"Hold on… didn't this guy get his skull caved in?"

Archi froze.

"Well… now that you mention it…"

"Plus he TOTALLY cried his eyes out over that one weirdo from our grad class! I saw ALL of it! You can do SO much better!"

"... huh." The two girls walked away from him. "Sorry for bothering you."

Archi slowly faced his feet, teary eyed with a smile.

"... the things I do for love…"

[ OP: Magic of Life – Double ]

Follow Your Witless Heart, Archi! Don't Let Kora's Implode!

"Bummer…"

Archi watched the escape pods sail off into a nebula-dressed space, his bloody handprint marking the mothership's cracked glass. "I wanted to find the other Saiyans so bad…" He pushed off the barrier, smiling amidst his stroll past broken bodies, scrap metal, or both. "Wonder if there even are any more… eh, z'it really matter, right 'bout now?"

As sparks and arcs coursed through the tattered hull, the tailed boy fell onto his back. "I wish 'em well. Wherever they are. And you too, guys…" Parallel to the body of his mentor's killer, he showed his fanged teeth in a self-proclaimed victory, before the white heat stole his sight"NOOOOOO!"

He screeched at the last moment. "I TAKE IT BACK, I DON'T WANNA DIE YET, I WAS JUST ACTIN' COOOOOL!"

.

.

A purple-haired stranger lost a battle with a chuckle. "Good to hear…!"

Archi's eyes slowly opened.

"HEY!"

To the instructor's chagrin.

"Ah, I'M TRYIN' ALRIGHT!?" cried the young man in the russet tracksuit and yellow shoulder pads, scratching his defiant noggin as fellow disciples paid him one weary glare each. "Jeez, s'not my fault I keep seein' junk I've already seen! Ain't this stuff supposed to be pitch black or whatever!?"

"Maybe if you'd pay some attention, you'd understand the phase you've entered!" yelled back Piccolo, who stood in front of another large namekian with an unmarked gi. "It's called reflective meditation, idiot! It means you're somehow progressing. Be thankful you didn't just doze off again, or I would've thrown you off the Lookout myself!"

"Must you insist on boiling this sacred temple down to a 'lookout'?" uttered the nameless namekian behind the named namekian — though 'Piccolo' could apply to them both, in all honesty.

"(But you're half the reason it has that na-)" The latter broke into an unnatural cough. "Um, yes, the temple. Of course."

The saiyan snidely stared off. "(heh! Not so tough when Pa's looking, are ya?)"

"(Am I!?)"

Archi shrank back, bolting down his eyes so as not to incur (or witness) any more wrath from the turban-clad spiritual instructor. "(Kh…! I'm just gonna trip n' fall down Memory Lane if I let go of everything again! Dammit… but I'm never gonna get any better if I don't bite the bullet, huh? C'mon, Archi…)"

The boy's thoughts voided and, again, a distant memory ate at the black around him.

"HEY, WEAKLINGS!"

A thumb sailed through the sky, thudding into the boy's sternum like a lightning bolt atop the city's arch structure.

"Archi's the name! In case you haven't noticed, I'm a Saiyan! SA-I-YA-N, got it? If you're thick in all the wrong places, that means the strongest, baddass-est folk in the universe! And I just-so happen to be one of the roughest, toughest, baddass-est Saiyans around, so THAT means you're all my bitches for the time being! For starters, how 'bout I take every single one'a you bozos head on!?"

The residents of the plaza looked up at him like one would a loopy hobo.

Archi stared.

"HEY HEY HEY HEY! DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE ALL TOO CHICKEN TO FACE ME! COME ON, I'LL EVEN GIVE OUT FREE HITS! YOU GUYS'RE WELCOME TO GANG UP ON ME IF IT'LL MAKE YA FEEL ANY BETTER!"

"(can't he see our tails?)"

"(i don't think he can even sense ki…)"

Archi groaned. "Fine, I'll make this easier, ya sticks in mud… HOW'S ABOUT I JUMP DOWN THERE AND KICK THIS OFF MYSELF!?"

"Stop embarrassing yourself."

He cut himself short, then turned on a dime. There stood his new drug.

She was tall and beyond athletic, with jet black hair like giant claws coming down her sweat-glistened caramel skin and sharpened ebony eyes that held the domineering glare of a carnivore, in a single, awesome-looking black-and-green chassis with boots to match, the rest of her hidden behind a black one-piece suit. Her furred, bushy dark tail wrapped loosely around her sloped waist, the air around her practically screaming confidence, and that air was intoxicating like the rum he'd once tried. Unlike the latter, this had him hooked.

"(That's a… that's a SAIYAN…! And she's HOT!)"

Archi put his game face on. "And just who might you be, gorgeous?"

"I'm not giving my name to the same obnoxious, half-assed loser who grew up in the same small pond as every other moron that tries to throw a fight with the entire city."

His game crashed.

The saiyan girl caught wind and gave him no time to catch himself. "Aw, does that make you angry? Did I catch you off-guard because I don't wanna marry you on sight? Because you think you're strong?"

"Uh-I…"

She took a stance he'd never seen before and lured him with a finger. "Then go ahead. Prove you're 'different' from the rest of them. Or do you have some code against hitting girls, like the last one?"

"I-I hit girls! (WHAT!?)"

She scoffed. "Of course you do. Now try fighting one that'll hit back."

"(DAMMIT!)" the saiyan boy screamed at himself, stunned in place. "(HOW'M I GETTING OUT OF THIS…!)"

" 'F'ya see a lady who catches yer fancy, drop the shy crap! Charge head-on or charge back-on home, dammit! Balls out!"

Archi remembered who he had to be. "(SCREW IT!) HAAAA!"

He proceeded to be made a fool of. His every punch and kick was pushed and shoved aside, almost leisurely. Kora seemed to control his every movement, reading and predicting each one before it jut forth. Direct contact was avoided, and the few hits he could get in were received with hisses and grunts, but not one was allowed to him without some vicious, sword-like leg check or a fierce, cannon-esque punch to his core.

"You're stronger than most of them, I'll give you that…!" she goaded, wearing his stamina and limbs down, getting closer and closer to killing what little guard he had entirely, before a door-breaking front kick sent her with one foot onto the point of the arch's edge.

"HOW'S THAT!?" Archi charged her with a reared fist, eyes strained. " 'CUS HERE'S MORE!"

The saiyaness smirked, and let the punch land.

"... huh?"

She coughed up spittle from the blow to the abdomen. Even still, she shined a manic smile. "Amateur~," she almost purred with a malevolent intonation. "Did you think I'd take you seriously just because your power level is bigger?"

Ki seamlessly flowed through her lower body, herself pivoting and teetering Archi's balance before he could retract his fist. In the same instance, the flowing ki exploded, and a reverse roundhouse took his consciousness and sent him flying off the structure.

The memory sent him further down. Her beating the shit out of him, becoming smitten by her, his every spectacularly off-course shot at courting her, her beating the shit out of him, meeting her master, her beating the shit out of him, and every event to the point he was now.

She had painted his life, and he'd never grown…

Tired of her…

The present hit him, and his ki surged in the shape of a compressed volcanic eruption.

"Archi!"

His eyes pried open. Piccolo's folded arms greeted him.

The young man sighed, standing up. "Thanks teach but, maybe meditation isn' for me," he said on his way to the time miniature.

"On the contrary, it felt like you made an even greater stride just now. Seems you've hit a bottleneck, in fact."

Archi scratched his head. "That's one'a those metal fours I've been hearing about,

Piccolo shrugged. "Y'know what? Screw it. Let's walk." He turned to the other namekian. "Thanks for the answers and hospitality, predecessor. I'll be back soon with more questions."

He smiled. "It was my pleasure. There aren't a great many who can say they've held such thorough conversations with themselves."

The seasoned warrior stared at an antsy Archi.

"You've got that right."

Kora rolled her eyes, hearing the boy's distressed stammer. "It's not a real moon, idiot."

She turned.

Archi had his hands over his eyes, his tail in a frizzle. In response to the news, two fingers cautiously split apart.

Kora stifled a giggle. "I guess you're still new..."

The boy uncovered his face, his bruises from a prior, 'honor'-based scuffle on display. "How's that... I mean, if it's glowing, then..."

"It's magic, I'm told." Kora returned her gaze to the sky, and the lunar marvel within it. "Conton City has its own gods, and they decided to make a moon that doesn't give off blutz waves. In that respect... it's the only moon we Saiyans can look up at, without losing out minds."

Archi took it in, fully. The moon. Something Jakima had turned him away from for years, something so beautiful.

"... she would've loved something like this."

"Ms. Jakima?"

"... yeah." He held a small, faint smile the moonlight threatened to wash away.

"Archi?"

"Yeah?" He turned to her.

The moonlight illuminated her features— her chassis, her skin, her hair. Especially her eyes. "I'm starting to think there's a bit more to you."

"Uh... uh-huh..." Like staring at a goddess.

Kora looked back at the colossal crystal held in the sky. "Tomorrow... I wanna introduce you to someone. She'll make you a lot stronger than you are right now. "

"H-HUH!? YOU'D DO THAT!? F-FOR ME!?"

"And if you disrespect her in any way..." she began. Her eyes suddenly shifted, as if the moon had suddenly doused her with that horrific eighteen million. "I'll make you beg for death."

"... yes ma'am."

"Hmph." He got her to smile again; though this one was a coy, "Keep that energy if you know what's good for you" variant. "Don't make me regret this,"

Saiyan.

Archi stared into it with a curious wonder, in the knowing that it'd be the only moon he could ever gaze into without monsterfying. The woman who'd shown him for the first time also took up his thoughts.

"Tell me, why'd you seek out meditation in the first place?" Piccolo asked the young man, snapping him out of another stupor as they strolled through a gorge.

"Er… I wanted another foot through the budo-door, I guess. You're s'posed to get better at that stuff through mind and body 'attunement', right?"

"... spell attunement."

"A-T-O-"

"Never mind that." Archi gave the veteran warrior an odd glance, before steadying on. "It's just odd for your types to seek this path." He thought back to a massive bald man, and caught glimpses of an even larger, devilish figure with blank eyes. "Usually, it's just overwhelming force and hoping you can keep it up until the fight's over."

Archi pictured a figure similar to the latter. "Let's just say there are folks who fit those shoes better than I ever could. I think I've got a knack for this kinda thing, martial arts I mean."

"Well you have something special, that's for sure. Unhoned sure, but it's bursts of ingenuity that aren't easy to counter in the least. So is that all there is to it? Unleashing your full potential?"

Archi noticed Piccolo's snide look. He checked his surroundings as subtly as an idiot could, then gave in.

"There's a girl."

"There it is."

"LET ME FINISH, JEEZ!" Archi pled desperately, the Namek sage internally praising his own intuition.

"Well?"

"... she was the second saiyan I'd ever met, and the first since I wound up here. She's the source behind everything I know about the saiyans, about our history and what we can do, our legends… she was fantastic."

Piccolo stopped by a stream for a drink. "You talk like she's dead."

"... well I feel like she's killing herself."

Piccolo paused. "Hm?"

Metallic-blue hands twitched along the floor, amidst the noise of bony, artificial flesh being battered and smashed.

A similarly-shaded body cracked and bent across the wall, landing across from several more broken, sparking bodies.

Another was lanced front-to-back by a fist, its violet, vest-like armor shattered into pieces. Its friend's head was obliterated by the ki bolt that followed, and its ally was met with its predecessor being kicked into it, full force.

The assailant dashed toward it like a bat out of hell, a jumping roundhouse kick sending one's remains through the other. Through both, Kora landed on the opposite side. Her black compression suit held deep-red blotches, mirroring the skin beneath it. She took in air in pained gulps as if it were jagged ice, but her lungs needed something.

"Why do they all look the same!?" she croaked, the downed machine mutant variants appearing as bizarre off-model figure renditions of two semi-finalists and one quarter-finalist.

"Artist's block," Akaki replied behind his desk and eight different cans of energy drinks. "(If you're gonna force me to watch this needless brutality all day, I'll at least use it to blow off some steam.)"

Kora rolled her eyes and refocused. "Just turn on the storm."

He shrugged. As trace plasma coursed around the room, she shut her eyes.

Again, she saw her master, in all her splendor, ignite the space around her with every stage of transcendence.

"AUGH…!"

The first struck her, an ever-increasing voltage every time.

It felt like ages before the other thousand bolts finally hit, and from there, it was relentless.

She honed in on the feeling of seeing those states of saiyan power. The states that were forever outside her reach.

So she'd have to work harder. To showcase a state of saiyan evolution without need for transformations, relying solely on adaptation.

"D…AMMIT…!"

But it hurt.

Dear gods, it hurt.

If she could just go Super Saiyan, if her body wasn't so shit, if her mind wasn't so weird, she wouldn't need to go through with it.

"G-GR… RAVITY!"

But it wasn't. So she had to.

"What?" Akaki asked in annoyed disbelief. "You're not even used to the currents yet, you're only now wrapping up four hours of fighting, and you're demanding more?"

"GRAVITY!" Kora insisted with a dying animal's intensity. "DO IT!"

Innate Tsufruian curiosity managed to curl his stern lip. "... if you insist."

There was a lag in input. And then her heart sank.

Her fingers scraped across the ground in red streaks as tears formed.

In that agonizing instant, as she beheld her own skeleton flashing through her skin, the saiyaness focused solely on the progress of her rival, how bad her own aether-laden storms as a Super Saiyan would become. How hard she'd attack, how long she'd sustain her attacks, how"AAA—GH!"

Dear Gods, It Hurt.

" 'URN IT AUFF! 'LEASE!"

She prayed to everything to forgive her ego and ensure she'd been heard, so that the pain would end.

With a sigh, and a few more seconds than were safe for life, the room shed its blue tint, becoming a reflective, black-steeled grid void.

Sprawled face-down across the floor in a shivering, smoldering mess that convulsed with every strained breath into her squeezed lungs and splintered ribcage, Kora stared into herself.

Archi stared into himself. "It started slow. But now it's like she's been taken over by what she saw out there. She's takin' this damn tournament so seriously, she's stopped doin' anything that isn' training or sleeping. She wasn't like this before seeing Captain fight Ms. Ayeva. It started slow, small. But now it's like she's been taken over by what she saw out there. I'm guessin' Captain showed off somethin' awesome out there, and it made Kora feel… I dunno, small."

She thought back to how Dina had managed to kill herself, force herself back to life, and kill herself again, over and over, under conditions not much different – Kora perceived – from her own. Just thinking about such a thing filled her with adrenaline for all of a nanosecond, before the pain surged again.

The girl could do that, and go Super Saiyan. If this was the kind of training she'd have to undergo just to keep up, then…

"... gh…"

Then she couldn't compete. She'd crumbled for the first time, and she couldn't stand it.

Her fist slowly curled, and she began to hate.

Akaki fell back into his chair amidst her suppressed sobs, pushing up his visor as his hand scaled his face. "(It is my nature, sure...)"

He wouldn't finish the thought, his white pupils burrowing through the wall opposite to the experiment.

"And I feel like that scrawny creep she's with ain't helping." His throat narrowed amid the accusation, and it came out as a strained growl, his gaze rippling the water, scattering his reflection. He noticed, swallowing to remedy it. "I really wanna pave a path for myself, but if I leave her to this shit, I'm no man."

"Not if you leave your damsel in distress, huh?" Piccolo jested.

"Yeah." Archi heard the sarcasm and countered with brute force. "I get it. I should let her figure out things on her own, right? Well I hate the way she's figuring it out. Since you wanna go there, then I guess… she's a damsel trapped in her own castle. No, a castle that she made. Yeah, that. She's a damsel trapped in a castle she made on her own."

Archi clenched his jaw. "And to metal-four-resize some more, it's like every time she breaks out, she winds up buildin' a bigger and better damn castle 'til she makes one she can't bulldoze…!" The boy sighed wistfully, slumped shoulders and all. "And instead'a crying for help…"

He imagined himself riding up on a lion-dog steed to her castle, and instead of letting down her would-be golden locks, she opened her fanged maw and burned him to cinders.

"(Man, I love that woman…)"

"(Starting to see why there aren't many Saiyan poets…)" Piccolo shook the image from his own head. "You won't find any peace until she finds her own, huh?"

Archi's head snapped to the sage. "YEAH, THAT! Shoot, that was everything I wanted to say! How d'ya do it, Mr. Piccolo!?"

"Good ears make for good listening, what can I say." He folded his arms again. "If you're this adamant on helping her, then why don't you go for it? You seem like you've gotten strong enough to handle rejection."

"Wut's that s'posed to-ah- it's not that simple, alright? She's tough as a rock on Bampa and smart as all get-out, it's like talking to a brick wall painted with a thesaurus. And I might hurt her worse. Like, what if something REALLY personal comes out?"

"Then you'll've spoken your mind. Then again, I've seen your mind."

Archi went red. "H-HEY, THAT'S PRIVATE PROPERTY MAN!"

Piccolo ignored him. "You won't be sailing on any clouds any time soon, but you have a good heart, kid. Try it out."

"... you sure?"

He confirmed with a nod. "And if you have to start small, then do it. Maybe… I dunno, that 'scrawny creep' that has you bent out of shape."

Archi's head tilted to the ground, and he bit the corner of his lip with a frown. But the pause ended, and his eyebrows furrowed, onyx eyes singeing with a burst of intensity. "Yeah. Yeah!" His fist careened into his palm. "I'll do it! I'll save my damsel!"

"(Oolong is less hammy,)" the jade sage scoffed as the saiyan psyched himself up. "If you pull it off, come find me. I'd like to see where you go, in the way of spirit."

"Sure thing, Big Green!" Archi exclaimed, running off before Piccolo could drill through him for calling him Big Green. "I'm not letting you down, man!"

"Hmph!" Piccolo looked off. "(I'm getting far too comfortable with this 'teacher' mold.)"

He smiled, lying on the rockside of the gorge. "(I guess there's something… about watching things grow. Which part of me does that stem from, I wonder…?)"

Conton was as quiet as ever around midnight, of course. It was usually his business hour, where his bigger, more expensive gadget deals transpired. But he also liked strolling when only a select few were out and about — barring the nocturnal species, but they were few in number and usually too busy on missions and duties to pollute the plaza like others did in the day.

So in a decadent yellow, wispy blue-outlined sweater that drew attention to himself from himself, Akaki could stroll. And reflect.

"(Three days. Three days and I'm free.)" He eyed the violet swirls of aether that colored the majestic night sky, a stone dragon staring back vacantly. "(I'm losing my anonymity. Opening up too frequently, less innovative. Things are bothering me that didn't bother me before. So solution?)"

He nodded, shaking a small Poll-bot's hand. "(Well, under any other circumstance, Kora wouldn't last very long after the tournament before keeling over, but Conton's advancements guarantee a long, healthy life for just about everyone in captivity.)"

He took some dynamic shots of the plaza's holographic memorial. "(Maybe I can whip up something to erase myself from her memory. Why haven't I thought of that sooner? Great, I really AM losing my touch.)"

He flipped some zeni into the fountain. "(Would it really be that easy? Erasing one person and their impact from the mind… that sounds more like magic, and fine-tuning that without a proper test subject would be a nightmare. Not worth the time investment. And I'd have to erase my memory from everyone else she knows, or eventually there'll be suspicion. Pete's sake, I could've figured that out in a second if I weren't so desperate. Again, touch, fading…)"

He flipped the coin again in-between his fingers, mid-air before it could fall. "(Just disappearing for a while could do it, she can't track me everywhere for long. OK, there that is, but what about the nagging feeling in the back of my head? I didn't feel it before meeting her, so obviously, I'm guilty over that stupid stint that kicked this trip in the first instance.)" He groaned. "(That was so forced…)"

He reached out to flip the z-etched coin again, only for a plink in the water to announce his failure to any stragglers in the area.

He slowly massaged his tightening jaw. "... Fffffiddlesticks."

"That's a new one."

Akaki didn't bother turning around. "Yeah, well, cursing's no fun."

" 'D you rather watch a good woman torture herself?"

"Not exactly, no. In fact, I hate contractual obligations. Duplicitous, facetious patrons vex me to such superlatively-cyclopean breadths, they impel onto me pontifications of photosynthetic sorts."

"... photosynthesis is what plants do. And maybe namekians. Anyway, that didn't make any sense to use there! You can't screw with me, shorty!"

Akaki sighed. "(Had too much fun with that one.) Congrats, big words don't scare you. You're smarter than you let on."

"How about you turn and face someone when you're talking to them?"

Akaki scratched the back of his head. "No, I'm fine with being rude right now. It's a social cue indicating that I'd really like to be alone, actually."

A hand met his shoulder, the saiyan immediately closing distance. "Too bad, I've got some words for yO-"

He proceeded to flip Archi into the fountain with a fluid dive of his torso and a roll of his shoulders.

[ BGM: Unreleased Yakuza 5 OST– This Is My Story ]

"Do you? Do you really?" He pulled down his wettened hand from over his face. "Because I'm pretty sure Kora is who you'd like to speak with."

A dripping hand slammed onto the fountain's barrier, and Archi reared up.

"Oh don't look at me like that, you're the one who touched me."

"You're the one behind the strings, you little gremlin…!" Archi jumped onto and off the stone, charging the tsufruian on foot. But the fist he shot at his face stopped just short of curved fingers, of which had just… appeared, without any movement beforehand. "...!?"

"No, I'm not. I'm on a string. Like you are."

Archi threw attack after attack at him, each one stopping just short of what he knew would be another instance of the weird flip magic that he saw recordings of, due to his… predicament.

"(Dammit, there's no…!)"

"And as we speak, we're both dancing to her tune. And her, the tune of those around her. She might hate the idea, but she's just perpetuating it, same as we are."

Archi raised a fist, then feinted into a tail whip.

Akaki forced him to the ground in one motion, a weak gasp escaping him as he slammed into the pavement. "See? Even that only happened because it worked for her." Akaki scratched the back of his head. "But you're an idiot, so I could've seen through it even if I'd never entered that cursed tournament. But I did. I entered that cursed tournament." The visorhead released his assailant's tail. "And now I'm trapped."

"Whathe…" Archi clumsily reset himself. "... Hell… are you talking about!?"

"I'm saying that nothing matters, everything is a series of falling dominos, the carp eventually falls back into the stream, and honestly, I'm really not too fond of my daily life in the present or near future." Akaki scratched the back of his head as he stormed off. "And I really don't want anything to do with you, so if you don't want more unbearable truths forced down your throat, then-I SWEAR TO SCIENCE-"

Announced by a war cry, Archi charged him again, and was thrown to the side again, and charged again. It was very much like a cycle.

"I DON'T- GIVE A DAMN- WHAT YOU'RE SAYING-"

Archi's downward swing slammed into Conton sidewalk, shattering the fist above it. Regardless, he eyed a kneeling Akaki directly, readying a cross in the free hand. "I'M NOT LEAVING UNTIL YOU STOP LETTING THIS GO ON-"

Said cross, once deployed, ended with his wrist placed on the verge of collapse and his arm disconnected from the elbow down, as he slammed cheek-first into the ground with a high-pitched shriek.

"You're going to take a hike and forget this ever happened, or I am going to BREAK every bone and tendon in that big, dumb body of yours, capisce?" Akaki threw Archi's arm back and scratched the back of his head. "Big, dumb? What is…" He sighed in defeat, stomping away.

"Hey…"

Akaki turned back around. "Whaaaat? What? What is it? What more could there possibly be, you dramatic, dull doofus?"

Archi popped a few things into place with two long winces and a breezy exhale. "Say, you were really set on that 'villain' role in the tournament. What happened to all the coy stuff?"

"Of course this all happens when I'm unarmed- what, are you upset you don't get special treatment when no one's watching?"

There was a "flow" that he noted. "You've got it all wrong. I'm upset 'cause I AM gettin' special treatment. Where's the goober from before, huh?"

Akaki clawed the back of his head, then twitched. He pulled back a finger speckled with a capillary red, and his teeth grit to the point of shaking. "You know what? Fine! You win! Come on, 'Hero'! Save your damn 'love interest' or whatever the hell happens in that young adult novel crap!"

"Hell yeah, that's more like it!" Archi dashed toward a static Akaki, throwing himself into a monsoon of killing intent. The saiyan threw a caught fist, and then-

"HhhoO—..."

"!?"

-waved it. And pulled it. And swerved and turned and pushed and weaved it. All in one fluid, steady, unending sway of motion, forcing Akaki into it.

Very soon, the flow of ki had been tossed into a neutral state. Both shifted into an out-of-the-blue back and forth dance, locked into a wordless focus as their auras became visible as fluctuating strands — Archi's mirrored Akaki's at every turn, even pivots that tried rassling the current his way were mirrored. Gradually, the stream had entangled into a lake, and then a pond, the auras growing smaller with every push and pull until they appeared not to be moving at all, both canceling out their every minor twitch and sway.

And then, once the stream had become a centered droplet,

"nrRRH-"

"kH-"

Archi charged forward with pure physical mass,

And seemed to phase right through Akaki. Archi stumbled forward, before sinking to his knees in a panting mess.

"hHHHA-" The saiyan sucked air into his emptied lungs, looking upon his hand with pleasant surprise. "... oooh… I think I get it…!"

Sweating profusely, Akaki looked at his own shaking hands with disappointment. "(... and also, I'm starting to think I'm growing a complex.)"

Archi pulled himself back onto his feet, and lowered into a stance. "So, bad guy… wanna bet if I can do it again?"

The tsufruian glared emptily. Then his face began softening, as if struck by a convenient truth.

[ BGM: Unreleased Yakuza 5 OST – Dinner of Oaths ]

His head fell. "You win."

"Wha-I mean, yeah. 'Course. Glad we could solve that." Archi dropped his stance, proudly standing before wincing over his tattered fist and the wonky arm attached to it. "So you're gonna stop, uh… how do I put it…"

"Yes, I'll no longer be an accomplice to Kora's assisted suicide and-slash-or descent into madness."

"WOOOOAH, I DON'T THINK THAT'S WHERE I WAS GOIN'."

"Well, I'm sure you're used to this by now, but I thought for you. There'll be a fee next time." Akaki folded his hands into pockets and continued his night stroll.

"... D'ah- hey!"

"No I'm not healing your arm, I acted in self-defense. That's your problem."

"OBVIOUSLY! Like, c'mon, I gotta know something."

Akaki turned, impatiently folding his arms.

"Er… so how come you folded so easy?" He took a moment to swallow his pride. "I mean it's not like it's just because you figured I'd win, right?"

"You interrupted my night."

"BeSIDES that."

The tsufruian raised a palm to the sky. "When did saiyans get so nosy…" He paused. "I wasn't in my right mind. And just now, I happened to remember… a whim. And you just happen to be the ironic excuse I needed to act on it."

"... hey…"

Akaki tensed.

"... you… you don't have a thing for Kora, do you?"

.

.

Akaki gave a wistful sigh. "You are a special, special case, Archi," he said before walking off.

"Huh? Hold on- you didn't-"

"Get a clue. You shouldn't expect to be babied by junior classmen. Set a good example for me, for once."

"HEY, HOLD IT!" Archi barked, Akaki merely waving goodbye in response. "Man I can't… STAND that douchebag!" he growled and kicked up dirt that wasn't there. However, his short fuse began to burn out as it dawned on him what he'd set himself up for in the very-near future.

"(Well… now we wait.)"

"That's a weird name."

"Your ancestors revered that name for centuries."

"Then my ancestors were pretty weird, huh?" Archi chuckled, before a book knocked him upside the head and onto his ass. "AH-"

"If you don't want to leave out the window," Kora growled, "Then show it some respect."

"I get it, gee." Archi inched over to the book she studied. "So how's it work?"

"The legends say that it's born every thousand years, giving way to a Saiyan free of any limits, born to intense, uncontrollable anger and passion. An absolute, golden avatar of war itself, with a boundless lust for destruction and dominance. Nothing should be able to defeat one." Her tone had started whimsically, wondrously, almost child-like in its enthusiasm. But it grew up as she went on, and by the end, she sounded weary and jaded.

"Did... somethin' happen?"

She stared at her book, the notes scribbled on every corner, not including the stickies. "As time went on, the legends... became outdated. Histories have made it clear that a Super Saiyan's only real stipulation is rage. If that. Some Saiyans can just... do it."

"Can you?"

Kora looked at him as if he were a thousand kilometers away, and she couldn't be asked to clear the distance and tear his head off. "I wouldn't have much reason to study it so hard if I did now, would I, Super Geniusaiyan?" She turned back. "... I should be. I've experienced so much anger, such intense hatred throughout my life, and I've spent all of it training just to make it there and be worthy... but, nothing. It's like a cosmic joke that there are eight-year-olds who just decided to transform one day, and boom. But not me."

"... well," Archi bent over with a wink and a half-grin, "I still think you're a pretty Super Saiyan!"

Kora smacked him in the face dead-center with a palm. "Can it, Lover Boy."

"But it's true!" Archi repeated, red hand-mark and uncontrolled tears streaming. He cleaned himself up with one clean sleeve. "A day doesn't go by where you're not bustin' your chops harder than any other Saiyan I've ever seen! You're always movin' like you want something. Who cares if you ain't some dark gold harbinger of death? You're damn special as-is!"

She looked at him. There was almost a smirk, before she faced her material once again, her eyes concealed by bangs. "... I care. And I won't stop until I'm there. If 'anyone' can do it... then of course, I can."

"... what if I, uh... beat ya there?"

"IS THAT A CHALLENGE?"

Archi dashed to the other side of the room in a blink. "... yup."

Kora's enraged glance slowly melted. "... Fine. Then you're on." She closed her book, and marched toward him; Archi took a defensive stance for one of the first times in his life. His white-red chassis was yanked by the shoulder strap. "I'm gonna stop going so easy on you, in the meantime! I'll tell Captain to do the same!"

"H-HEH!?"

Her grin went manic. "Who knows? Maybe you're JUST the kick in the ass that I needed!"

We need to talk.

ᴹᵒᵐᵐᶦ

Archi stared at the text like it was a chain message with history.

"I mean…"

He paced toward Akaki's home. "It's not like she'll be toooo angry, right?"

He spent twenty minutes reading through the instructions for the door, failing, and then finally managing to input the sequence before praying the door was still unlocked. "I mean that little jerkass had to snitch, obviously, but he's the one who… oh c'mon, man, you're better than this."

He turned the knob, and took a deep breath. "Whelp. Can't be worse than a love tap. Even if that love tap's worse than an asteroid smacking in my face."

He pushed the door open. "Just gotta explain my case and hope she'll lis-"

Akaki's body laid on the floor.

[ BGM: Bruce Faulconer – Sage Music ]

Archi jumped, letting out an odd, wobbly noise like a vocalized rubber band. He checked all around, above, and below him; Kora was nowhere to be found. "Oh man, oh man oh man, oh hell oh…"

"I'm fine."

Archi jumped again. "AH-J-SH-Dammit, guy!"

"Paralyzed," Akaki continued.

"... oh man."

"... I'm sorry."

Archi staggered, stopping in his tracks.

"That's all from me. You're free to go."

"... so she did this, right? 'Course she did."

Akaki didn't answer.

The saiyan's expression hardened. "You like to put on acts, y'know. But that was real." He started shimmying along the wall's surface. "You've got my word… I'll set this right." His palm went straight through a part of the surface, and he followed through. "Thanks, in the meantime," he said before disappearing behind the wall.

"(... there's worse feelings. Maybe. I guess.)"

He'd never noticed how loud the elevator was until the descent down. It drowned out any weaker, branching thoughts, and left him with the one or two most blaring.

He didn't know if he hated it for denying him a strategy for talking Kora down with, or if he loved it for preserving his dwindling nerve. That impasse, too, was quickly lost in the hum of the gravmag.

The hum then died down, and the thoughts crushed in on him. Each one about that girl, and her drive, and the depths she'd always sunk to pursue it, and how her withdrawal from it must've been eating her alive, serrated teeth and all.

He couldn't think through so much at once, so he dropped everything and looked ahead.

The doors split.

"Hi Archi."

She hadn't bothered to turn on any lights. The room she was in was completely black. And yet every inch of her was perfectly visible — not illuminated, but visible. Including her desecration of a smile.

He put his head to the spotless tiles, but still felt her gaze on his every movement. Entering the chamber, he met her gaze full-on, without the safety of a surface between them. Archi opened his mouth to speak, and struggled to follow through.

[ BGM: Reichi Nakaido – Mist of a Different Dimension ]

She didn't just want to kill him. She was actively keeping herself from doing so.

"Kora, I…"

"Say… Archi… isn't it weird?"

He stopped.

"You never knew anything about Super Saiyans until… oh. Two years ago. And I've done nothing but chase it since before I could walk. But there you are. Where I can't go."

"Kora, come on, you said it yourself, you let all of that go…"

"That's what's weird. Do you… know? What letting go of such a core part of a Saiyan… means?"

He hoped it was rhetorical. For too long, he hoped it was rhetorical.

"I'm sure you do…"

"It… it doesn' mean… going this far, Kora! It just doesn't, I know it doesn't!"

"... who am I kidding? You wouldn't know. You won't ever have to. You get to stay just like you are. But as soon as I begin to push myself, out of a need, and only a need, because otherwise I'll be left behind as a weakling-"

"THAT'S BULLSHIT!"

Kora's head raised, her decrepit, mocking smile in waiting.

"I'm not planning to stay the way I am, either! That's one thing, but YOU, I… you KNOW I nor anyone you know would ever leave you behind! Me, Captain, we've ALL got your back!"

"... Ah…" Kora giggled, recalling a joke only she was in on. "Do you know how hard Captain Tarubei trains every day?" She lowered her head. "Her rival has been pushing pencils for years, and the next time they fight, she has to use every last form she's capable of. Just to break even with her. When she told me to 'Surpass Super Saiyan', she meant to surpass the full power of one upstart that didn't even want it. And now, she actually wants it. And she'll reach the second level in time. And then the third. And maybe something no one's ever seen before. And I'll be the same as always, without any means of reaching that level, even if I'm dozens of times stronger than her. And then there's you."

She slowly swayed toward him, no longer able to walk in any normal capacity. "Optimistic, sweet, talented, unembellished, without any worries besides the most basic that a boy could have, a hopeless pervert with a one-track mind, without a speck of innocent blood on his hands..."

Archi stepped back. "What's that got to DO WITH- HUH-"

She put her arms around his neck.

"All you want is what's best for me, right? You're such a good boy, Archi."

It was like saiyan zoochosis. He didn't know what scared him more; what was happening or the fact that he wanted it to stop.

"You'd just love to have me all to yourself, wouldn't you… always behind you… never in danger… screaming for you to swoop in and save me… isn't that what you want?"

The more Kora stared into his eyes with deathly black orbs, the more it was evident that it was the former.

Archi pushed her away. "Why'd you call me here?"

Her expression became neutral. "Why did I… oh. Yeah. That."

Kora sprang at him.

He could see it coming the same way a human could see lightning; too slow to do anything about it before she grabbed his throat.

"... AH…!"

"Stop interfering with me."

Her face grew distraught as her grip tightened, having slammed him into the wall.

"Someone like you who will never need to worry about playing catch-up, too STUPID to push sentiments aside, who thinks he has ANY right to decide my course, who will ONLY go UP from where he is, now, all because of… that…" Her eyes grew to a point where they threatened to fall out all-together, before she dropped him altogether, Archi hitting the floor on a knee in a cacophony of coughs and sputters.

"You're going to leave me alone, Archi." She looked at him like a bird she'd clutched too roughly. "This is the only way I can get stronger. I'm sure you can see that by now. And if you're going to try and take this from me, then I'll make sure you can't. Got it?"

"... eu're… 'onna keep… uasting away… 'ike an… idiot?"

"... Saiyans like me never lived long lives. For someone like me, who can't transform… This is the only path. And I choose it over the alternatives." She walked away from him, to the terminal. "All I ask is that you respect me enough to stop holding me back."

"HRAAA—!"

Archi bashed his knee, forcing himself upward. Kora stopped in her tracks with a shaking fist.

"That's one'a the shittiest paths I've ever heard of!" Archi yelled. "How'm I supposed to respect that, huh!?"

"... fine." Kora stomped away.

"... fine?"

"That's what I said."

Archi walked after her. "You really think that's fine!?"

"Yes."

He entered reach of her.

"HEY, HOLD IT, KORA-"

She heel-turned with a flame.

"RH-"

.

.

The world slowly unblackened.

Beyond the muffled ringing now clogging his ears, as the white blobs sailed through the reddened underground cavern, the first thing he saw and heard were Kora's angry argument with someone who wouldn't argue back.

He couldn't make it out entirely, but it sounded like she was scolding him. As usual.

"(She's never hit me this hard… it's like she really wanted to…)"

Kora noticed him revive. Relief and hate clashed wildly across her face, like oil and water.

"Someone shows concern for you… gets in your way to keep you from hurting yourself… and the first thing you do is cast 'em aside…!"

She smiled in pain, before it descended into satisfaction.

"That kinda crap…"

Archi raised his head.

"Is exactly what drives me wild about you, Kora…!"

If the boy had burned all of her belongings and died screaming in the fire, the same look would've torn across her face. "ARCHI…!" she growled as if she'd swallowed glass.

He took a breath and reared himself up, spitting off to the side. "I'm still worth nothing in an argument, never mind one with you." The saiyan cracked a smile with a chipped tooth. "So I'm gonna take your advice like usual. I'm gonna cut the middleman and knock you down for a while!"

"DAMMIT!" Kora screamed, exploding in aura. "WHY CAN'T YOU EVER TAKE A HINT!"

Archi received and returned it.

" 'CUS IT'S HEAD-ON OR BACK-ON HOME, DAMMIT! BALLS OUT!"

"GRAAAA—!"

Her fist once-more collided with his face.

[ BGM: Takeshi Isozak – The Mutual Fists ]

For an instant, before he fell into the force, one hand snagging her wrist as a foot slid to his shifting rear. In a curved slash, he hit Kora with a full-power elbow.

Blood flying from her, she glared a hole through him, readying a seiken's stance just as he readied a mockup.

Kora's honed fist struck first, before his could even leave the shoulder. He flew to the other side of the arena.

"It's always been your heart or your balls with you..." Kora stormed forward, smoking fist still gripped. "When are you going to learn that I'm not yours, asshole?"

Archi's only response was rushing her, doing his damnest to reconcentrate.

"BECAUSE IF YOU ACTUALLY SAW EVEN A TENTH OF THE THINGS I'VE DONE, YOU'D SEE ME THE SAME WAY YOU DO FRIEZA!" She fired a core of energy that zoomed past him, and he whirred backward to brace against the ensuing explosion; as he flew back, Kora bolted from his flank, slinking into herself to chamber a kick. Archi whipped himself around with force of tail, shielding himself with a focused ki, dampening enough of the blow to keep conscious and almost enough to stay able-bodied. With that, rolling back onto his feet after skidding across the floor, he saw Kora's next move – a rolling wheel kick – and, without room to dodge, leaned forward into it, bludgeoning his shoulder. He disregarded the pain for a moment and, gripping her tail and waist, with all he had, swung Kora into the floor. Her head rang for a moment too short, before one of her heels banged into the side of his dome, sending him staggering away as she uprighted herself and marched toward him.

"The more I think, the more there is about you that makes me sick…!" Archi lowered his center and locked in to contest, but the saiyaness has tirelessly played for years what Archi had only recently taken interest in. "You've never been in real conflict, never conquered a PLANET, you LET yourself take damage… it's no wonder you're so SOFT-HEARTED, you useless SHOWMAN…!" He was countered, and struck, and was parried, and struck again, without Archi's advantage in strength for once. "If any TRUE Saiyan fought in the half-assed way that you do, they'd be killed on a mission meant for a low-class INFANT!" she roared, kneeing Archi after a failed grapple before knocking him off his feet with a forearm. She knelt down and brought the still-gritting boy to face level as his arm unstably reached the sky. "You're too stupid to even take a HINT, you're a failure as a Saiyan AND a Man!" she hissed before kicking air. Coal eyes flared in confusion before simmering and crackling, veering toward the air, toward an aiming Archi, who'd been readying a beam; her eyes erupted in a red glare, just as Archi fired his yellow retort. The ensuing clash cracked at the chamber, filling it with dust chalked with light particles of saiyan spirit.

"Do you think I LIKE this sort of training? That ANYONE would!? Because that's the POINT!" Failing to sense her vexation, Kora prepared to disintegrate the debris. "If I don't push myself beyond what ANYONE ELSE is capable of, I will NEVER amount to ANYTHING!" Before her own blast could send the dust to atoms, that very vexation did it on his own, having repositioned himself across the spark-laden room. Back against the crumbling, sparking walls, he summoned his ki in the form of a wavy cage, forming another stance.

"... Huh? Why'd you do that? Didn't you say you'd knock me out?"

"..."

"Are you screwing with me? Are you saying you'll fight me using my style instead of your own?"

"..."

"Do you think that MEANS anything, like I'll RESPECT YOU for it!? YOU THINK THAT'S WORTH WHAT LITTLE PRIDE YOU HAVE!?"

Archi smiled. A gentle one, to the point that it set Kora off. "You always speak my mind way better than I can."

"YOU WASTE OF SAIYAN BLOOD!" she roared, casting out both hands before bombarding him with blasts.

He'd really hoped for a beam or a ball or any physical attack. As the first blast curved off to the right, his altered aura followed, and its brethren remained steady on their path, he couldn't even find it in himself to be angry.

Archi threw up a guard and braced against each white-hot meteorite before a grapefruit-condensed Jupiter slammed through it in shifting blues.

"All you'd need to do is turn Super Saiyan, use your FULL power, and you'd just ROLL PAST ME like the BONE-HEADED ASS YOU ARE!" she scolded as a front kick bashed in his sternum. Archi keeled over as Kora reared back to raise an axe, only for Archi to clap his hands, snagging it as if a katana in a samurai flick before it could bust his head open. What felt like 900Gs slammed into him at once, his eyes momentarily rolling into the back of his head.

"But you WON'T! BECAUSE YOU'RE TOO SOFT, TOO SILLY, TOO GENTLE, TOO DOTING TO TAKE WHAT YOU WANT! NO SAIYAN WOMAN COULD EVER LOVE A GUTLESS IDIOT AS WEAK AS YOU!"

He rose up steadily, remembered the sensation of flowing ki and joint agony from his scuffle with Akaki, and tried emulating it. After all, her own reserves were finally beginning to deplete.

"HyaA-"

Kora swung her other leg into Archi's head, swatting him into the glass hard enough to shatter it.

JUST hard enough.

It was NOT easy going through. It was VERY good glass.

A gritty, ear-grating BANG followed the break. He laid still, blacked out. Kora climbed outside through the hole, staring at his unconscious body.

To her slow, stabbing horror, his fingers began to slide against the glass.

"Hh… he-heh…"

He began to stand up. Kora didn't stop him, for some reason.

"You… said no saiyan woman could ever love me, eh?"

He turned around with a plucky grin. "But how 'bout you?"

"... why? Don't you want to knock me out? Why don't you use everything already?"

"... cus I couldn't call myself a man, 'f I used something that's hurt you so much already."

Kora erupted into a fanged grimace that'd send an Oozaru pacing backward.

His grin fell. "That sounded cooler in my head, y'know. Honestly… I can't do it right now. Guess I burned myself out from helping you train, huh? My own trigger's jammed on me."

The fangs were retired, centimeter by centimeter.

Kora's soul died.

"But… d'ya really want me to?"

She couldn't answer. She was stopping herself.

"... heh. That's just… like you… Allll~right." He made a fist. "I'll give it a shot."

SHe stood in place, unwilling to face him.

And then a punch softly glided across her face. He fell onto her shoulder.

"... damn."

Kora's legs gave out. "Please just hate me, already."

"Nah."

"Please."

"Nah."

"... why not?" Her eyes squinted. True saiyans didn't cry, after all. She couldn't repeat what happened on that stage.

" 'Cus I love ya. Easy."

"..."

"... no."

"..."

"No, stop it…!"

"..."

"Stop clinging to me! I'm just holding you back! Can't you see that!?"

"..."

"STOP IT! STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT! JUST LET GO OF ME, DAMMIT! HOW HARD COULD THAT BE!? THAT'S ALL I'M ASKING, YOU DUMBASS! JUST…! Let… go…"

.

"... archi?"

"Did you pull it off, 'Arch'?"

"... no."

Silence.

"I was gonna throw him off guard by calling him 'Arch'. It would've been fun."

Kora's gaze sank through the ground. "Please don't forgive this."

"Forgiveness? If anything, I should be asking you for yours. After all, I shouldn't've gotten in your way, right? How egotistical of me. For him, too. What were we thinking, meddling with someone like you?"

Kora buried her face in Archi's hair, leaving her sad eyes semi-visible.

"It felt ok, you know. Making it count. Shame it did so little, but that was assured."

"... you're wrong."

"Of course. Now if you'd please go back down and grab my gauntlets so I can actually use my own body again, that would-"

The door closed.

No one seemed to notice anything unordinary about the sight of one saiyan carrying another, injured one across the city. No one questioned it.

The medical bay looked him over and took him in. She'd thrashed him pretty badly.

They looked over her, too. She opted not to go further with care.

She shut the door to her apartment.

Riding her own ass, beating herself up, it all seemed hopeless.

So her thoughts drifted to him.

Someone with an ego that inflated itself with the wind, every time a spider happened to pierce it, or a lion happened to maul it, or a bald man happened to burn through it, or a devil happened to tear it apart.

No Saiyan woman would ever love him.

.

.

No Saiyan woman would ever willingly put up with him.

No Saiyan woman would ever take time out of their day to teach him about their species.

No Saiyan woman would ever introduce him to their mentor.

No Saiyan woman would ever grow curious about him.

No Saiyan woman would ever stand for his lecherous advances and discipline him accordingly without outright killing him.

No Saiyan woman would ever entertain his idiocy on a whim.

No Saiyan woman would ever wish him the best.

No Saiyan woman would ever root for him.

No Saiyan woman would ever mourn him.

No Saiyan woman would ever gain strength from his brave babble.

.

.

No Saiyan would ever love him.

[ ED: Underoath – When The Sun Sleeps ]

"Idiot."

Kora, the Saiyan, curled into herself.

"Idiot."

EXTRA_STEP: Settlement

Kora had, in fact, remembered that Akaki was immobile. She'd gone back and grabbed his gauntlets.

He rubbed his neck, traveling through the crowd. "(I think I have a thing for stupid people, at this point...)"

"You! Disgusting small thing!"

Akaki rolled his eyes. "(I said I THINK, you damned city...)"

The small woman with silky, shoulder-length hair folded her arms. "Accept my challenge, if you would call yourself a man."

"Well, truthfully speaking, I don't conform to-"

"IT DOES NOT MATTER!" she huffed, before recomposing. "I have solved your pathetic 'art,' if one could call it so." Her hands began to sway through the air, as if grass, before taking a hard stance.

Akaki sighed. "Let me guess, you're going to counteract Suju-Po by coalescing my swaying of force into one central point, before casting it to the wind with some inane Earth-fu. Yes?"

Mei made a death throe.

"Yeah, well..." Akaki walked on past. "A Hou Gui beat you to it. Feel free to kick rocks, I'm sure cave-dwellers like you consider that 'good training' after all."

Mei made another, louder death throe before exploding.

Akaki scratched the back of his head. "Hrn... (Those two have officially ruined me. Beautiful. Oh well... what's a story without a past opponent to overcome, in a cheap display of power?)" He shrugged. "Heh... a HARD fighting style? Against MY technique? You're as stupid as they come! This will end in... hmph-fu-fu... ten seconds?"

Mei smirked. "Five. Shall I count them for you, o' 'clever' one?"

"(JUST SEE HER AS NASHIMAN, JUST SEE HER AS NASHIMAN, JUST SEE HER AS NASHI-) Go ahead, mademoiselle... in fact, I'll even wait for you!"

Mei stepped to him with realms of confidence. "Five..."

Mei sat on a bench, legs crossed and assured of herself.

The boy on the other side exhaled sharply. "Hell's got you so cocky?"

She turned opposite from him, nose raised. "It is none of your concern."

"... oh. Well ok-"

"But if you must know-"

"Nah I really don't hones-"

"AND YOU MUST KNOW," she insisted, nose now all the way to the sky, "I have settled a debt." She lowered herself, pulling into a smile his way. "One for us both."

"..."

"..."

"... no damn way-" He busted into snide giggles. Mei couldn't help but join him.

"He was distraught! Brought low by the very flow he so desperately leaned upon!"

"Oh I bet, FUCK that guy dude!"

"Hnhnhnhn, hmm...!" She raised herself. "Come. Our days grow shorter." She stared into his racing, violet eyes. "Surely there is one final height you can climb before leaving for war, no?"

Puffing air, kicking himself up off the bench, Neoru smirked. "Dunno. Hope so."

"You know so."

"I KNOW so, jeez," he mused, as the two walked. One's head reached dangerous proximity to the other's shoulder.

Kao-rin twiddled his thumbs.

"You can ask, you know."

The shapeshifter gave in. "Alright... so HOW did you get your meridians sealed?"

Akaki stared into his drink.

"I was feeling 'settlement' today."

Mayyybeee love... will fiiiind usss- again...

For there... is always...

Anyway Yo! OP Here!

I was not going to let go of When The Sun Sleeps, so thankfully, I pulled off a chapter that fit it even BETTER than the Wabi and Kazikum one!

So this chapter is one of those without a happy end, but it's a pretty, reflective, somber ending that isn't a fucking horrible day or an earth-shattering realization. I like it cus it's bittersweet. Also, it allows Kora to keep her problem with Super Saiyan and continue to personalize her growing, intensifying grudge against it. Don't worry, Dina still has her own vendetta against the state, last chapter set groundwork for it and I FLIPPED THE FUCK OUT during the notes phase of this one thinking I'd ruined the story and that Dina didn't have any personal stake in this upcoming fight outside of her promise (that she dropped investment in during her revenge arc regardless.) She may've been spamming it non-stop, but she still has limited control of it. That'll play a role.

The cursed object shit might get Chekov's Hyper-Realistic Painting of a Gun'd, though.

I've tried to implement a small southern drawl to Archi's accent. A small one, though. Farmboy-core. Just more flavor for the characters, show Jakima's influence on him.

Trivia Time:

Akaki checks Conton's census for anyone from one of his timelines every now-and-then. It's mostly to sate 'curiosity', but he remembers each and every name.

Kora's martial art is a composite from her dad, the fact that it's a mix of different Karate is a cosmic coincidence. Ki circulation + Ki explosion, though? That's unique to Kora.

The reason Archi didn't get Tarubei to help was A) He's stupid and forgot, B) He's stupid and wanted to settle this himself, and C) He's stupid and thought Tarubei would ENCOURAGE Kora's training habits. She wouldn't. Not after the Post-Prelims. Archi's stupid btw.

"Supa Tensaiya-jin" is what Kora would've said instead of "Super Geniusaiyan" if I would've committed to being a weeb.

My favorite Yakuza character is Kiryu on Sunday thru Tuesday and Shinada on Wednesday thru Friday. 0 Majima, Tatsuya and Shishio kinda grapple for that Saturday spot. Did I mention that I based Archi heavily off of Shinada once I started caring about him?

Alright Trivia Time over. Speaking of Shinada and Shishi, you know what a Kara-Jishi is? You don't? Yeah you do, I've brought up Shishi before already. Yeah but, Kara-jishi is more of a solo animal (as well as being a dragon chimera in some depictions), so it makes for one part of the whole with the Snow Lion somewhat (fun fact: not only Shishi, but Snow Lions are commonly depicted in a male/female pair.) In any case, regarding the eastern lion-dog as a whole, it's got two partners: its closed-mouth female counterpart (Kora) and the peony. A regal flower that, while weaker, protects the kara-jishi from a bug that gets under its skin. I thought of Parumi. Kara-jishi also carry the moniker "King of Beasts." Which both the Tiger and the Kirin contest.

Zinco fricking does not think wholesome thoughts about Voshyo and Dina fucking hates Kora. Voshyo is also the first person both Dina and Zinco REALLY bared fangs at, upon hitting Conton.

What this means is that I'm bringing back Voshyo's Lion motif in the form of Kara-jishi (Peony subtype) with an Oozaru hybridization in place of a dog's, Archi's independent motif is a Guardian Kara-jishi, and Kora keeps the Snow Lion. FUCK I love butchering Eastern mythos.

But uh, yeah. That's about it. See ya.