him.
The one behind him seemed less than thrilled. "You fool!" Hehndall rose to his feet, storming toward him. "Get out of my way, I'm not finished with-"
"YOU'RE FUCKING DONE."
[ BGM: Unknown ‒ Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle: LR SSJ3 Goku & SSJ2 Vegeta Finish Attack 2 ]
The half-spawn spun around, grabbed the winged being by the face, and shoved him into the ground.
He turned to the final enemy in the area, a sneering Kakarot.
"Oh, you've gotta be packing some power! C'mon, let's-"
He was rushed down without a moment's hesitation, barreling through several rock formations in the process. The scarred saiyan now shared a crater with his new enemy, tumbling across the splitting and quaking earth before charging at his encroaching new opponent, both laying into each other as if no tomorrow awaited them as they circled each other with maelstroms of fists and devil-may-care kicks, quaking and tearing the ground beneath them.
Kakarot saw a chance, ate a punch dead-on, and grabbed onto an arm. "He-heh! You don't need THIS, do ya!?" He cackled, throwing Kazikum to the ground and straining himself before breaking and tearing it off full-sail.
Hehndall shrieked. "M-MONSTER!" He looked back to demand the local healer to save the imbecile who-
"TAKE HIM DOWN, KAZ!"
"DO I, FUCKFACE!?" Kazikum snarled with a fanged leer, lunging at his adversary with even more aggression, using every limb he could bash someone with as Kakarot still clung onto the arm in dazed befuddlement.
"C'MON! TAKE SOMETHING ELSE! YOU'VE GOT THREE ARMS NOW! FIGHT THE FUCK BACK ALREADY! AM I NOT FUCKING WEAK ENOUGH YET!?" He took Kakarot into a lariat and demolished several rock formations with the enemy's back, before turning around and emitting an unearthly energy. All of a sudden, he had three as well; his extra set looked impeccably demonic, with horns, small writhing tendrils and all. "HOW MANY MORE DO YOU NEED, YOU PATHETIC FUCK!? C'MON!" he howled in his open stance, his hellish appendages forming blades. "TAKE AS MANY AS YOU WANT, I'LL STILL FUCKING KILL YOU!"
"GRAAAAGH!" Kakarot blasted the debris into the stratosphere, and lashed out with his stolen arm as if it were a club. Almost knocked off his feet by the impact, Kazikum nevertheless caught it.
"... m-mo-mon… ster…"
With his teeth.
His extra arms receding and with the yank of his neck, he snatched back what was rightfully his – pulling one of Kakarot's arms out of socket in the process – wound back, and sucker-punched him using the fist–first severed limb as a battering ram.
In his downward position, also conveniently wound back, he bit down on the arm with a crunch, swallowed, balled his other fist, and slammed an uppercut into his enemy's stomach — right into his target point of a pre-existing crater, sending him screaming into the air with armor shattered from the front and back.
And then a bone-made, whiplike blade shot from his bloody right stub.
With another windback, he went from obliterating Kakarot's insides to decapitating him completely.
"Haaaa—..."
Kazikum took a moment to calm himself down. He looked over to Wabi as he bled more blood than most lifeforms should probably have.
"Too… far…?" He smirked.
Wabi nervously grinned, squishing an invisible gummy bear that he held to his temple. His former ally had passed out, making bizarre chirping noises all the while.
"Uh, yeah, gonna heal you now."
"Don't bother." He looked at Kakarot's corpse.
"... no, NO, NO-"
The half-spawn then grabbed his severed arm. He checked the time of the watch still on it, sucked his teeth, looked toward Wabi, and then back at the arm.
"Oh. Oh, yeah, that's fine I'll just OH GRITH NO-"
Wabi watched a man eat his own severed arm like a turkey leg. Another arm gradually sprouted from his bloody stub, bone-then muscle-then nerve-then skin.
"... what? It's MY fucking arm!"
The lanky teal healer stumbled back over to a rock and heaved a rainbow.
Kazikum rolled his eyes. "Goddamn drama queen…"
The two exited, as the third junior stumbled away in a traumatized haze.
"So what's next for-"
Kazikum, without hesitation, slung him over his shoulder and bounded across the city.
"OH-O-K-THAT'S-FINE-I-LOVE-BEING-SICK-"
They suddenly skidded to a stop, in front of a fancy-looking café. Kaz set Wabi down and checked his watch, then looked around as if expecting someone to be there.
"Be there 15 minutes before 12!" the girl happily waved. "Just remember, if you stand me up, I have your scent!"
It was 5 minutes before 12. Said girl was nowhere to be found.
Kazikum groaned. "Typical…"
Wabi groaned; it was infectious. "Why'd you bring me, anyway?"
The demidevil shrugged. He then reached into his heavier pockets and found a nice pile of zeni.
"Oh, yeah. The timeline you stumbled into was a three-star, after all. (I was hoping a more-experienced patroller would help out, but you're WAY stronger than most new patrollers should be, so all's well I guess…)"
Wabi proceeded to barely-catch a small cannonball, sent teetering back in an effort to catch his balance. "Oof…" he moaned, opening his hot hand. "OH! Hey, Kaz, I've got my own pay…"
"I don't give a fuck, that's yours."
"... Hey, I won't argue. Guess I'll use it here."
The junior patroller walked over to a table for a seat, and the junior-er patroller followed. The former's eyes were drawn to the bloody splotch in the latter's shirt, apparent even before his engagement inside the parallel quest.
"So uh, how'd that counseling yesterday go for you?"
Kazikum eugh'd. " 'I would've had to kill you' this, 'lucky you proved me wrong' that, blah blah fucking blah. Didn't take anything to rile up that little midget, you should've seen it."
"Is he where you got the impact wound from?"
Kazikum smirked.
Trunks shoved his entire forearm into Kazikum's gut, making him hack red-glittered saliva.
"YOU DON'T SEEM TO GET HOW MANY CHANCES I'VE GIVEN YOU, PUNK," he hissed. "KEEP PUSHING MY PATIENCE, AND I'LL MAKE YOU AFRAID TO DIE."
"He got PISSED!" he chuckled. Wabi scowled at him.
"Please stop pushing people that could kill you WITH a heartbeat."
"Pssh. "
"Kaz ." Wabi glared, and a wave of silence followed. Kazikum's cocky grin slowly smeared down.
"Fine, I'll… fucking… think about it."
"Well in that case, think about it like this. Since you're newly graduated, your only road to becoming a true patroller is resolving parallel quests and getting noticed by experienced patrollers. A really good way to have someone give a good word is by NOT making everyone's boss angry enough to sock you. It's not just strength that matters for you now, it's tact."
"Why should I give any tact when I'm being threatened by uptight dipshits that expect me to grovel at their fucking feet over a second chance I never asked for?"
Wabi shrank back in his chair. "... sorry. Didn't mean to undermine you."
Kazikum reined himself in. "You didn't do anything. But if it means sucking up to the bastards on top, then I don't care how long it takes me. I'll become a patroller my own way. And I'll MAKE them acknowledge me."
With a good-natured sigh, the scarfed namekian nodded. "Mh! As long as you'll keep giving things your best, alright?"
" 'Course," the half-spawn replied, laying back and staring off.
"..."
"..."
Wabi looked left.
"..."
"..."
Wabi looked right.
"..."
"..."
Wabi whipped out a PDA and typed in something vaguely interesting.
And as if on cue,
BAAM!
"Every time."
The two waited for a bit longer. There was the sound of an object crashing closer and closer to the ground, before the café door was barged through.
" 'WAS IN THE LOO AAAA—LL ALONG!" yelled Dina, literally Spaurking.
Wabi almost jumped. Kazikum stared.
"nice hat dumbass"
"Huh AH SHI-" she abruptly ripped off her "ORDINARE" cap (revealing her frizzled tuft of a hairdo,) attempted to shove it into her pocket, shoved it into her "ORDINARE DA DINA" side bag, noticed she still had the bag AFTER both it and her bag disintegrated, momentarily erupted in a sea of ki, gave her all to suppress herself, and decided five seconds too late to try playing it off.
"T-timelines, right?" she shrugged with a forced smile, grabbing a seat. "Who needs 'em!? Time's relative, anyways! Or something! Oh l'at's MINT, you brought company! Not tryin'a steal 'im from me now, are ya Wabbs?"
"What?"
"Who's hungry!? How're we doin'? What's new!?"
"... arms come out of my shoulders now."
"Of course they do! What else is new, amirite!? Happens to the best of us!"
"WHAT?"
Wabi's cut-in gave Dina a moment of self-reflection.
[ BGM: Takao Nagatani – Joker ]
"(... wot the actual shit am I saying right now?) …mhm. crud this is just like my first date." Dina cleared her throat. "Right, um… ignore that, figure'a speech."
"(THERE'S NO WAY I'M THIS BAD AT DATING, DAMN IT! I mean I know for a fact I can TALK to the bloke, ANY bloke, but what is it about now, besides the fact that my first impression has been as a massive hypocrite!? No, he should already KNOW I'm a massive hypocrite, he's known me for over a bloody year! Aw, fuck's sake, that just makes it WORSE, I'm reinforcing a pre-existing negative notion! AND FOR CRYING OUT, WHERE IS ALL THAT JUDGEMENT COMING FROM!?)"
Dina's eye slowly traced over to Wabi, who very loudly silently judged her with his bug-eyed stare.
"(ah yes there's mr. high n' mighty himself, WHY THE SODDEN HELL IS HE EVEN HERE!? BASTARD! Y-you know what? I'm being mean. I'm sure he means well.)"
The half-breed established a "link" with him.
"(Er uh, hey, friend, it's me, just wonderin' if you could, uh…)"
"(WHEN THE HELL DID YOU GET THAT STRONG!?)"
"(Ohmygod PLEASE don't bring that up right now, I'm already on edge!)"
"(So you lose control of your power, and the first thing you do is GO OUT ON A DATE!?)"
"(I SAID I'D DO A THING AND I'M DOIN' IT, PISS OFF!)"
More red lightning bounced off the table and all around her. She hastily shooed it away, sending turbulent gusts of wind everywhere.
"(At least that one Musai guy eventually got help, you're just a mess…)"
"(YOU ARE MAKING THIS UNBEARABLE!)"
"(hey. As the ceoilans say, 'he-heyila goh hyin hyouw'.)"
"(You made that up.)"
"(You're racist.)"
"(I AM NOT RACISTₐₙᵧₘₒᵣₑ!)"
"(Sure, how many namekians did you call Slugface BEFORE Conton?)"
"(IT WAS THE ONE TIME, I… I did NOT hate you before this talk!)"
"(Well I still had a sliver of respect for you. Things change)"
Dina begrudgingly accepted the increased gravity Wabi's glare put atop her head, and thought up a decent talking point before the obnoxious silence rendered the date unsalvageable.
She decided on rebellion because that would've been hot if Wabi hadn't completely corrupted him and he was still into that sort of thing.
"So Trunks, right?"
Wabi deathglar-
"What a fucking blowhard."
Dina snapped her fingers. "Was GONNA say dickhead but that is PERFECT for 'im! Have you LISTENED to him talk!?"
"He fucking loves hearing himself go on and on, trying his fucking damnest not to choke on his own bite-sized cock over how fucking hard it is having restraint or whatever the fuck,"
"And he acts like he just KNOWS what you'll say before you say it!"
"Like he's so fucking above it all!"
"OH LOOKIE HERE YEAH I'M BIG IMPORTANT JERKFACE MAN I'VE SO VERY LITTLE TIME FOR ANYONE NOW PARDON ME BUT THERE ARE SOME CHILDREN I SIMPLY MUST HAVE TORTURED!"
"FUCK what a pompous little bitch!"
The resident third wheel felt the need to interject with a reminder that the commander had gone through his share of hell before and during his time in Conton, but decided against it. Emotional species seemed to benefit from occasional overacting, for some reason.
"I mean who even has their mop done like that OUTSIDE of pretentious twats!? How's he gonna drop lectures with that z4,000 hair cut?"
"And his fucking grating voice, too! It's like he's trying to make up for his balls not dropping by deep-throating stalagmites!"
That school of thoght stopped when others started giving the two looks.
"ᴴᵉʸ, ʷʰᵉⁿ ʸᵒᵘ'ʳᵉ ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ…"
And OTHER others started agreeing.
"ᴴᶦˢ ᵍʳᵒᵘᵖ ᵗᵃˡᵏˢ ᴴᴬⱽᴱ ᵇᵉᵉⁿ ᵍᵉᵗᵗᶦⁿᵍ ᵃʷᶠᵘˡ ˡᵒⁿᵍ⁻ʷᶦⁿᵈᵉᵈ…"
"ʸᵘᵖ ʸᵘᵖ ʸᵘᵖᵎ"
Dina giggled. "Oh my, we really shouldn't be talking like this in public."
Kazikum chuffed. "Couldn't give less of a fuck."
Dina chuffed right back. "Oh, I bet you couldn't, you stud…"
"HEHE, SHOULDN'T WE BE ORDERING RIGHT ABOUT NOW!?" Wabi asked, positive that there'd be a squabble in time if they didn't stop.
"Oh that?" Dina waved it off. "Pssh, already-"
A gale-force blew in her waft's direction.
Right into the waitress that'd held their food and drink.
"... um…" Dina pulled out her wallet.
The waitress exploded in a fiery aura dwarfing hers, incinerating the multiple rouscheberry pie slices and boba tea with a really long name that Dina was hoping Kazikum would pay for.
She threw whatever money would come out, grabbed both boys by the hands, and fled.
Kazikum walked.
Wabi walked.
Dina dragged herself behind them.
"Who the fuck are you playing peekaboo with?"
"Shaddap," Dina muttered, hands fusing into her palms.
"... well, now what?"
The half-breed peeked out her hand. "Eh?"
Kazikum turned with an amused half-smirk. "It doesn't stop there, does it? Let's do more shit! You said an hour, right?"
Dina felt a little red.
"Hey, Kaz, Dina's obviously coming down with something. Maybe we should give her some space for-"
"YEP!" She loudly confirmed, once-more sparking alongside a surging aura. She grinned. "After all, there's a ton to do in Conton that I haven't gotten to try in my day-to-day! This'll be our excuse to sample a bit'a everything!"
Wabi stared.
"(Oh, sod off, you! This is me last chance to salvage this!)"
"(You have no idea what you're doing, do you?)"
[ BGM: Ushio Hashimoto – I'll Give You Romance ]
She strained her eyes to hide the oncoming tear. "(I-I can sure try, yeah?)"
Wabi rolled his eyes as Dina led the way. All the while…
"(Looks like I'm the sorry fuck getting dragged around for once…)" Kazikum grinned smugly. "(Why not?)"
An arcade was the first spot.
Dina entered The Zone very, very quickly as she grinded a sim. Enough to send a startling, blistering wave of lightning zipping throughout the establishment.
Wabi's Kaz-kicking spree on Red Emperor of Innocent God-Fighting Road was abruptly ended, as he slowly swayed to the source.
Said source began hyperventilating before frantically clawing at her headset, tripping herself and rolling across the floor in a sea of blinding ki as she squawked about dying in real life, just like in "the movie."
Next was a movie.
Wabi expected something campy like a love story, but she almost surprised him with her choice: something campy like a giant robot action movie.
For some ungodly reason, as he tried his hardest to get his face out of his eternal cringe and Kazikum tried not to fall asleep, Dina was actually taking notes of the fight scenes. As Wabi began to recognize one or two moves from her bloody Quarter-Final match, his crinkled countenance only further petrified in pain.
And then she looked back down to see her notes vaporizing into an orb of mystical plasma.
She looked up and down in hysteria as the credits scrolled down her watery ruby eyes, before erupting in a very noisy, distorting aura that compelled other moviegoers to shush her.
She bulldozed several of them on her bawling way out. The funny part was that the only decent choreography was saved for the after-credits.
Next was a Feera game.
Apparently it was an odd game where one side tried to kick an odd ball past an odd web while passing it by smacking their teammates with it. It was weird.
Not weird enough for Dina not to become personally invested in.
The game was called off due to multiple flashes of lightning. The ball's fluid was combustible, after all.
Short on z30,000 on top of an ever-growing sphere of debt, Dina shakily grabbed her wallet and threw it at Wabi's feet. Said Wabi was blasted off of them via shockwave.
Kazikum caught Wabi for the only catch of the entire game. Even Dina was impressed.
Wabi suggested a museum. Both Dina and Kazikum gave him a look he'd only reserved for the former. Both shared an eye roll and obliged.
The healer happily strutted behind them as the door opened and he prepared to indulge in history's great-and then Dina and Kazikum walked out.
Dina had a stupid Grandiosaurus plushie that she hugged until the stuffing came out, and Kazikum had a bone in his mouth as he yawned.
Wabi had questions. He gave up on asking them, as they'd inevitably come out as disfigured word soup. He trudged back down the stairs.
They passed a gym. Kazikum suggested the gym.
Dina did a triple-take. With each head-turn she seemed more and more convinced. The two happily bounded off toward its doors.
Not long after, Wabi observed what could only be described as an ad for pre-workout, only with all scenes of the product in-question cut out.
The half-breed outdid the half-spawn in just about everything with an electric aura zitzing around her at all times, until it burst throughout the facility's every possible entrance and exit.
Dina embarrassingly hobbled out, alongside a… actually, Wabi couldn't tell what expression Kaz had. He was turned-something.
Wabi also took note of the hundreds of others hobbling out with burns.
After some sightseeing (Dinish for mass elemental defamation of property,) they stopped at another eatery.
He received his simple order of a simple glass of simple water as the two ever-ravenous saiyans ordered a hearty fifty plates each of various meats and veggies, and began
to
si
p his w
ate
r- and then the two finished, ready to do whatever else.
Wabi had half his water gone.
He rubbed his face frantically as if there were bugs underneath it and there were and he needed to get them out before he actually went crazy because this day was eating him alive like the bugs under his face that he needed to get out before he fucking exploded on account of the bugs that
He spotted a library from over the bags of his war-torn eyes and decided to pick that chance to split from the group.
"Oh that reminds me, there's a few things here I've gotta pick up!"
"OOOOH NO, YOU STAY OUT!"
Dina recoiled from Wabi's accusatory finger as if it were a firearm. "Hey!"
"I've put up with it all for the most part, but you're gonna go as far as besmirching a LIBRARY!?"
"I'm just gonna check out a couple novels ya loon! What, d'you really think I'm gonna fly off the handle just by-"
"YES!"
"... well I've got'n better…!"
Wabi glared at her. "I'm not gonna risk taking your word right now, you humanoid typhoon. Please just stay FAR away from ANY quiet places until you check yourself."
Dina drew back her hand in immeasurable offense, mouth still agape as she snapped over to Kazikum.
"... let's put this on pause."
"... hueh? HEH!? O-OY, WHO SAID THE FUN'S OVER!? WE HAVEN'T EVEN GONE TO THE GO-SHIPS YET!"
"Look, I'll get your novels or whatever the fuck for you, don't worry. Give me their names."
Dina glared at him.
"... what?"
She turned away. "Don't worry about it! I'll grab them my bloody self, once I've WELL AND BLOODY CHECKED MYSELF!" The girl almost kicked the nearby statue of Mutaito before grinding herself to a shaking, simmering halt. She folded her arms, crossed her legs, and sat on a step. "Go on, after him, you! I won't follow!"
Kazikum groaned before obeying, ascending the stairs. "Of fucking course…"
"YOU WHAT!? YOU FUCKING WHAT, COCKFACE!? SAY THAT AGAIN!" she screamed after him. The lack of response gave her a brief moment of reflection. "... Brilliant as always…" Dina went limp across the step.
"Date-Butcher Extraordinaire, naturally."
Five Stars of the Golden Wheel.
Surprisingly not a documentary on the brutal nature of online reviewership.
A novel dating back to Age 110. Authored by a peerless warrior from ancient Gengoro who found his home in constant battle, slaying man, woman, and child indiscriminately. One fateful day, en route to another war, his dominant arm was struck by a five-starred orb tumbling from the sky, shattering it beyond healing.
Severed from his sworn way, cast from his refuge, he took up the orb and walked. In that travel, he learned what it meant to be weak, to be lost, to be brought low. And from that, he forged new beliefs. New means to fortify the mind and hone the spirit.
From that, he based five tenants on the stars of the orb which sent him on his way.
A force compelled the book off its shelf, into a pale hand. Its owner approached the closest table, one accompanied by Eastern and Western banners from across the four quadrants, adorned with various symbols and colors.
"Any scoundrel who'd willingly use dark arts is no pillar of our society!"
"S-she was clearly out of her right mind! I mean, who wouldn't be, against that vulgar lowbourne?"
"Ha! You talk as if you really WANT the whore in our order, nevermind managing it! Losing to a shoe? Performing 'That' spell on a LOWBOURNE? Disgraceful!"
"Now now, you lot. If we're to hold our esteem, then cooler heads must prevail, even if these matters pertain to such unspeakable acts as black mag-"
[ BGM: Takafumi Wada – Di Kong ]
As the higher-strung senior spoke, someone took a seat right next to his illustrious pseudo-throne. He paid no mind to the ongoing scene, and began to read.
Averse stares amid a storm of silence followed. The intruder seemed unaware of the cue. Soon, a hushed whisper broke the silence, and more soon spread like a plague.
The intruder set down his book, revealing to him the sharpened eyes angled at his cloth-guarded throat. "Am I a bother?"
"Ha! A 'bother', he says!"
"Try 'Darkblight', you tainted ghoul!"
With a nod, he stood. "I do not understand the reason behind your disdain, but I shall bother you no longer. Excuse me."
"Oh, do settle down, Konus." His long cuff was caught by the senior he'd sat next to. "Clearly, as a wizard, you've SOME knowledge of this city's Mystic Order. Our codes and the like. Our chief among them, the strict intolerance of dark arts."
"I do not understand."
"... sure you don't. Faced with The Council, you'd do anything to save your hide and absolve your guilt. After all, a wizard as yourself never being approached by an envoy? You're up to your neck in absurdities. You may as well drop the act and accept your dues with, some, modicum of grace."
The unnecessary commas were audible.
"... you seek to punish me for some misdeed, yet I've done no wrong to neither you nor your kin." His tone was void of… anything. The observation had to be taken at face value, that being confusion. "I've yet to understand, I'm afraid."
His novel was snatched by an otherwise-blisteringly cold wind.
"Hm hm hm…! Leave it to the moron to read rubbish like this! Meaningless tripe from a jobless, smelly old bum from the mountains!"
"Is that correct?"
"..."
"..."
"... ye-Yes."
"Then I'm grateful for your concern. However, I'd much prefer to learn for myself, as perspectives are capable of differing. Please, hand that to me, and I shall be on my way."
"Hmph! As if I'd listen…!" The magus began to unveil a series of hexes, forming from their outside a cage of crystals that closed in on the book omnidirectionally. "To an idiotic, crude Darkblight like y-"
His hand was suddenly swathed through. A shift of black-spotted energy ate through the crystals in an instant, and the namekian's book landed back into his hand.
The other magi shot up, pointing their various mystical weapons toward him.
"This piece holds some great value to me. Until I come to understand it for myself, I insist on safeguarding it. Apologies, but if you insist on obscuring my goal, then I shall do all in my power to tear you down."
His dark-clad aura rocketed through the space.
"Vermin! I'll show you hell beneath Hell itself! KURAKATA-KUN'SHIIN!"
The senior's left arm became a concave of glowing, thorn-like links that bound themselves around the namekian cultivator.
"GRI-GI-GRI! Behold, the worst fate imaginable! I've stripped you of all sorcerous properties! Perhaps if you grovel at my feet, I'll find some way of ending your miserable-"
Konus flexed with a harrumph.
The bind shattered in a wave of life energy.
Only then was it revealed — a ghastly mixture of magic and ki, both of which a frankly-unfair amount, continuously intertwining with each other and creating a star-eating shadow. Its pressure alone caused others to fall unconscious, ill-equipped to face such a threat. The awake, advanced magi slowly backed up before tactically retreating.
"If I must, I will battle to see my dream realized. If that means ensuring you can no longer stand before it…"
The pointed-antennae'd cultivator's open hand descended upon the sniveling mage.
"Hey, fucknuts."
Konus stopped.
"You're all being loud," Kazikum growled, three books in tow; ki, magic, and anger management, respectively. "Fuck off."
The drab-clothed cultivator seemed to think about it, as his former antagonizer scurried away. "... very well. But if I may ask, why? If I simply agreed to quell myself, would that not suffice? Or is my leaving insurance, as my word is no longer good enough?"
"That 'Philosophy For Retards' handbook won't get you out of this, you weird fucking shit-for-brains. Move it."
"Mmh…" the sorcerer slowly shook his head. "It seems 'that boy' was unique in his convictions."
Kazikum began looking around.
"Only he was so willing to wear them upon his chest. It's as if the rest of you simply act for the sake of action."
Kazikum stormed toward the man. He gripped his collar and swayed toward the door.
"You talk too mUC-"
He threw them both out.
Even he was surprised by the development, eyes agape as he burst through the doors and skid across the ground, the rays of high noon obscured by the long, outstretched roof of the library.
[ BGM: Masami Ueda, Masato Kohda, Misao Senbong – Super Ultra Violet ]
Konus seemed unfazed. He'd even landed on his feet.
"What misfortune… no matter my efforts, some way or another, I find myself in conflict. Has this path of mine simply been written for me? I, a mere puppet to fate, no matter the road down which I travel?"
With leg strength alone, the half-spawn rose back up, a focused rage in his eyes. "Leave it to the dipshit that speaks in fucking riddles to lose his fucking brains when it comes to simple fucking instructions! Fine, I'll break it down into something even a BOTCHED LOBOTOMITE like you can get through your FAT FUCKING HEAD!"
Dim, deep red-and-black embers began to burn off the demon boy, before sprinting toward his vexation, who continued to walk down each step, his robes fluttering in response to the charge.
His arms burst through his cloths. As if anticipating what'd happen next, Kazikum kicked a leg back alongside his taloned hand.
In the next moment, Konus both intercepted his claw with a yank forward and checked his knee. With a stiffer knee upward, the namekian sent his foe overhead as he returned to his neutral stance, Kazikum recovering on all fours.
"Ah…"
"Stop making those stupid FUCKING NOISES, FREAK!" The half-spawn reared back before pivoting with every last ounce of his weight into his catapulted fist. Konus parried the fist's impact, simultaneously knocking the boy off kilter with an open palm to the plexus.
"I see… you use neither mystics nor ki."
"TCH-"
"Your body, your mind and soul," the dreary cultivator added, blocking the still-quite angsty semi-demon's swings with his open palms and forearms, "the whole of your being is unguarded. Its resilience…" Konus interrupted himself after forcing an opening, responding with an octet of rapping punches to the abdominals, two full smacks to the meridian center, and a spinning push kick that sent him rolling back. "... is inherently otherworldly. What are you, exactly?"
"(Fuck's with this feeling?)" Kazikum looked down at his quaking fingers, then back at his current problem with a death glare. "Why don't I just show you, nosy fuck?"
Red suddenly flared through his irises in full, swallowing any glint of yellow. Two hardened, spiked arms shot from his shoulders, forming new ones in an instant, as his hair raised.
"It can't be…"
Kazikum broke into an evil grin, bold obsidian shroud interweaving with crimson smoke. "GET IT NOW, SHITSTACK!? JUST WHAT THE FUCK ALL YOUR BULLSHIT CHITCHAT HAS GOTTEN YOU INTO!?"
"Hn… so you, too, were half-born of demonic heritage?"
"What?"
He pressed his hands together. "For a spell, I noticed how bothersome to others such an aspect was. I sought means of temperance, restricting it to my magics, certain enough in my convictions as a means to an end to lend consideration to those who would seek to use my strength. But I was shown first-hand the beauty of seeking a greater calling." Slowly, he parted them, a swell of black and violet mystic ki repelling them apart.
A mist of similar color surrounded the cultivator. Four horn-like antennae grew across his skull, a pair to the sides and a pair forward, as his fangs grew behind his lips alongside his height until he was a torso above Kazikum.
He proceeded to pull the exact same arm trick. Only, four arms sprouted from his shoulders.
Kazikum suddenly had reservations. "... how?"
"I am unaware of my own origin. All I have is the certainty that it was unjust."
Namekians are an intrinsically mystical species. For them, the simple act of enlightening their souls through meditation and belief, or submerging them in darkness through wickedness, can turn them into gods and demons; each with their own respective life force and transcendent magic. Those who reach a balance of both extremes become beings possessing power that transcend either in spades.
But without that balance, only one state will prevail. In tandem with the peril of assimilation, only woe can unfold.
"... kuh." He'd started something. He was gonna finish it. There was nothing else to it.
The demidevil then tried something new.
"HRAAAAA—!"
He powered up. Something about the arms made it easier for him to channel his ghastly form of ki.
Konus looked on. "It's… unfocused. Stronger you may be, your channeling lacks the tenants that elicit true ki control."
"YOU WANT ME TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO FUCKING KILL YOU!?" Kazikum roared, charging in at a level that blurred light, far faster than he'd ever gone in his life.
He proceeded to ram into a distant statue of Son Gohan.
A shaky barrier appeared over Konus across the shockwave's duration. The cloud of dust settled for a jarring interval before a silhouette hobbled forward. The challenger now had a dented skull, a profusely-bleeding nose, and a pissed expression.
He managed to walk up to Konus, steadied his vision so that he wasn't seeing double, and leapt.
[ BGM: Mitsuhara Fukuyama – Affected Fight ]
His javelin-like fist made contact with the devil namek's higher palm, and shattered both the arm itself and his own.
"Kh…!"
"Mh…"
He twisted himself over the larger opponent and outside gravity's laws like a shark breaching water, before diving back in with his three working arms and manic blackened eyes against a living, breathing Shura statue.
"HM!"
"GRAAH!"
He wound back and threw his weight into a front kick to the leg with the same self-blinding speed as before, Konus lifting his targeted limb into the sky. Kazikum clawed the ground and threw himself back at the enemy in a brief somersault, making Konus brace against his dual-armed leaping claw-slash, the two breaking off and back into a one-sided exchange of fists and parries.
"(If I cut the fucker down or tear off something too important, Wabi's getting fucked over… but I'd need EVERYTHING for this overgrown SHITHEA-)"
Konus weaved through a clawed hand, reversing it and flipping Kazikum mid-air before another hand grabbed him by the tail and one of his fists shot toward Kazikum's gut, only for another of Kaz's claws to receive and dig into the limb, freely tearing his own tail off and forcing himself down, dislodging and nearly tearing the arm free before a diagonal chop from beneath lodged itself between Kaz's ribs, sending the demidevil hundreds of feet into the air. Kazikum seemed to rebound off nothingness before diving straight for Konus's throat. The devil namek backed to a near-knee as he stopped the charge, grabbing the self-made missile's three operable arms with his four. Kazikum threw his lower body into the air, preparing to stomp Konus's face in.
"Tell me…"
His legs stopped mid-fall, brought to a halt by Konus's mind. "For what reason do you fight so viciously? Is it for those within, that their peace may not be disturbed?"
"I don't give a FUCK about all those maggots!" he yelled back, steadily being crushed by the pressure around him, as slow a process as it may've been.
"Surely, there must be something that compels your fists forward, then."
Kazikum began to feel like he'd been here before.
"There's someone I need to see DEAD…"
Yet somehow, his conviction – that which he had when he'd answered it first – had wavered.
As if being spat out of compression, the half-spawn suddenly rocketed out of his tight squeeze, tumbling before throwing himself to his feet. His cheeks bulged before coughing up dark red. "(Like I'd need to answer this reject… what fucking moron asks that in the middle of a fight…?)"
— it should have gone without say.
"And that would be me, I presume? Has my presence truly angered you to this length that you'd give your own life to take my own?"
"(...)"
"(I'm fucking DOUBTING it…?)"
Konus noticed Kazikum's shift, the way his brows began to hover. "Ah… that face. I've never received it, but I've given it to someone fairly recently. In that, we share a likeness." His arms wove hypnotically, unnatrually through the space around them, one palm growing heavier and heavier with the presence of dark magic. "But are you not concealing more power? If you truly desire my life, then why do you not take that golden-haired state?"
And suddenly, it clicked for him.
"You clueless dipshit…" he nearly leered through his enraged scowl.
Kazikum noticed the audio cue of a bounding leap, and surged upward. "YOU THINK I'D USE SHIT LIKE THAT AGAINST YOU!"
The devil-namek's palms honed in on him and in a sudden berserk, he lashed out at each and every one of them, with a punch, with a knee, with a slash, with a headbutt — he threw himself into it entirely, drawing even more effort from the larger devil.
Yet the unholiest of strikes still made its mark, digging into the half-spawn's soul, his body limpening over the arm at fault.
"Decrepit Effigy: Shattered Origin." Konus drew back his palm. "Cursed are we poor souls, bereft of meaning behind our battles."
"... kh-kh-kh…!" Kazikum turned his sneer to the side, just to show it off. "Yeah right…!"
He raised a quaking chop to the sky, to end things as his former enemy shook on the ground.
"Alright, that's quite enough out of you two!"
…
Again.
A distant, whiny voice gasped. "S-SERAUMICS!? You have the gall to show your face around here once more!?"
"Oh hush, you! Guilty of flirtation with the dark arts as I am, I will NEVER be labeled a fraudulent coward who flees in the face of such a threat!"
"I-I did no such thing! I merely backpedaled to regain my bearings and adjust my next stratagem accordingly!"
"A lovely cover-up, 'sir', but your shaking boots offer you no tactical advantage, I believe. Care to argue? Specifically, with this gentlemen?"
"Aa… aa-a…"
"Brilliant. Alright, I see what needs to be done. After I've trounced this one, I'll take the Mystic Order and by force if need be, though I doubt I'll need as much. By all means, bear witness!"
Konus slowly rose as the new challenger approached.
"Rezeptheft." She snatched a booklet from the air, flipped to a page bookmarked with a jade flame, and stopped a few meters away.
The drab-robed sorcerer paid his hand a close glance, as if piecing something together. "... am I, too, your means to an end?"
"That's a dreary way of putting it. I simply can't allow you to besmirch an organization co-founded by House Seraumics." She cast out her hand. "This spell is rather taxing, as spacial spells aren't my fortè. I'd like you to accompany me — that is, if you'd like to trade this tiny city for a real battleground."
"... Hm. Hm-hm-hm-hm-hm…" He joined the movement and cast out his hand.
Selaine exhaled, depleting her lungs completely, and shut her eyes.
"Bergreisis."
An orb manifested. It expanded, shrouding the world in dark grey, before becoming a space of silver above a white plane. The sky shined with the outside world, as if it reflected off a polished sheen.
The sorceress inhaled, her intensity mirroring a diver with seconds to spare before breaching. "There, some privacy. Now..." She lowered her hand.
Konus's dim smile made her turn away. "What? Are you THAT giddy to use your full power?"
"... no. I'm merely beginning to answer my own 'question'."
With that, his aura imploded.
And then burst forward.
"GHH…!" Selaine drew her wand from her sash like a sword. "(ALRIGHT… MUCH LESS SIMPLE THAN EXPECTED)!"
[ BGM: Takafumi Wada – Lu Zhen Jie (1:27) ]
"From the moment I first drew breath, I have done nothing but question. My birth, my power, the reason why my mere presence drew enemies after my life… But at long last, my eyes are open. With every failed attempt to slay me, YET ANOTHER challenger arises! The longer I walk, THE STRONGER THE OPPOSITION to cut me down! I AM A MONUMENT FOR OTHERS TO PROVE THEMSELVES AGAINST! I EXIST SO OTHERS MAY STRIKE AT ME!"
"I AM THE CONSTANT, THE WALL TO OVERCOME! I AM HERE TO BE SURPASSED!"
His smile grew, as both ki and magic wove together, the devil-namek solidifying his resolve once and for all time with an inner mantra.
The Tides of Fate Send Them To Me in Waves,
As The Stone It Has Chosen to Root in Place.
There Are No Means to Drift From This Path of Ceaseless Battle,
And I Will Meet Erosion With A Content Smile.
"HE'S GONE MA-"
"HERE! YOUR FIRST TRIAL!" Konus aligned his flowing aura, twisting and disconfiguring the air as he did. "Decrepit Effigy:"
A ball of utter entropy formed from his energies, tearing the plane around him apart.
"NNH…!?"
"FADING LIGHT'S REQUIEM!"
It cannon-shot into her enchanted barrier before she could even process the attack, bypassing its initial layers entirely and making it to the impassable core.
"THOSE LAYERS DIDN'T EVEN SHATTER… IT IGNORED THE SPACE BETWEEN IT!?" She grit her teeth. "RETTICHREEM!"
A focused emerald inferno contested the colossal chaos orb. "AND… PFEFFERHASEN!" She bit down as a magnified, compressed solar wind attacked the orb, before finally sending it off; revealed behind it was a smirking Konus, hand outstretched with a dim ki swirling with dark magic.
"Darn you…!" Selaine tapped her temple. "Reisreeberd!" The falling, swaying particles dimming the outer world ground to a halt, as if time around her had stopped.
[ BGM: Hideyuki Fukusawa – Fist of Desperate -Awakening- ]
Konus unleashed a stream of blasts her way, and she just weaved around them, firing back with bolts of celestial flame; the dark cultivator shot them down with his free hand.
"You have no reason to dodge these attacks, and yet you do so of your own accord? Is there a limit to your barrier?"
"Don't be riDICULOUS!" the star sorceress yelled, firing a larger fire ball toward him. He waved it off, only for it to split on its own, and then over and over until they'd become an array of bowling ball-sized constructs orbiting around Konus.
"Sen-Rie!" All of them emitted a solitary ray, bombarding her opponent with heat. "This barrier is a keepsake! I've no issue showcasing my skill without the charm!"
"Is that so?" The floor beneath him began to darken and sizzle. "Decrepit Effigy: Weeping Spirit Wasteland Unearthed."
A series of hissing spires erupted from the ground, shanking each ray with one staring Selaine in the face, before exploding in a sea of demon ki.
The sorceress bonded back, clutching her ornament. "(If not for this…!)"
She felt the presence of an oncoming rogue planet careening for her head, turned around, and ducked beneath a palm.
"(HE SHOULDN'T EVEN BE ABLE TO…! No…!)"
She noticed the way his demonic aura had compressed around him. "(The bastard isn't adhering to the 'law' of the outer layers! He's created his own space!)"
"Rok-tuh!" Selaine dodged two more of his attacks, keeping herself low before combat-rolling out the way of an overhead dual-chop; she shot her wand to the sky as fragments of the conjured grounds began to soar.
"WEISS!"
The smokey silhouette of a beast rose amongst the rubble before taking its snow-white and silver-swirled form, mirroring the conjured battlefield as it took in its jaws one of Konus's arms.
Selaine proceeded to rush the martial artist with a fist.
"KNOCK!" She yelled before leaping at Konus, attempting to kick him in the face as another smokey construct formed a spotted distortion of its environment, going for his other shoulder set and missing; the dark martial-sorcerer gave each combatant a set of arms.
"Oh? So you speak with fists, as well?" he asked, as he blocked it with ease, Selaine unfazed as she continued her assault with more moves straight out of a karateka's DIY manual and a boxer's filmed tutorial.
"Such a beautiful way with words you have, but I've only spoken this droll language for a handful of days. Nonetheless, I'm SURE you can spot my natural proficiency from here, Mr. Seasoned Warrior!"
"Proficiency?"
Her wrist was suddenly knocked off-course mid-uppercut as both her dogs were violently shattered with splitting blows, taking her balance before she was suddenly back to back with her adversary.
"What level of conceit would deem such novitiate performance 'proficient'?"
Selaine's face went red with something, before she turned with a roundhouse attempt. She was sent sent crashing to the floor after a knee check-into-push kick into her inner barrier and, after witnessing him spin through the air like a mechanical top,
"Decrepit Effigy: Sea-Scarring."
Crashed through the void as the formerly-edgeless plain was obliterated. Nothing but silver marble filled her view, and yet, she smirked at the development.
"Do you not possess a level of dark magic on par with my own?"
"It sounds like you could very-well answer your own question!"
"Then would it not serve you to wield it? As it stands, you have no chance of besting me. Is it pride, then? I have no reason to speak of anything that happens inside this domain."
Her smile dropped. "Pride isn't something so simple as approval from peons, you big dolt! I'm just… proving something to myself. That I don't need a cursed art to fight my battles, even when faced with overwhelming adversity."
"... Ah. And I… stand to exemplify the consequence of such an art, for you?"
"N-no! That's not what I'm saying at all!"
"Oh?"
"You… had no choice in the matter."
"... How would you know?"
"I-J-THAT'S A STUPID QUESTION!" she squeaked before regaining her composure. "I was simply curious. And… it's not fair at all, how one should be condemned for simply being born." She clutched the egg-gem on her necklace. "Maybe I… could perhaps empathize, to an extent." The star sorceress clenched it. "That's why…"
She formed an acute angle with raised, crossed arms as green flames curled around her, and her eyes shut.
[ BGM: Hideyuki Fukasawa – Re:Unlimited Blade Works (0:00-4:08) ]
Embers Dot The Night Like Stars.
Winds Scorch The Barren Earth And Sun Alike.
Born Anew in its Shadow, The Dragon Howls.
"If you wear this, then I swear to you, no one will ever do you harm again."
"What about YOU, Da-"
The man kissed her on the forehead, before sending her away. "Now run. Our mantle now falls on you, Head of the Seraumics."
Before she could object, a wall of flames blocked her off, and a terrifying bellow sent Selaine's eyes in a hectic frenzy.
"And Reforges A New World Alight!"
Selaine's eyes flared a draconic emerald amidst her covered mouth.
"I SUMMON YOU, GERTHÜRIN BRASTURROSST!"
The dimension caught fire.
A vivid, verdant beast soared through the domain in a form like smoke, flowing through the mass of falling debris as each mile formed a new wing. Four concluded its dash as it finished, soaring above Selaine as the apocalyptic winds of its wings humbled nuclear fission in heat.
"Hmph. How incomprehensible, this world of man… but I won't linger on it, never again. I shall simply fulfill my lot in life and offer challenge." Konus spread his arms and raised both magic and ki to their absolute threshold, dimming the dimension in spite of the mountain range-worth of blazing wyvern before him.
"Decrepit Effigy:"
A black mist spread for leagues behind him, and from within unnaturally inched a giant, screeching serpent, descending upon the rival dragon head-first before coiling across what seemed like the entire flashing quasi-world.
"Moon-Biting Dragon Demon!"
Thousands of indirect clashes lit the plane in color as the star sorceress and demonic sorcerer faced each other.
"Consider this…!" Konus cast his attack. "Your final trial!"
Selaine sailed atop her familiar's head and sent it forth, letting her action speak for her as the draconic titan let loose a world-shaking war cry.
The two spirit titans clashed, unrelenting solar flame and winds in conflict with unwavering life force and soul-shredding, space-shifting quintessence.
"GHH.. TIH… DRR—H!"
"Hh… HM!"
Otherworldly screeching began to overpower the soldered giant's call, the familiar's outer core ripping apart in the face of the extension.
"Nh… NO!" Selaine's eyes quite literally burned, as greater corona replaced the outer layer.
"You're very capable of drawing forth the laws of the Demon World, yet you stay steadfast to your resolve. Commendable. Even still…" Konus raised his palm, and the serpent suddenly grew three faces, growing even larger. "Not even at this spectacular level, can you best me."
"I… DON'T NEED… TO SULLY MYSELF… AND NEITHER DO YOU!"
"What?"
Gerthurin held itself together in the face of the evolved spirit demon, as Selaine's nose started streaming blood. "YOU'RE PERFECTLY CAPABLE AS A SORCERER, AS A FIGHTER! CHOOSING THAT STUPID SAD PATH, AS TALENTED AS YOU ARE!? IT'S A WASTE!"
Her familiar, despite its boost in resolve, had its flames slowly devoured.
"IF YOU'RE STEADY ON THIS ROAD, YOU'LL JUST WITHER AWAY!"
"Just as you are yours, I am content with my fate."
"I DON'T CARE, I'M NOT!" Selaine screamed, beet-red. "TAKE SOME CONTROL OF YOUR REALITY, YOU CLOD! WHAT ELSE IS YOUR MAGIC FOR, IF NOT THAT!? YET YOU'RE JUST RESIGNING YOURSELF TO THAT ROLE, SIMPLY DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND YOU, WHEN YOU'RE CAPABLE OF SO MUCH MORE…"
Her own recent defeat came to mind. As did her father's death, and her own.
"IT'S… NOTHING LESS… THAN IDIOTIC!"
A glowing arm suddenly wrapped around and gripped her shoulder.
"Nh-h?"
"HAAAAA—!" roared Dina, a Super Saiyan.
She infused her ki with Selaine's familiar, enough to send it spiraling through the dragon demon and…
"...hehe, whoopsi-"
Causing nothing short of a supernova.
Blinding and deafening, positive and negative forces threatened to rend the plane entirely; it looked like a green and purple disco ball to the outside world.
The event drew to a slow close, rock still floating about the reality-divergent world like an asteroid belt.
And slowly drifting down within a stuttering barrier…
"PISS!"
Landed the two girls face-first.
Dina picked herself up, gazing at the ethereal scenery. "... wicked."
She then looked at her hands, which still glowed. For once, she had no ᵒᵛᵉʳᵖᵒʷᵉʳᶦⁿᵍ urge to tear something's limbs off as a Super Saiyan. "... wicked-ER!"
"You…!"
The half-breed turned to meet a punch to the face.
"I don't… care how, this is… my fight you… dull…" the magus huffed, dealing devastating blows to Dina's prior understanding of her.
"... schtoppit." She suddenly stopped one, holding it in place. "Look, I get it."
Selaine's face slowly crinkled. "He's going to…"
"Nah. Won't let 'im." She let go. "That'd just be pointlessly sad, and also, I need a certain something that he's got. Honestly, it's more've a shocker that we share such hopeless tastes in men."
The sorceress cocked a brow. "... I beg your…"
Dina smiled. "I'm already taken, mate. It's tutoring, is all."
[ BGM: Hiroaki Tsutsumi ft. Chica – Your Battle is My Battle (0:53) ]
A ground-shaking thud drew her attention, as a smoldering, shape-reforming silhouette faced her.
"On that note,"
The saiyan and the namekian clashed.
"...!? You are…!"
"Oh, cool, I'm recognizable now!" All four of his spare arms assailed her with fists, palms, and sharp strikes, one-by-one as he read her movements only to be evaded swiftly. Dina leapt back with a "Whoo!" before noting another fist; this one in tandem with a malevolent, unnatural ki.
"Decrepit Effigy:"
"(And now…!)"
"Sea-Scattering-"
Dina reciprocated with a flash of gold lightning meshed into a fist, countering the hard-style palm, yet sending her staggering away.
"Ah…" Konus muttered in curiosity before preparing a duplicate palm overhead.
"Right?" Dina mused, electrifying her movement and spinning herself into a roundhouse kick, knocking the attack, and herself, away once more. "Y'know I just sorta woke up today an' all'a sudden I was-" Dina threw herself back onto her feet and rocketed up to him with a knee, hitting crossed forearms. "WAY stronger! Bit worse is the excess magic I've got flutterin' about now, know anything about that?"
Crossed palms jut toward her, leading Dina to pounce over, only to be grabbed by two other sets of arms, both remaining fists hurdling into her.
"KUH…!"
"This is… odd."
"... RIGHT?" Dina skid across the ground on one foot, loading up an orb. "So what I'm sayin' is-" She then lobbed a mountain's worth of ki at him, and as he prepared to counter,
"TORYAA!" Dina ran the orb down, kicking it with everything she had toward him and causing a massive early detonation.
"Such an unrefined power…!" Konus chastised, lowering his forearms as arcs of golden lightning shot throughout the surroundings like a pylon forest.
"If, I, go, BER, SERK, E, NOUGH…!"
He noticed Dina somersaulting toward him from above, and shot forth his ha-
"KUAAARK! STORM!"
It were as if a Raijin had set its anger upon Konus.
"HMMMM…!"
"AGAINST A TOUGH BLOKE LIKE YOU…! THEN I SHOULD GET A GRIP ON THIS STUFF'S UPPER LIMIT AND SCALE FROM THERE, YEAH!?"
With a chaotic flash, the storm ended, and Dina landed onto the ground ninja-style. "Hah… hah… sorta-like that."
"This manner of ki and quintessence…"
The smoke around Konus began to settle, and his guard lowered.
"It's… less than juvenile…"
"Hah? Is that some ego I'm sensin', Mr. Enlightened Monk Man?"
"ɪs ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ɴᴏᴛ ᴀ sʜʀᴇᴅ ᴏғ ʀᴇsᴘᴇᴄᴛ ɪɴ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʙᴏᴅʏ, sᴘᴀᴜʀᴋ!?"
Dina folded her arms and threw a palm to the sky. "MmmI don't believe you, you're just jealous I'm stronger! 'Sides, I was aimin' for Selaine the whole time anyway, who KNOWS what'll happen once I make YOU my target?"
"ᴅɪɴᴀ, ʜᴏᴡ ᴅᴀʀᴇ!"
She bent closer, fists locked on hips with a toothy grin. "If you're so sure I'm goin' about it all wrong, then why don'cha TELL ME what I'm doin' wrong!"
Konus's mystic aura spread across the plane once more, only amped several fold.
Dina uprighted herself. "heh?"
"Very well." He took a stance, charging his aura to a level of peak refinement, outer and inner power forming one cohesive form.
"O-Oy, Selaine! You can still guard yourself, right?"
She was shaking a cocktail shaker for some stupid reason.
"A-ARE YOU MAKING A BLOODY DRINK RIGHT NOW YOU-"
"FIRST!"
"Nh-!"
A solid elbow shattered her guard before she could fully place it, smacking her arms into herself.
"There's no focus in your fists!" Konus followed up with a chambered phalanx fist that Dina kicked skyward as it fired, moving into a backflip as Konus spun a kick into her side as she rose back up. "You flail power as if it were a toy, without the conviction to truly wield it!" He waved his arms into a turbulent spirit-imbued sphere, sending it careening toward her. "Decrepit Effigy: Final Dawn Preluding Collapse!" Dina caught her footing just in time to contest the orb. "Without a clear mind and focused spirit atop a honed body, refinement is lost to you!"
"AND JUST HOW… THE SHIT… 'M I SUPPOSED TO FIX… THAT!?" Dina supercharged her fist with a sudden arc of golden lightning, shooting through the orb and halving it, as Konus immediately leapt above her.
"To speak of one's truth, in a manner that etches their will into their very soul, harmonizes their being completely!"
"I DON'T EVEN WANT TO TRY BREAKING THAT DOWN!"
Ancient Namekian tongue streamed from Konus's mouth.
"Aw for- I HAD ENOUGH'A THIS SHIT BACK IN YARG, YOU'RE NOT SMART FOR INSULTING ME IN LANGUAGES I DON'T GET!"
"DECREPIT EFFIGY:"
Dina beheld the ceiling of the dimension itself becoming her enemy.
"Oh."
"FALLING LIGHT OF VACANT HEAVEN!"
"BLIMEY WHAT A NAME-"
A black-purple pooling of chaotic magic, mirroring a portal to the Demon Realm itself with how it turned space into pure magic, super-condensed and fused with ki, careening toward the ground at lightspeed. Right beneath the contained aether maelstrom,
"OAAAAA—!"
Dina.
[ BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano – devigod (3:27) ]
"Observe! How seamless the outer and innate streams align as one harmonious force! To carry on, complacent with your usage of the two as a crude tug-of-war, would be the height of folly!"
"Grgh… HEH! It's almost cute how passionate you're gettin' about the stuff!"
"Of course!" Konus's hand was eaten by a dark flare, and with an exaggerated gesture, thrusted it toward the top of the energy pillar. "The sole constant, the only truth I've ever been privy to, has been the power which has accompanied me in the stay of fulfillment and bonds!"
Dina's knees buckled under the increasing force, her own blast starting to waver. "S-strong…!"
"I will not permit my companion to be undermined with half-hearted claims of mastery!"
"... Oy, oy! If you're gonna get that uppity over it, how 'bout you tell me just how to get a grip on 'that power' myself!?"
"...?"
Dina slowly rose up, as golden arcs surged through her own blast in intervals. "You seem like more and more of a reputable bloke the longer you talk! Say, how about it? Wanna give it a shot!?"
"... it begins at the soul."
"H-HEY! WHY NOT CALL OFF THE SHITE BLAST WHILE YOU'RE- ACK!"
Konus began to further reflect. "The inner spirit is strengthened with a convicted proclamation, in tandem with a sturdy, refined constitution. The outer world is shifted by a dream of a different order, collaborated with a perfected mind and spirit, and aided by distortion with odd sounds elicited by tongues. Inner and outer power can strengthen and alter each other, once projected. But to create a true fusion of the two…"
"ARE YOU TELLING ME TO WRITE FUCKING POETRY OR WHATEVER RIGHT NOW!?"
"THAT'S IT!"
"EH!?"
Dina turned to Selaine, who had a barrier outstretched with a bit of sparkly stuff still on the side of her lip. "J-JUST FOCUS RIGHT NOW! REALLY FOCUS ON WHAT YOU, DINA SPAURK, EMBODY!"
"REALLY!? POETRY!? NOW!?"
" 'OH HEAVEN FORBID THAT I, ALL-POWERFUL AND FLAWLESS DINA SPAURK, MENTALLY APPLY MYSELF! WHAT'S THAT!? I'VE LOST ALL CONTROL OF MY OWN POWER!? WHAT AN UNFORSEEN CONUNDRUM! IF ONLY I HAD A WAY OF REMEDYING THIS EARLIER ON!' THAT'S YOU!"
"AH… KRRK… JS-FINE!"
Just as the red-eyed girl's attack was overpowered,
"WALDERSCHARZ-CHTORTE!"
The blue-eyed girl's helix of flame accompanied it.
"Why…"
"HOW DARE YOU ALREADY FORGET!? I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW, WHAT LITTLE SHE KNOWS ABOUT MAGIC CAME FROM A SINGLE SHORT SEMINAR WITH YOURS, TRULY! BESIDES, WE NEVER SETTLED OUR OWN QUARREL, AND I'LL BE DAMNED IF I ALLOW YOU TO THROW ME AWAY FOR THE NEXT HUSSY THAT WALKS YOUR PATH!"
"Huss… ssy?"
"Ya-wot?" Dina peeked.
"Shut it and focus, you!" Selaine glared back over to her worthy foe. "I CAN SEE IT NOW…! EVEN THE NAME 'VACANT HEAVEN' IS INDICATIVE…! THAT ATTACK HADN'T A TRACE OF DARK MAGIC! YOU'D BE A TALENTED WIELDER OF SPACIAL SPELLS WITHOUT THAT DREADFUL CRUTCH OF YOURS!"
[ BGM: Hideyuki Fukasawa – Rin:My Wish ]
She was immediately sent on one knee, her charm ineffective against an attack unfocused on bringing her harm.
"I… do not understand. Why do you-"
"Stop trying so hard to get it, you big dork!" she yelled, hiding her reddening, agonized face. "You won't make me say it… so easily!" Selaine suddenly hacked blood under the pressure, as if being crushed by a bus beneath the massive pressure of the blast alone, her meager level of ki insufficient to counteract it. "Honestly, has no one… has no one ever done ANYTHING for you, you mong!?"
The dragon magus attempted to stand again, but failed, refocusing her stamina toward maintaining her barrier and spell. "It's… fantastic, what you've… done with that power but, still…!"
Her barrier began chipping. But a faint, white flame began to burn along its perimeter, holding it together like a melty glue. "I WON'T let it rule you and your course, I WON'T let it sputter out in some hideous demonic mess, and I WON'T allow you to die somewhere alone and pretend you're fine with it! I won't… I CAN'T ABIDE IT!"
A pale, spiritual light stoked the flames of her spell, and the focused tornado burned against the rival attack.
And then it was shoved back.
"HM!?"
"GH-H!?"
A flash, brief enough by a nanosecond to not be blinding, coursed through the beam.
And the shattering roar of thunder followed, sending it scattering into a countless fleeting mass of charges.
"Hhuuu—..."
—Just being around her sent hairs standing on end.
"... heh. You're really trying… to take him from me, huh?"
[ BGM: Takafumi Wada – Lang Wu Yao (3:13) ]
Her aura stuttered back and forth, a distorted, glitching haze, arcs gliding across each border in random intervals.
"Holdin's a drag. Focusin'."
Teal-eyes wide, she locked on, and everything around her flashed white and black.
Color returned with a booming crackle, and Dina's fist smashed into Konus's face, all at the same time.
"HIUH-!"
— the energy within his aura had turned into a lightning strike. The sensation startled even he who'd become so disenchanted with life itself.
"This is…!"
Dina scowled blankly, less in anger and more as if trying to understand an obscured text. "Taught it, mate. Yours."
Konus wound back his multiple fists, each swirling with his mystic ki. "In that case…" He sent a crescent of tearing power her way, yet as if time had stopped, she immediately reciprocated with her own arc; a concussive blast followed, strong enough to send them both spiraling backwards.
"With so little time, you've managed to comprehend such a technique," he said, mid-spin before zooming back at the plucky half-breed. "It's nothing short of impressive."
Dina dueled the dark sorcerer in a martial bout, neither managing a hit on each other. "Not mad?" she asked, blocking a sudden kick from below, sending soul-shredding and cloud-breaking torrents in opposite directions. "How come?"
"This battle, and all battles henceforth," he maintained, enveloping himself in a dark whirlwind as he spun himself back to his feet, charging for her with two left arms and setting one foot's ball to the sky as he pivoted inward, "are merely trials for others to conquer and fall to, as fate wills it! As is my purpose!" His sword-hands careened toward the still-moving Dina, only for her to leap over and-
CRA-KOOM!
Send another two bolts into his chin, one using his own power as a means.
"That's dumb. Why 'purpose'?"
Two higher arms grabbed her by the legs, hoisting her upward, grabbing her wrists with the lower set. "How could it not be clear to you?" He set back both middle palms. "Decrepit Effigy:"
Dina's wrists rotated, fingers clawing into Konus's arms and rocking them with enough ki-empowered mystic volts to send them up in smoke. Undeterred, he sent his attack ahead.
"SHATTERED… ORIGIN!"
"Kuark Cymbal!"
His own art was canceled out yet again, sending Dina overhead with a bloody nose and more momentum to do with. That said, she buckled her knees, raising two hammerfists above Konus's extra shoulders, and
"KUAAARK!"
The sky rumbled and supercharged.
"STORM!"
She brought them down, as if she'd torn lightning from the sky itself. Konus's extra arms went flying, as Dina fell, narrowly avoiding a back kick. She continued her narrow retreat as Konus summoned two dark orbs that tore at the empty space around them, he himself sparing no quarter.
"You'd have me stumble lost through this life without something as vital as a REASON to do so!?" he hissed. I may as well journey through the WORST of deserts without so much as a SINGLE FLASK of water!"
"NOT THAT SERIOUS ISSIT!? MORE FUN WITH NO ANSWER YEAH!?"
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Konus stomped, knocking Dina off her footing before thrusting into her with an open palm and sending her tumbling away. "OF ALL THE INCONCEIVABLE NONSENSE YOU COULD'VE SPOKEN…"
His battle with the boy who sought his own path, how brightly he shined, burned in memory. He channeled it into a blast, one that sent all things around him shrouded in an unholy night. His wicked breed of mystic ki crawled up and down his path toward Dina, as if the trajectory had been set in stone the moment he set his sight upon the target; the distance left and right of the girl began stretching for what seemed like eternity.
"No choice?" Dina grinned manically, reeling her fist back with a swirling measure of both new faucets.
[ BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano – B∀TTL∃field$(2:02) ]
"Fine, then. 'd love to try!"
Try As One May, Some Fossils Never See Finish.
Bones Break and Brushes Snap, Under Endless Derision.
But Should That Dauber Not Mope, Seek Joy and Pain With Each Stroke,
And Smile, Without Fail, Their Love of The Endless Search Shan't Diminish!
"HALF IN HALF: DOUBLE MEGA HEAVENLY DESTROYER LIGHTNING GOD CRUSHING-"
{ DECREPIT EFFIGY: SCRYING RIVER OF THE DISGRACED DEVA! }
"Screw it,"
{ JAKKAAA—! BALL! }
Dina punched a lightning storm at Konus.
It took the shape of a colossal, jumpy blue sphere, clashing with Konus's otherwise sure-hit art. Countless smaller explosions blasted on and off the collision like a nuclear reaction gone awry, in a constant sequence of glass-shattering bangs; Selaine clasped her ears for dear life throughout the endeavor.
"(GOD, I'VE WANTED TO BRING THIS ONE BACK!)" Dina pulled back her fist. "CHANGE JAKKAAA—...!"
From the core of the massive orb, energy began to condense and gather, fattening the attack.
She thrusted her hand back out, in a tri-fingered claw.
"BEEEE—AM!"
And as if popping a balloon of pure energy, a bolt-shaped blast of raw ki burst toward Konus with the paralyzing speed, power and roar of a tiger's pouncing, gradually overpowering his own attack with the sheer force of its release.
The dark cultivator stared into the oncoming light with a look of bewilderment. For the attack in its current state had not a shred of magic.
— and that emotion.
"... what?"
Excitement. One he'd never felt before.
That transmission had lingered on, even after her magic had ended.
"How… strange…."
Shrouded in clouds of smoke, the devil-namek could somehow still stand after everything, his speech not even close to hampered.
"Yet in spite of everything, it would seem my 'reason' has won oᵤₜ
Konus fell to the ground, covered in burns. His mind was unfazed by all but the challenges to his beliefs, but his body was a different story altogether.
"Myavi, you sure took your sweet time in there."
Wabi stared down at Konus.
"..."
"No. I don't wanna fight. In fact, I… honestly, can't." He knelt down and got to work. "I'm too weak."
"... is that so?"
The dragon sorceress had also passed out, resulting in their landing back in Conton.
"HOW, SPAURK!? WELL!? OUT WITH IT BEFORE I THROW YOU IN THERE AGAIN!"
"IGOTDITCHEDMIDDATEBYMYPRICKOFAKINDAMAYBESORTAGODIHOPEBOYFRIENDCUSHISMATEGOTPISSYATMEJUSTCUSSASTUFFICANTCONTROLBUTICANCONTROLITBUTIHADTOKEEPMYWORDLIKEAPROPERWOMANOFHONORASONEDOESBUTALLIDIDWASSCREWUPEVERYTHINGSOIJUSTSTOODTHEREHATINGEVERYTHINGESPECIALLYMYSELFWHICHISWRONGBUTIJUSTCOULDNTHELPITYEAHIMEANSHITIMFLAWEDBUTSOSEVERYONEBUTTHENMYSTUPIDSHITLADGOTINTOATUSSLEANDITHOUGHTSERVESYOURIGHTYASHITHEADBUTTHENHEGOTHISSHITPUSHEDINANIWASALLCONFLICTEDANALLTHATBUTTHENYOUCAMEANSTARTEDONTHATODDMAGICCRAPSOICOULDNTLETTHEBLOKEGETSUCKEDINTOTHATBUTTHENIWOUNDUPINBUMFUCKNOWHEREANDTHEREWASGREYANDSTUFFANDTHENEVERYTHINGGOTLOUDANDBROKENAND-"
"OH JUST SHUT IT YOU DORK!"
At least she was passed out before Wabi intervened.
[ BGM: valou on bass – "Mad Dog Unleashed" Cover ]
"So you're the product of forbidden fusion, huh? That must've been awful."
"... I would not know."
"... I'm kind of the opposite, I guess. Some guy got sick of his 'good' nature holding him back, and split himself."
"... ah."
"... yep. Once the evil half grew stronger, he tried merging with me again, after he found out I'd survived his first shot at killing me. He figured destroying my conscience would leave him with just the power. I figure most of our wisdom got lost after we separated. Anyway, I just wasn't… capable of getting any stronger, so… I destroyed myself. From the inside-out."
He finished up. "I guess what I'm getting at is… I feel like I could've just as easily wound up like you, had he won. So strong that just-about anything would be possible for me, but… I dunno. Please stop starting random fights, by the way. Those reiffaes were so beneath you, it's comical."
Konus studied the warm content expression on Wabi's face.
"Might I ask something of you?"
"Mh?"
"Can one… truly live… without reason?"
Confusion crossed the teal namekian's face, before he smiled again. "Everyone's different, man. But I've started thinking like this: if there really was some concrete meaning to live… then life would be a race. A competition, something to win. And maybe it's because I'm weak, but… I can't see living like that. It'd just be tiring."
Konus stood up. "This path... more than ever now, it lacks a destination."
There was a small tug at the cloth around his arm.
"Suppose I could… maybe… perhaps…" Selaine muttered, audibly upset with her timidness, "Grant you company, down that path."
"... mh. I see no point in objection."
"R-RIGHTFULLY SO! But of course, who in their right mind would object to MY company! As always, you're a man of exemplary character! You'll make a fine wife, indeed!"
Wabi stared.
"But.. but I thought-"
"Hmph! Of course you're confused! After all, namekians can bear children, can they not? That would naturally make I, the head of the household, the husband!"
Wabi stared.
"Come now, my betrothed! You have a covert order to watch me dismantle and rebuild! Of course, you'll be doing none of the fighting, but that goes without say!"
The incomplete and void namekians respectively paid each other a parting glance.
"Oh yeah, forgot to mention. Earthlings are psychopaths. Good luck."
Konus smiled. "To you, as well."
Wabi smiled, seeing him off as he stepped into the light, Selaine beckoned him forward.
"HEY, KONUS, YOU FUCK!"
Kazikum just-so happened to walk out at the same time, having ran back into the library after being healed.
"..."
"..."
"... Heh! Good fight, dipshit," he smirked as he kept walking.
"OH WHAT WAS THAT, YOU TWIT!? I HAVE HALF THE MIND TO SMITE YOU ACROSS THE STAIRS WHERE YOU STAND! DON'T ENGAGE THAT BARBARIC MORON, BELOVED, HE'S BENEATH OUR HEEL!"
"Mh." He turned. "Can it be understood…?"
Dina giggled. "She got myaad!"
Saiyans are not intrinsically mystic. Humans, only a select few, and only via inherence from those who gave their all toward harnessing the arcane. Saiyans, however, grow exponentially once any aspect of mind, body, or spirit is pushed to its brink. For those with an understanding or inherited control, this applies to magic as well!
... still, this growth is not without a need for rest.
Kazikum approached her. "Here," he said as he held out three books.
"... awww I can' eat dis but thank…" she stumbled into the three books, taking them into her chest before going face-first into Kaz's.
"heeheehee, puff-puff~"
Kazikum stared.
"... hrm..."
The demidevil pulled her into an embrace.
"... thanks, dumbass. I had fun today." He pressed his lips on her forehead.
A bundle of sparks fizzed above her head and didn't stop. "Uh.. uh-huh…"
She'd gone completely blank. He pulled her back and waved his hand in front of her face for a response, only to get nothing. "Huh." He turned to Wabi.
"Is there anything you can do?"
Wabi shrugged. "It's rest, from here." He noted the extra book in Kaz's hand before he fully piggyback'd Dina. "Hey, what's that in your hand?"
The semisaiyan reminded himself of its existence, as if recalling a bad joke. "Get this. This book right here is the reason for all of the stupid shit that transpired."
"Five Stars of the Golden Wheel? That's a pretty good read actually, it has a ton of-"
Kazikum opened the back of the book, revealing an unfinished sentence and pages worth of empty space.
"This shit doesn't even have an ending!" The half-spawn broke into fits of laughter. "He was fighting over fucking toilet paper!"
"... yeah, and also it's unfinished." Wabi sighed, unwilling to discuss the profound, historian and philosophy community-approved reason as to why it had no ending. "Alright, I'm tired."
"Yeah, go bury yourself and doze off."
"... do... do you really think that's how I-"
Kazikum chuckled. He tried to mutter a "Fuckin' bought it..." beneath his breath, but severely underestimated Namekian hearing.
"GH! Have fun babysitting...!" Wabi stomped off. Kazikum watched him leave with a smile and, as if he felt it on his shoulder, the junior patroller turned back. Kaz jolted his head to the side, just in time.
"Honestly," Wabi grumbled warmly. Both went their separate ways.
"(... so does that settle it?)"
He blindly gazed at the sky for a moment.
"(I'm not in this just to kill that fucking old man now, huh?)"
His blank frown crept into a small smile.
"(Sure. Not just.)"
He stepped on a blank page as he steadied on his path.
Five Stars Of The Golden Wheel.
It was never finished.
The author simply never found a definite answer. He became too preoccupied with an ancient board game called Dragon Quest.
That was all there was to it.
[ ED: Bop Alloy – Step Into The Cypher ]
Yo! OP Here!
Yeah I won't even front, Konus ran a whole-ass Boss Rush through Dina's tournament bracket. If he won, then yes, he would've had to fight Kora. Or Dina again. IDK.
So fun story, I was working on Zinco's side thing before this, then I started asking myself if this one would fit better first. So ultimately, I decided to hold off on his chapter and do Dina's first. And then I started asking myself about when these damn things were taking place.
That was a FUCKING rabbit hole, I'll say that. Anyway, I worked out this structure: Kora's chapter is the closest to the QF's end and carries on to the next STAAAAAAA~GE- i mean to the next day. Dina's chapter takes place all in one day, that being the day after the QFs. Zinco's trick-ass chapter opens during Dina VS Kazikum, then covers something that happened during Zinco VS Kaza, THEN right after the QFs, AND THEEEEEN the next day. Neoru's chapter happens on the ass-end of the next day, then carries on to the second day and FINALLY, FINALLY resyncs with the chapter that Kaset and Ayeva got wasted and Kidz Bop'd to Linkin Park on.
You will never read anything REMOTELY like this again.
So yeah. Pointlessly-convoluted shit. You signed up for this shit by liking Dragon Ball.
Anyway anyway, did you know that Japan exists in DB? Kinda? Yeah, there's this island, Gengoro, that appears in the Red Ribbon arc of Dragon Ball. It's where Penguin Village is, and Penguin Village is in Japan, but that fucks with DB's world I guess, so boom. Gengoro Island. If you ever wanna do stupid samurai shit in DB, just use Gengoro as a reference point. Don't just use it to make a stupid Book of Five Rings reference and shadow-diss Togashi like I did.
In case there's confusion btw, Konus in this chapter was a fair bit stronger than when he fought Zinco. Goes to show how stronger both are.
Here's a dirty secret: throughout this entire chapter, whenever Konus was the point of focus, I immediately imagined everyone was a puppet. This chapter's conception is owed entirely to the Thunderbolt Fantasy rewatch I did a handful of weeks ago. Still peak fiction, assuredly. And also I FINALLY INCORPORATED POEMS BABYYYYYY yeah they won't be frequent. At all. Maybe Zinco and Mei, that's it. I tried to make Konus's as close to a TBF-style Niàn Bái as possible because those are fantastic, but Dina's is a damn-near limerick and unapologetically so. Selaine doesn't have on, it's just a Fate prayer like Mei has. Because I REALLY like the idea of a western wizard squaring up against an eastern cultivator, and I got the chance to do that here.
On this; the pairing in this chapter was my way of indirectly giving Xie Yingluo happiness. She deserved what she got because she killed innocents w/o remorse beforehand, except she didn't cus she was adamant on changing her ways, idk it's weird moral shit. That's why I like Shang Bu Huan so much; he has his own morality system and it's got not a lick of self-righteousness behind it. Lets him be a death-dealer one moment and a softie the next. But yeah. If it weren't for that stupid sword, Di Kong and Yingluo would be happy. Man I hate swords.
Onto some IRL goodies. I recently went out to see a film about a man who organizes a team of intelligent like-minded individuals to create something capable of both stopping and causing mass-scale tragedies from occurring, and commits various morally-reprehensible actions in the process, all while his good nature slowly corrodes as he perseveres toward that goal, and also alludes to a multi-limbed being in one way or another.
I also recently watched Oppenheimer, that movie was good too.
Nah but, both that and Across the Spiderverse were just... PEAK cinema. ABSOLUTE theater, even. KINO, if you would. Both pushed their mediums to the fuckin limit and showcased how each should be used, with exemplary talents in front of and behind the camera/computer. I'm fortunate as FUCK to've been able to see both.
Barbie also happened. Thankfully, I'm hearing good things about it. Oh that's neat, I like movies again. Who knows, maybe this streak of 9s and 10s will make the industry start trying again, who knows.
Think Miguel and Xeno Trunks could relate? How 'bout Akaki and Oppy? Barbie and Kaza?
That's about it. See ya.
