Dragon Ball STEP! (Securing Time's Eternal Prosperity)

by StillNoUsername

About 3 "colorful" schmucks brimming with potential, all hailing from different timelines and packing some major dark backstories, are snatched from the jaws of death and brought into Conton City. Will they learn to love their new home, get vastly stronger, and make the multiverse a better place? Will they even try? Tune in and find out!

87. Mind, Body, Will Power Ki!

(Ay, it's OP, ya boy. This chapter gets dark as fuck out of nowhere near the middle. Nothing directly happens of course, but things are directly stated and the aftereffects are expounded upon because that shit is real and 16 y/o me put that in the story, dammit. So 21 y/o me's gonna give it a conclusion. SA trigger warning.)

[ OP: SKY-HI – Sarracenia ]

Mind, Body, Willpower Ki! Light My Soul Ablaze, Girl, And I'll Show You a Pyre to Remember!

Tired violet dots hovered over a slab of frozen beef.

After a time, a hand gripped it.

The baggy, neutral expression quaked in stress, teeth gritting below. He broke into a long-winded grunt, like a mad dog's growl, as red streaks crept up his eyes.

Soon, a screen of steam floated on by toward the ceiling.

"... I mean I did somethin'..."

He prodded with a sweat-dripped finger, coating it in chunky, thawing frost. He could see more, now that the morning blue had sunken into the room through closed curtains.

With that increased perception, the ponytailed boy then scrambled cross-counter for a towel to stop the water from spilling onto the floor.

After the mishap and its messy rectification, he stared at a shaker like it owed him money and wouldn't admit it.

Slowly, surely, with a gradual rattling…

…

…

The boy's eyes shot open, and the shaker ground to a halt.

His back hit the counter, and he felt up the wetness pooling across his lip.

" 'ammit…" he muttered, wiping off the blood. "(... nah. Nah, that wasn't me seeing things.)" He snorted back the rest, and his eyes resharpened.

He now stared at it as if it had accrued debt, and eventually, it caught airtime. Because he had picked it up. With his hands.

As he kept dicing vegetables, placed into a live stove's frying pan alongside meat beside a bowl of beaten eggs – as in eggs that he'd cracked, thereby beating them, he wasn't a cook, fuck you – his every chop began slowing down. His focus snapped from the vegetables to the knife.

Something horrible happened: he hatched an idea.

"(If I CAN use ki…)"

He placed a hand on the counter.

"(That means, even just a bit, if I'm completely on guard…)"

He raised the knife, eyeing his fingers.

"(Then…)"

His wrist shook uncontrollably. The body was weak, the mind was unwilling.

However, he was Orojia. Therefore a third, much stronger facet took precedence.

The knife careened toward his fing-

The lights flicked on.

Neo's gaze slowly turned to the switch.

"... can you go back to sleep?"

"No," replied Mei, rubbing her eyes beneath overgrown bangs that gave her the look of a horror movie ghost.

"oh."

"..."

"c… can you leave then-"

Mei removed the aviators as he spoke. "What are these?"'

"Glasses?"

She glared at him.

"REMs. They're REMs. I dunno what that stands for though, just help with shitty dreams." He turned back to his ingredients.

.

"Did I say anything." It was like she knew, and was ordering him to confirm.

.

He didn't care. "Can't remember. So probably not."

She glanced at the glasses once more. "Good." She haphazardly tossed them onto the couch. "Then I have no need for such trifles. Do not disturb me when I am not conscious."

The boy rolled his eyes, shoving any retort back down his throat and returning to his chopping. "Whatever asshole, see you at training."

"What is thi-"

Startled and annoyed and annoyed that he'd been startled, he brought the knife down. Hard. Right onto his finger.

Mei staggered back, eyes agape, startled by Neo's startling.

"... mh. mm-hm." He paced away from the counter, finger in mouth. "Mmm—hmm—."

"..." She picked up the knife that he'd left behind. "Hm." She tossed aside the chipped tool. "What frail cutlery."

Neo spat out his finger. "What gives, I was usin' that!"

Mei shrugged. "What misfortune. That broken, dull, inefficient cutting weapon is now filth-ridden. How ever shall you proceed?"

They shared silent, unwavering eye contact for far too long.

"Get another one?"

Mei spun around and bisected the knives until they were bits and pieces of shiny glitter. She turned back right after.

They shared more eye contact.

Neoru shook his head. "... what the fuck is wrong with you?"

"READ A ROOM!"

"Can barely read as-is, now you wan' me ta read a whole damn- screw this." He walked around her and grabbed from the cupboard a spoon.

Mei's jaw dropped like he'd called her a slur. "YOU ARE RI… DICULOUS!"

"Weird way ta say 'independent problem solver' but aight."

"NO, YOU ARE STUPID!"

He groaned. "Look, I don't need help to cook, an' definitely not from you." Three times, as he spoke, his spoon messily hacked at the same spot.

"... you are trying to cut an onion with a spoon."

"NO, I AM."

"..."

"..."

Mei crossed her arms. "... am what?"

Neoru slowly teared up. "Cuttin' an onion with a sp… a spoo- y-y-y-you think you're so fuckin' smart, don't you?"

Mei rolled her eyes. "Do you yield?"

"I DUNNO, DO I!?" He yelled, slamming the spoon into the onion without looking.

A piece flew into his eye.

---

[ BGM: Marcus D – Earth Angel (Instrumental) ]

Neo yielded.

He folded his arms by the pan as Xiaomei did her thing.

The minced confetti began to fall further away, to the point where he held the pan himself, making sure everything got in. At first he chalked it up to human error, a term that had long-since lost meaning to the boy ever since he'd expanded his friend grou-

And then a volley flew across the room.

He swore under his breath, snagged the pan, and zoomed in pursuit, leaping from top-of-couch to the living room's center table, catching every piece.

"Yeah howsabout ya watch what you're doin'!?" He chastised, getting back up.

"How about you think fast?" Mei smirked devilishly, before launching the bits at him.

Neo backstepped to allow most to fall in as well as to not be smacked by food, then stopped on a dime to press forward for the volleys that Mei was now firing in precision hails across the room, sinking lower and lower until, by the end, he'd sprawled across the now-smoking wooden floor.

"Mei, this game sucks, we can stop playin' now!"

In response, she only smiled with her patented pair of Fuck You eyes. The remaining ingredients were thrown into the air.

Neo beheld an onslaught that blot out the ceiling lights.

While riled he became, it was the kind of riling that brought out every bit of focus, purely out of spite.

He lobbed what he had into the air and turned the pan into a weapon, battering the volley at angles to continuously keep it consolidated and airborne in bursts of speed and stints of acrobatics, before bringing out all stops to catch the several resulting clusters.

By the end, the pan sat on the side of his ankle.

"Last…" He cooled himself. "Friggin' nerves, Mei…"

Mei brushed her edgy, layered, now shoulder-length hair and looked back at Neo with a stupid smug smile, as if expecting something.

"... what, dickhead?"

Mei frowned. "Is excellence so beyond your dull eyes?"

"Is talking like NOT a comic book character beyond you?"

Mei audibly "UGH"ed as if having to explain multiples to a 5th grader. "Praise me already, fool."

Neoru sucked his teeth. "You know- OK! Can do! Ya got one fat head for a midget an' if you wanted to go back an' do middle school, everybody'd think you skipped a grade."

Mei gasped. "I AM OF PERFECTLY NORMAL SIZE FOR MY AGE!"

"Yeah, cool, look the last motherfucker to come up ta my shoulder was one half of a trenchcoat sneakin' into a PG12 flick. I'd tell ya go get a clue but I put those on the top shelf so, like, good luck shitlord."

What started as an inflamed glower quickly sprouted into something else. The look Mei gave him was kinda cute. In an "i'm going to beat the flying fuck out of you very soon anyway, and you know there's nothing you can do about it" way.

Neo did sarcastic jazz-hands on his way to the shortcrust. " 'Auuugh oh no don't parsley-chop me to death' piss off. (... shit.)"

"(Can not win with that boy.)" The incomprehensible machine beast belched a flame at her, causing a jump. Neo stifled a giggle, to her chagrin, and she strutted off. "I am going to wash myself. If you follow me, I will kill you."

"There's literally nothin' more important where you're goin' than what's out here so, cool."

"DO TRY NOT TO KILL YOURSELF AS YOU STIR YOUR BRETHREN, STUPID SNAKE EGG!" she popped at him before the door to his bathroom slammed.

"... wHAT?" Neoru shook his head and got to it. "... wait, stir?"

---

"Do you really need help with a shower?" He asked after the fifth shrill shriek from behind the door as he, at long last, solved what a "beaten egg" was.

"Shut up!"

He could've said something about how stupid it was that she was taking a shower for the first time more than a year into her arrival, but held back on it.

---

Finishing her stretches and still tending to the now-swept side of her finely-conditioned hair, Mei came out to three empanadas sitting on a plate, and Neoru on the other side, still on his second. He could conserve calories annoyingly well, so combined with his tendency to savor his food, he held a disgusting disregard for those without such an innate talent.

"There's your cut, by the way."

He was a crass asshole that recklessly, stubbornly bit back whenever challenged, but with that came an odd code of honor that he lived by. She hadn't done much to earn praise – besides her excellent show of martial skill while slaughtering the ingredients in increasingly smaller pieces, that was worthy of praise she didn't get, dammit – yet despite her 'barging in', he'd taken her into account.

"Why would I want any of your odd slop?"

She just wanted him to explain it. The problem was that she was an asshole, too. Her choice of speech was just more tasteful.

" 'Cus I knew you'd bitch an' moan if ya didn' get any, now eat. You're just wastin' it if you don't." He tore off another piece of stuffed pastry. " 'eez."

She gave up, sat down, and took a bite.

"Mh…!"

It was smooth, and gradually grew textured as the chewy, egg-lathered bread unraveled into the ground meat and vegetables inside. There was a tinge of spice, enough to keep her tongue intrigued and further engage the savory flavor as her mouth watered more with every chew. In tandem with the bread, there was a warm, full sensation that enchanted her. Before she knew it, she was down to her third.

"Delicious…"

"R-really!?"

She realized she'd spoken aloud.

She also had no idea Neo could make such an innocent face — as if a puppy, or a boy falling in love for the first time. For a moment, the sharpness in his eyes faded. All it took to melt his exterior was offering a vague compliment.

"That's uh… neat. I guess." He tried, but couldn't hide it. If she'd only known how easily she could've wrapped him around her finger, she could've had him under her control by the first night she'd decided to bet upon him.

… but something like that would've been cruel and needless. And he probably would've caught on… he wasn't unfathomably stupid, it had a floor beneath its abyss that one could hear if they threw a rock into it. She liked it more when that side of him was spontaneous, anyway. Like the sun shining behind clouds.

So she decided it was time for rain. "Perhaps you should have been a cook, after all." It was meant to be snarky, but she'd felt so warm that her tone lacked any sharpness.

Neoru giggled softly. "I dunno, I… I got one more fight in me, at least… but I'll uh, I'll think about it, though, maybe, if you're not just pullin' my strings."

He reached for his third morsel.

"... yes."

Mei proceeded to snatch it.

Neo's eyes snapped up with a flame. "THE FUCK!?"

"That way, you would stay weak enough for me to take your product any time I saw fit!" She bolted toward the open window and roof-hopped, Neo giving chase.

"HEY, YOU ALREADY ATE ALL YOURS!"

"BLAME YOUR PITIFUL EATING SPEED! WHAT SPARROW SAVORS THEIR MEAL BENEATH THE SHADOW OF A HAWK!?"

"FUCKING DICKHEAD!"

They sprinted and bounded across half the business district, barreling and vaulting over and weaving and swinging through the various architecture and appliances in their way, all turned into obstacles as Neo threw obscenity after obscenity in pursuit and Mei held back giggles of her own; he was getting exceedingly close, after all. In one way or another, the chase itself was a contest. The two teens neared ground level with every point-flip and roll respectively — she'd even faked him out a few times, hanging behind a rooftop's AC system or through someone's open window. He couldn't piece together why, but he was starting to have fun, as well.

She hit an aerial flip off a ledge, using a vendor's striped canopy as a bounce pad before zooming off into the still-livening early morning plaza.

The disgruntled owner retired it, just as Neo tried doing the same.

"WELL SCREW YOU TOO, GRANDPA!" He seethed at him while quickly massaging his hip, before darting off in pursuit, only to spot her far off, nearing the mountain-y area. He started looking around and saw a guy stumbling on a cloud far out with a mind of its own, pleading for the local air traffic through a toast-muffled mouth to get out the way; conveniently, it was going in the same direction. He waited until the fellow was just far-enough out to leap into the air, grabbing onto the back of their shirt. Neo's brief scuffle ended just as quick, letting go a few meters away from the food thief before five-point landing and rushing her. Quick on her feet, Mei sprinted in the opposite direction, but Neo had covered enough distance to start closing the gap.

Just as his hand neared her wrist, his eyes widened. He pulled back and formed a guard, and a dropkick slammed into him, sending him skidding across the earth.

Mei spun back around. "NH-!?"

"GH…!" Neo's cheeks puffed out as he exhaled, eyes bulged. His forearms shook. "Just who the…"

The attacker looked human, around Neo's age, but he floated off the ground at all times. He wore a loud, skin-tight shirt, elbow guards and Orange Star's uniform trousers, and his face had one more scar than Neo's. So two. He had two scars. And they looked cooler. No way Neo'd tell anyone that, though. "Stand back, creep."

"Who the fuck're you callin' a creep, shithead?" He got irritable around those blatantly stronger than he was.

Dual Scars went on. "Face it, weirdo, you hit every 'creep' note in the book, especially the bit where you chase a girl on the verge of crying across the city. The same one that you couldn't get enough out of putting your hands on in that sick excuse for a match!"

"You're right about it bein' sick but everywhere else is just- no, we're not doing this today. Mei, tell' em he's wrong."

As if on cue, Mei sank to her knees and covered her eyes, softly weeping. "No… I can pretend no longer, you cruel beast…! Was the outcome of our battle not enough? When will your twisted rage be satisfied…!?"

Neo's little heart sank. "THERE'S NO FUCKING WAY, YOU LITTLE…!" he wheezed through his teeth.

Dual Scars had a "dammit, this is worse than I thought" glare going on. "You'll have nothing to worry about once I'm finished with this scumbag, miss." He turned back to Neoru with vitriol, fists tightening as Mei quickly wolfed down the empanada. "Zinco really should be the one to deal with you, but the CHANCE of him having to go back on his word over YOU makes me wanna vomit… besides, you don't DESERVE something so painless!"

"Fuck…"

He fully expected the first attack to travel faster than he could pick up, send him down and give him the day's first concussion.

But then he felt the air shift.

"GRH!"

Dual Scars shot through the air in a snap like an arrow. Just like that, he was behind where Neo'd been standing, his fist smoking off air friction with a glint of red upon it.

He turned around.

So did Neo, after catching himself. Wide-eyed, he felt up his cheek — sure enough, a smear of blood greeted him.

"... ok…" He started bounding. He even cracked a giggle. "Ok…!"

[ BGM: 83key – Λ ]

"Don't get ahead of yourself… I'm just getting started!"

"Shit, man, so'm I! I guess!"

Still watching, Mei smiled beneath her hands.

Neo's training lasted 18 hours, every day. He'd been given five hours to sleep and one to ready himself.

He'd be told to run 20 kilometers, and was greeted by a mountain to scale at the end.

He'd be tasked with punching a mineral-clad rock until it broke again, and again, until his fists bled. And then he'd use his elbows. And then his knees. And then his shins. And then his heels.

If calisthenics, then elevation and sharp objects. If equipment, then cooled or heated to some absurd temperature. And all of it, under 200-kilos worth of bands across the body.

But day to day, his most extensive training was spent rehoning ki.

Dual Scars zoomed toward Neo again, only to be knocked back by a snappy weave-into-elbow. He kicked himself up, only to see Neo waiting for him, maybe four paces away.

And, in the span of a few days, continuously forging itself under trial, the spirit was beginning to regroup with the mind and body.

He stayed just ahead of Twin Scar's enraged punches with every backstep, several close calls resulting in more cuts. He couldn't finish his thought before the boy in elbow guards lunged toward him with an unanticipated burst of speed, increasing his tempo. Neo saw the bodily tells and lowered his center, and his heel smacked his opponent in the head, having pivoted into a cartwheel kick. They continued the charade, Twin Scars growing faster and angrier by the second, only for the occasional ground kick to continue slamming his skull; the boy in the dragon vest was disguising his counters with retreat, before a speedy attempt by Twin Scars at a sliding kick was bounded over and punished by a back kick that sent him tumbling.

"(You know what? Yeah, I'm NOT gonna get ahead'a myself.)" He was using the humanoid as a warm-up, in the same way as one would bullfight after recovering from a broken ankle. His mind blanked as he went in, and Twin Scars threw out a backfist that Neo slipped away from, before making kissy noises toward him; the retort was an attempted leaping punch that Neo leapt into with a knee, sending him staggering away in a roll. Neoru shook out his leg. "(Shit, guy's tough.)" His heart fluttered a bit. "(FUCK YEAH, GUY'S TOUGH!)"

Twin Scars then rocketed toward Neoru in what seemed like a blink, grabbing his collar before dragging him across the ground, attempting to strangle him.

"(Those are some eyes,)" he thought to himself amidst his own gargling, genuine hate in Twin Scar's eyes as if Neo was a surrogate for something worse. Neoru's grit grimace retracted into a stern frown, inhaling what he could, releasing his attacker's hands, and smacking both Twin Scar's ears as hard as he could with the bottoms of the palms. The slight stun allowed Neo to break the hold and headbutt the kid as hard as he could, forcing him off; Neo rolled back, leapt into a roundhouse that cut into his leg, pounded his face thrice, grabbed his wrist before he could go stumbling back on the third, yanked him back into a spun elbow, and flipped through the air, slamming both knees into the opposition's chest as he stood disorientated, finally knocking him down.

"... shit, I went overboard." He went over to check on his would-be foe, until a sudden surge of aura had him leaping back.

"I'M NOT… LETTING YOU…!" Twin Scars turned his head, eyes alight with force of spirit. "I'M NOT GIVING INTO YOU, YOU SON OF A BITCH! COME ON!"

"..."

Neo flicked a gate. It landed right behind Mei.

"Nah, I give up."

"Huh?"

Neo sprinted toward Mei, picking her up bridal style.

"STOP!"

Twin Scars managed to tear off a bit of Neo's collar before he disappeared into the already-closing gate.

---

"So this is the lesson plan for today?"

"Yeah, of course."

"It just looks… so much like the day before's…"

"What? No it doesn't."

"The finger-over-pole cultivation, right before the underwater sprints, look there's even the blindfolded void gauntlet again-"

"Well what can I even do at this point? I'm out of time!"

"They ARE late after all, it's not impossible to make some revisions before they arrive."

.

.

.

"Screw it, I'll give it a-"

Neoru and Mei fell through a gate somewhere in the distance.

"aH- DAMMIT!"

Tenshinhan thought on his feet. "Stretches?"

"YUP!" Videl rushed over to meet the two before they could go out looking for their current instructors. After what sounded like a verbal skirmish between her and the Spider Shadow Fist's successor, she returned.

"I bought time," Videl said through her teeth.

Tenshinhan smirked. "You could've just let them repeat yesterday's training, you know."

"Of COURSE I know!" Videl scratched her head as if something was gnawing at it. "It's just…" She grew more reserved. "Icky. I'm just cheating my students at that point."

"(Well said.) If that's what you've arrived at, then I'll respect it. Then, how will you challenge them next?"

[ BGM: Kenji Yamamoto – Nose to Tail ]

Videl slammed fist into palm.

"I'm not sure. I'll need some inspiration."

---

The successors of Satan Dojo and the Crane School duked it out. Amid the dust storm, both Tenshinhan and Videl seemed lost in a wide-eyed trance as they fought, neither landing anything concrete barring a shin collision that expelled the dust and sent them both side-spinning to neutral.

The microsecond that Tien landed,

"DODON-"

And the instant Videl landed,

"MATAKA-"

One's finger echoed light before firing. The other's taloned hand crackled with embers before shooting forward.

"PA—!"

"KO—!"

The Dodonpa pierced through Videl's blast, yet on expulsion, whorls of flame honed in on Tenshinhan like pincers, growing hotter and, inversely, bluer as they shot through the air. The crane master's brief shock was dissipated alongside the fire with a stern kiai; he'd known Videl would capitalize on the opening, but not that she'd feint into a reverse-crescent kick to the head. In any case, the kick seemed to phase through his head, as did his horse-stance straight fist through her side, before their forearms connected, and their free hands readied ki blasts that melded into their auras as they contested each other with strained eyes. The end resulted in a skyward eruption, and shockwaves ascended above the pillar of light; skidding toward its top, Videl slowed, firing off with illuminated feet toward Tenshinhan, cutting off his pursuit with a hailstorm of strikes that he managed to return just in time, leading to a flash-storm exchange of blocks and attacks that only ended once the man of crane school broke off with a weak kiai that slowed his opponent for hardly an instant, himself focusing on forming a forearm-led stance and reddening exponentially to take a hit and gain distance without so much as a scratch before his body bulked exponentially and overflowed with ki. His eyes bulged and vacated, causing Videl concern, before he suddenly charged forward, just as powerful as he'd been before the bizarre spasm. The woman of Satan Dojo received and countered his assault with a throw that used the new momentum against him, sending him in a brief stumble across the indigo plateau, and spared no quarter as she prepared a vicious piercing punch, harnessing all of her ki in a single movement that, in the same instant that it had fired,

Stopped.

Tenshinhan's counter-straight wouldn't've made its mark in time.

But Tenshinhan's elbow charge would've struck from behind, with a strength equal to that of his double's, and knocked her into it.

"Was that the Kaioken…?"

"It uses the same principles, but no. It's something I've managed to piece together with training, using the energy of every particle in my body at once. By splitting the moment my power doubles, the damage is reduced, while the desired effect remains."

"Awesome…"

Standing in the ground zero, both grinned, traces of plasma coursing around them. Videl dropped her fist. "But how're you going to refuse?"

"That's where things complicate. It sounds pleasant, but no matter how well-trained, telling your body to permanently take on double its capacity in an instant is unsustainable at best and, at worst, suicide. It isn't like traditional fusion, where a stronger body is created in the process." He formed the uttarabodhi mudra. "However," his clone continued, back-to-back, "Done just right, it's a way to use an attack that supersedes one's limits, and immediately return to health soon after. Observe."

The two sailed into the sky. One raised his sign to the sky. "DAI KIKOHO—!"

The other's eyes shot open and glowed.

Right as he refused, a blinding light and deafening crackle enveloped the world. Once it ended, the clouds had been sawed through, and a vacant space was left where stars once glittered the sky.

Videl nervously chuckled.

The crane school instructor sailed back down, wiping off a bead of sweat. "Cell used a technique identical to this, where he lost nothing and still multiplied. Despite his regeneration and having held back to achieve it, I still think there's potential to use four myself."

"I guess there's a reason one of us has a school that actually took off, huh?"

He raised a brow. "Don't undersell yourself. You've made some considerable improvement, as well. Control of the elements takes something more than precision in the heat of battle."

"Honestly, I'm not even very good at it… my, um, daughter, she's even better. There's still a ton I have to learn, and I can't stay at the level I'm at."

"Spot on." Tenshinhan nodded, folding his arms. "That's a fact, even for me. No, especially."

Brows raised, Videl fixed her hair into a standard ponytail. "You're just being modest, right?"

"Of course not. Even when I teach, I'm still learning from those under me. Their methods of training, their understanding of combat, all so drastically different from, or hauntingly similar to, both one another and my own. The logic and meaning behind each deviation and likeness, what schools of thought lead to separation, what levels of knowledge reappear across the cosmos, and what components recur across space and time in both cases… and here, I have the opportunity to continue encountering martial talents that could change the structure of fighting as a whole…" The triclops sighed wistfully. "I'll think that I've finally found perfection in a style, only to discover something completely otherworldly that stands as its counter. I could live for a thousand years and still never come close to that 'perfect style'. It's disheartening and invigorating, all at once… and the pursuit becomes 'how close can I come in one lifetime?' " He caught Videl's gaze having sunken into the dirt. "Apologies, I started to ramble."

"... I've been going at this all wrong, then." Her vacant expression betrayed her. "You're right. I was too focused on training students, I didn't consider their own ability. If I wanna get the most out of them, then they should be showing me the extent of their know-how. I should only be closing gaps in knowledge from there… right? Or at least helping them to see those gaps for themselves?"

"It's not wrong to focus on the body, as that's clearly a fundamental of yours… but it's key that the mind be cultivated, too. It's ultimately up to you, after all. I'm not the mentor here."

Videl turned her back. "... I'm an idiot." She began to shake. Tien grew concerned and approached to comfort her.

"KI!"

Tien astral projected for a heartbeat.

"I'VE BEEN SO OBSESSED WITH TEACHING IT, I FORGOT TO EXPLAIN IT PROPER!" She pointed to herself. "I HAD TO LEARN THIS ALL FROM SCRATCH, TENSHINHAN! PETE'S SAKE, MY ONLY TEACHER WAS SOME CUTE, JITTERY DORK MY AGE, I CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN AGAIN!"

"(S-she couldn't mean-)"

Videl threw herself into the air. "I'VE FINALLY FIGURING IT OUT!" she screamed, rocketing off to meet her pupils.

Tenshinhan stared. "(It's the stigma of being born the daughter of a fraud. But in a world where most begin training once they're able to walk… not bad at all.)"

He donned his own aura.

---

"Good morning, 'instructor'. " Sitting atop a stump fashioned from a great tree, Mei stared off into the sky, a dismissive air about her. "What auspicious fortune it is, that you have so graciously chosen to bless us with your presence. Will you have us gather acorns and fish for kūn péng, now?"

Videl forced her lip into a curled smirk. "Good morning to you too, Mei. (-kun goes AFTER the name, genius! Who's Peng, anyway!?)" She looked behind her. "What's Neo doing over there?"

"Lǎorén chén wǔ."

Videl looked at Tenshinhan.

.

.

"Sorry, that was presum-"

"Old man mountain dance."

Videl glared at Tenshinhan.

"Don't be like that, it's an old language. It takes a second."

Mei snickered, just loud enough for Videl to pick up on. "Say, is this all you've been doing this whole time?" she inquired through grit teeth.

"Do you think that idiot just stumbled into Mantis Sway on his own? I taught him to induce the flow of qi throughout his body, else he would still be doing useless stretches like a fool."

Neo swayed by his lonesome, so far in his own little (inner) world that he didn't notice the three people that'd started watching.

"It's like meditation in movement?"

"Meditation can not produce the results that Mantis Sway is capable of." She hopped off her stump and approached Neo, stopping about two meters away. "It does not matter how stupid it looks — so long as it is not sullied by use as a martial fist, it is fine."

Tenshinhan moved closer. "Guess that's why it lost prevalence, compared to paths like the Crane and Turtle…" He neared him in the middle of a slow movement, and abruptly blocked a strike.

"HUH!?" Neoru saw who he'd tried decapitating and calmed down, pulling back his round kick. "OH. Oh shit. Sorry, reflex."

As Tien reassured him, Videl wasted no further time. "Alright! Since you're both here, it's time for a lecture!"

Mei rolled her eyes. Blinking behind her, Tenshinhan's chop crashed onto her head. "Cut that out."

"... yes, shīfù."

"BITCHED THE FUCK OUT!" Neo cackled. Blinking behind him, Videl's fist crashed onto his head.

"... okay I'll stop."

With the two conveniently kneeling, Videl began. "Now, how much do you two know about ki?"

Neoru did a "so-so" gesture.

"Enough," Mei replied, still pouting.

"Well, as you'll learn if you're steady down this path, enough is NEVER enough!" Videl proclaimed, happy to have made a decent segway. "Today, I'll be going SUPER in-depth about Ki!"

"No structure?" Tenshinhan commented.

Videl kicked up a stick. "If I've gotta draw, then I draw! Lectures are boring enough, anyway, so I'll go off my head. Alright…" She pointed to the sky. "On the most basic level, ki is life force. It's the latent energy that's stored within living things, from the smallest microbe to the biggest dragon!"

Mei opened her mouth.

"At least, that's the most common perception."

Mei's mouth slowly closed.

"It's more like… hm… well, it's NOT 'like' energy, it just is. Ki is energy stored within particles. Both living and non-living things can possess ki — planets and stars, for example. It's how even robots can develop and use it, if they're given enough intelligence to start thinking for themselves. Even for objects without it, it's possible for things like hatred or love or any strong emotion to linger onto them. With enough attachment, even a piece of someone's spirit can persist within an object. It's a creepy rabbit hole, but I'd go off on a tangent if I went any further!"

"(Oh… k… s-so she has done research, but there is no way she knows of-)"

"Ki can also…" Videl got to work on the ground, drawing out circles. "If you… can believe it… is comparable to… an inner universe."

Mei noticed Neo's eyes widen. "(CÀO DÀN!)"

[ BGM: Hiroshi Tataki — Anything Is Possible ]

"On the most basic level, Ki is Spirit with a fixation on Mind and Body, like Magic is Spirit with a fixation on Mind. What we strive for is enough of a connection between the noggin and the bod to access more and more of our own latent power."

Videl took her shirt off. Tenshinhan turned on a dime without any change in demeanor.

She flexed. "Right now, I'm only accessing my flesh; the strictly-physical body. Mind-to-muscle connection, pretty much. But…" She began to radiate a steam of light. "If I go down to my molecules…" The steam grew into a flame. "And then to the atom…" The flame burned. "And every hadron…" Then the ground shook and broke into the sky. "AND THEN… THE QUARKS…!" Her teeth grit to the point of sparking against each other as a light burst from her, tearing the forest apart. Mei leapt in front of Neo and guarded with a hand seal, a bright-orange energy jumping before her. "AND EVEN FURTHER—...!"

She simmered down and took the shirt and jacket that a reddened Tenshinhan very-adamantly held out for her. "Thank you- Then I can draw out even more energy! There are dimensions even farther down than what we can comprehend once you've reached a certain point of 'insight', but that caliber of expansion is entering the domain of gods and such. THAT would take a human, like THOUSANDS of years to reach. We're focusing on the levels that you can accomplish in a lifetime."

"RECKLESS!" Mei protested. "YOU COULD HAVE CRUSHED HIM! SHAME ON YOU!"

"Nah I was fine, actually," Neo said, his shirt drenched in sweat.

"He said he's fine."

Mei stood agasp at the historic repetition. "(A bloodline of demons…!)"

"Anyway, it's important to think of your entire body as one particle." She pointed toward the reforming stars. "And the planets, and the solar system and its bodies, and then the galaxy and its bodies, and the countless galaxies within a cluster and all of the different bodies in between, and then the universe as a whole, and all of its possible timelines and the other universes and turtles-from-there, in an expanding level of particle that loops back onto itself and becomes your smallest trace of being. Training your body and honing your mind is to continue increasing not only the level of particle that you can draw energy from, but the density of each one itself, allowing you to pack and store more energy into each of them. Humans share the same meager density of particle at birth, for example, but some can access smaller levels of particle easier than others," she snapped, "Like that. Take me — I've used traces of ki subconsciously through training in my dad's martial arts, and that's let me punch above my weight since I was a kid. I could fly, like, ten days after learning that ki wasn't a hoax, too. If you want an example of absurdly-dense without much beneath, then…"

Mei thought of the actual demon who'd insulted her before eating her hand.

Neo thought of Dina. It wasn't relevant, Videl's explanation just reminded him of someone.

"Be careful not to overdo how much energy you take into a specific level — going overboard and 'overpacking' once you've reached your limit can cause ki to start flooding beneath the skin, causing you to bulk up without control and, at worst, making you go POP!"

She reached her hand into the sky and stopped the debris still falling, forming what was effectively a giant, cracked canvas. "OH WOW I DIDN'T EVEN PLAN FOR THIS SEGWAY, THIS IS AWESOME! Um, yeah, externalizing ki. Enforcing yourself is one thing, but bringing out that power into the world is a different beast." She illustrated the word, etching each stroke into the rock with sheer will. "It's called 'gaiki,' one of the tenants of ki. It's the enhancing of the mind to bring forth that ki and affect the world with it. For example, Tenshinhan, I don't like you."

"... Ah. That's fine."

"See? Now," She changed her tone. "Tenshinhan," she scowled and spoke from the gut, "I despise you."

"Ok."

She dropped her false anger. "Tone and facial expressions can go a long way, never forget that, but it's different to feel it. Now, Tenshinhan?" Videl warmly smiled.

Tien beheld an actual monsoon of anger and vitriol, like a storm of red flaming vectors carried in icy gales piercing his every cell, as a veil of tendrils seeped from an enlarging Videl.

"ㅤYㅤoㅤuㅤ'ㅤrㅤeㅤㅤAㅤlㅤrㅤiㅤgㅤhㅤtㅤ.ㅤ"

Tenshinhan was now in the treeline. His demeanor hadn't dropped.

She turned to her students. "Did you feel that? It was a lower level of gaiki, and I just used it to create an 'intent'. It's only higher from there. For example, I can…" She sent the rock flying into the sky. "Move things with my mind…" She used her stick to eviscerate the pieces with pure air pressure. "Fortify weapons and objects…" She leapt hundreds of meters into the air and slowed to a stop. "Make myself super light and fly through the air…!" She formed a mammoth ki blast that shot toward the debris, atomizing it. "Bring my energy to a point and project it as-is…!" She let herself fall. "AND…" She entered a complete focus, and her fingertips began to burn. "EVEN…!" She broke out into a myriad of attacks, each one careening into another element — first bursts of fire, then whirls of water, then arcs of plasma, then spirals of wind. Finally, two pillars of rock and metal, and a wooden spire in-between, met her on the way down, and she caught herself on both in a handstand. "Tamper with and change…" she huffed, "Other… particles…" She tossed herself up, flipped onto the wooden spike, and leapt down from there. "But besides passive versions like… holding things together when you're fighting someone stupid strong… it's really not worth the hassle… least not at my level. It stops being viable when you have to focus so much into strengthening things like lightning for it to have any effect on an opponent on your level. But besides that, you can also share your ki with others like this, allowing for a short-change heal or a brief power-up, among other increasingly-zany abilities (that honestly come off as gimmicky at a point when you can just hurl your energy and destroy the planet some schmuck's trying to channel.) But this extension takes even MORE of a link between mind and body."

"OK…" Neoru looked at his fists. "That's cool n' shit, but I should be more in-sync with my body n' mind than ever. Fuck, I felt the most in-sync fighting Mei than I ever had in my life!"

Mei reddened.

"So why the hell am I still channelin' pennies, teach'?"

"Ya know, I was actually getting to that-"

"It is your meridians," Mei answered.

"Hey, I was on a roll!"

"Then roll faster." She approached him, and pointed toward the bottom of his stomach. "Your Dantian… the centers of qi, I suppose… replenish, pull, and draw forth qi as you continue to sleep, eat, breathe, train, and live a 'principled life'. Starting from here, the most-dominant lower Dantian," She dragged it up as she spoke, briefly paused at his heart, and stopped once she lifted her finger to tap his forehead. "And ending here, in this vacant bone lot where a brain would reside."

He was too busy drawing parallels to Tenganosu's technique for the insult to stick.

She closed her eyes. "Oh, if only there were a venerable instructor who could elaborate on what the activation of this particular center could grant those who nurture it!"

"... my clan is born with the heavenly eye, Xiāomèi…"

Mei reopened her shock-glazed eyes.

"Mhm." She refocused, laying her forearm horizontally along his abdomen. "Your San Jiao… tri-energizers… transport it across the body — by blood, inner currents, and meridians alike. To destroy or divert that flow turns qi against the body. And to tamper with the burners stops it from transport, weakening the victim." She lightly punched Neo's abdomen.

"Ow, what the fua-"

"To destroy the Dantian – and most devastatingly, as you know, the lower Dantian – eternally severs their possible supply of gathered qi, until they are left with their prenatal yuanqi."

"Genki?" Videl asked, garnering a nod from the pre-age woman still focused on Neo.

"Surely, you know what will come of a life if its life force is drained?"

"…" He moved her arm, now that her finger wasn't sliding everywhere like a nuclear dagger. "Dude don't fuckin' touch me like that but yeah, that's adding up I guess."

Mei opened her palm and stepped back, in a Fine-You-Big-Baby manner. "Your issue lies in the spirit. The spirit resides in one's 'particles', and shapes their memories, feelings, and wills, as well as housing the soul which carries them off to the afterlife for judgement. It strengthens the material mind and body, as they strengthen the immaterial spirit."

She formed the karana mudra Neo had grown to fear. " 'Genki' relates one to the world, its mountains and valleys, its rivers and lakes, its suns and moons, the living and dead, all that is — in the sense that it is where all matter originates, until it takes form. To refine mind and body is one affair, but to cultivate the 'spirit' is to come closer to the nothingness before 'being'. As one nears that realm, they are able to draw from themselves even more power, and more of what should be 'impossible' can be imposed on oneself and the world. Ancient immortals heralded as divine were able to reach this summit, and their teachings were passed on for millennia before fading from texts. As following those teachings went, with unwavering focus upon that 'nothingness' via a declaration or prayer, and strange symbols that focus the cosmos for a brief moment, in tandem with condensing your qi at a point…"

Mei summoned a Senkenki, one that created a vacuum vortex just by spinning. She dissipated it with widened eyes and stood in silence for a while.

She turned to Videl. "... I seem to have grown. Thank you, shījiě."

"(... i guess i'll take it?)"

Mei turned to Neoru with a bead of sweat. "Through rigorous training of mind, body, and spirit alike, one continues to strengthen, hold, and wield their 'ki' in totality, with 'genki' chief among these. To speak in terms of microcosm, this will create 'realms' within the body, growing ever smaller until the origin is reached in full. You somehow managed to overdo things and shred your very spirit; and your actions in our battle somehow led to your sealing of ki until it could recover in full. Now, your paths are slowly reopening, doubtlessly thanks to your training."

"... that's like two more 'somehows' than i needed, yeah?"

"Wha-Mh-Well I do not KNOW how, YOU tell ME how! It is YOUR bizarre mutation!"

"I dunno, you're the damn expert on this apparently. It just kinda… move it somewhere 'deeper' once my body starts bulkin' up, same as bro did."

"... who is 'bro'?"

Tenshinhan's third eye stared, quite literally, through Neoru as the two back-and-forth'd.

What awaited him wasn't a cloud-like puff, or a greater outline of himself common amongst those with refined souls.

The shape of a massive serpent lay coiled around the boy, encapsulating him. Suddenly, it turned toward the master.

"You catchin' all this?" it asked.

The crane sage rapidly shook himself out of his stunned daze.

"Yeah, me neither," the violet-eyed boy chuckled.

Mei sighed. "Truthfully I do not know. I am not some shén apothecary with a bái zé at my steed to grant me all of life's answers." She flashed a pouty glare at the boy. "You anger me."

Neoru shrugged and shook his cocked-lip face.

"Well," corroborated Tenshinhan, "Souls take on their own genki once they leave the body and ascend to the Spirit World, as life force is no longer a factor. But a potent emotion or sense of unfinished deeds can prevent the soul from passing on properly, in some cases — it'll stay in the living world, either by overriding a weaker body…"

Bad memories resurfaced in Mei's head.

"... or remaining as something intangible. It becomes trapped between this world and the next, converting the energy around it into its own ki with intense emotion, a mind formed by memories, and force of will giving them way of physical interaction if-not granting it form altogether; a spirit in the most direct sense of the word, with incredible power. Though… there are tales of warriors that could train the soul to the extent of passing it down, with all the power it housed in life, and grew in martial proficiency to an absurd degree because of it. I guess that's a third way it can stay within the world of the living…"

Tenshinhan and Neoru locked two eyes.

"... OK SO I'M BLINKIN' KINDA SLOW, I'M STILL UP AIN'T I!? WHADDO YA WANT FROM ME!?"

A burst of understanding appeared in Mei's face, but she kept to herself.

Videl folded her arms. "It's still pretty insane to remember that everyone goes to a giant red guy who apparently 'died first' and judges where you go once it's your turn. But the short and sweet of it is, many of Ki's fundamentals come from both the soul and spirit."

[ BGM: Hiroshi Tataki – Courage ]

"One is the 'you' that travels to the afterlife after you bite it, and acts through the heart while you're alive, retaining the emotional aspects when your mind dies. It even sprouts genki of its own, as Tenshinhan said. The other is you, connected to all things and incorporeal, that you gradually begin to become aware of, understand, and nurture throughout your life — it's the mind, body, and soul's end product. Portions of it can continue to exist within this world, even after the soul has come and gone. It starts at the quintessential origin energy of all things, living, dead, and inanimate — of course, Genki. More ki is gathered at the beginning of one's life and all throughout, strengthening that origin so it's able to give and circulate life. And the mind brings awareness, the ability to interpret different phenomena and control your being. From there, emotions from the soul are fed to the heart like Shōki, Yūki, Giki, Tōki, etcetera, and those positive energies grapple with negative energies like Byōki and Kyōki. Even from there all of them – good and bad, Yoki and Inki, desires and will, purity and impurity – and the required balance between all of them even FURTHER powers ki, and…"

Neoru's brain was visibly reaching breaking point.

"... yeah, Sorry. The point is that Ki is a complex beast, and it helps more-so not to overcomplicate things. However, toward the opposite extreme, a lot about Ki has been lost to time or oversimplified — it's only by getting a hang of its fundamentals that someone can use it to its fullest potential. Most modern literature still prioritizes three components and leaves it at that…" Videl blushed proudly. "Though I happen to know a particularly handsome exception, personally…"

"(... ah, so she DID mean…)"

"So now I know. But that's like half the battle." He brought a hand to his fist. "It's comin' back, but it's so damn slow that it takes all of me to ALMOST thaw shit at room temperature."

"Did you not see it?" Mei crossed her arms. "In your battle with the superhuman. Your qi has begun to flow across your body, however slow and miniscule."

"Yeah, that's why you sicc'd him on me…"

"It was."

There was a sincerity that made him turn. "... seriously?"

Mei looked off to the side as she nodded. "Is it so hard to believe? Some refuse to, until they have seen for themselves."

"... huh."

Videl clapped her hands. "THAT'S how I'm gonna end this lesson: practical application. Now, focus. Slowly, draw out the power within you." Videl slowly made a fist. "Like a chain reaction at the centers of your being, or a stream flowing from a river, firing into your hand. Igniting every last particle of yourself."

"... I'm doin' it."

"Relax. Don't strain yourself with doubts."

"I'm DOIN' it."

"Now focus on why."

"Eh?"

"Your reason for being here, training. Why you need it."

"..."

"Every single reason as to why you TRULY need to access that energy."

"... kh…"

"Every set-back, every amount of lost time, every moment you've gotten smeared when you should've won."

"kh-hh…gH!"

"Every moment where you've thought to yourself about how WEAK you are, how weak you've BECOME, how no matter HOW you squeeze it, you were too weak to change ANYTHING, to save ANYONE."

"RRR—H…!"

"NOW FOCUS! FOCUS THE STREAM INTO ONE CENTER OF YOURSELF AND EXPLODE!"

"NRRRAH!"

Neo's fist erupted into spiritual light. He stared in amazement or a time.

"... HH… HAHA… HEHAHAHAHA…!" He dropped to his knees, clenching his fist to the point of bleeding without any signs of an emotion past utter elation. "THIS'LL DO…!" He squeaked. "THIS'LL FREAKIN' DO…!"

"ALRIGHT!" Videl screamed, as if she'd been the one to reobtain control of her being. "THAT'S OUR KICK-ASS LESSON ON KI AND YOU!"

It then flashed away. "AAaah… shit." He sounded disappointed, but his grin persisted. "... I'm at, like, my molecules right now. Maybe. I dunno, but I'll sure's hell be able to punch shit harder, huh?"

Videl winked. "We'll see. Training's gonna be kicked into high gear once you're both done stretching!"

"Wait, seriously? We just stretched for like an hour before this!"

"You'd be surprised by how bad a long lecture can leave you, trust me!"

Neo kept insisting toward an unmoved Videl. All the while, Mei smiled, her piece on the board finally regaining his control.

Tenshinhan noticed the melancholy beneath her bangs. "You did well, Xiāomèi. Chahan will be happy to know his student has come so far."

"... what a pleasant thought…"

---

The day inched along from there.

Now that Neoru had reacquired basic self-strengthening, Videl could change up her training. Apparently, martial-hero fiction had been the basis for it.

Mei had a taste of home. Neo wanted to go home. Both wound up in tears at some point.

"Still can't fly, huh?" Videl asked.

"Nn-nope," answered Neo, in a crater above a mountain, around the shattered remains of what were once stalagmites.

She rubbed her chin. "That's weird… you've a natural at spear-balancing, from what I've seen, so lightening yourself should be a cinch…"

"Wasn't lightening myself. I'm just REAL good at holding my own weight."

"(That's why he always used two fingers, huh…)" Her eyes narrowed in subtle frustration. "Well toughen up, buttercup! You're gonna fly like the best of them before this tournament, count on me!" She ran off to prepare something else, brimming with determination.

"Yaaaaay…" Neo croaked, at his limit.

Mei slowly descended onto his chest — she could levitate thanks to Tenshinhan's prior tutelage, and hadn't bothered with much outside of that. "Well, you are improving. Not very quickly, but improving."

"... dude that last yay was, like, everything I had left, I can't even fake it at this point." His head tilted to the side. "This shit sucks."

She canted herself making eye contact again. "Do you yield, then?"

"No?" He started rising up against Mei's weightlessness, and she hopped off. "All I said was it sucks. Not any bullshit about quittin'."

"..."

Mei pulled out a senzu bean from her pocket, to Neo's shock. "You're kiddin'."

"A patroller had a spare on hand, and he offered it to me in exchange for a haircut." She bit off one half, and held out the other.

"What? This supposed to be pity?"

"No."

He took her tone as genuine and took it, downing it. "What's your game, Mei?"

"..." She looked off to the side, as if trying to figure out how to phrase it. "This will likely be the last time that we are somewhat equals, before you soar above me. At the rate you are going… you will soon surpass me in raw strength. Even with my qi."

"Yeah? Can't say that's really a lot."

"You…!" She sighed. "... no. It is not." She paced around, once again trying to figure things out.

Neo didn't know what he was looking at, but it was new, so he didn't interrupt.

"I… um…" She was starting to both resent and be thankful for the fact that Neo couldn't read minds yet. When w-... when I fight you, I-..."

"You feelin' alright?"

"I AM FINE, JUSt let me… think…" She stopped herself.

— The battle she had with him, the one after he'd pulled her back to reality, was the most evenly-matched she'd ever been with someone, something, in her life.

After a pause, she brought her fist to her face.

"I… enjoy…" She turned back to Neo, showing him her fist. "Fighting like this." She made the two-fingered point that defined the Spider Shadow Fist with her other hand. "And not like this."

"..."

Neo snickered.

Mei went hopelessly red and into a small panic. "N-NO! STOP THAT!"

"Ahh… holy shit, you sound like Kaza right now, it's… woah." His hand slid down his face as he cooled himself. "You like fighting without all the weird bullshit, just say that."

Mei seemed to be guarding herself now.

"... I can't get over that, y'know. People that actually LIKE fighting, like, just to fight. But just about… everyone that I've met, they all say the exact same thing. And like, you are the… last one that I'd ever-"

"Just shut up, forget that I ever spoke to you."

"No, Mei, I can DO that. Fight you without my life bein' held under a knife. I got no issue with that."

"... do you not like it?"

"... I mean… I don't really consider it a fight but, sparring with my brother gave me some'a the best memories I've got. Sparring with Dina is pretty fun, too."

"... then spar with me."

"Sure."

Mei formed two fists, erupting in a focused aura. "I will not hold back. Neither will you, if you value your life!"

"..." Neoru stared into the sky. "... you're real human, you know that?"

"What? What are you bumbling about now?"

[ BGM: Hidenori Shoji – La Muerte Del Gobierno ]

— The fight he'd had with her, atop the hill. It gave him back the will to stand against the way of the jungle.

"Nothin'." He steamed with a violet-white light, just above his skin. "Just glad you're just not the person I thought you were, one time."

Her stance faltered for a moment. "Neoru…" Mei shook her head, and charged him. They both threw a punch, and they both blocked a punch.

Their force was equal. Absolutely.

"AIKE!" Mei roared, her kick flying from Neo's blind spot and toward his abdomen. "OHSHA!" His knee rose and intercepted, and he leapt up for a front kick that she narrowly guarded against, sending her skidding back, zoning them.

He shook the shit out of his knee, and giggled a bit. Mei did the same for her forearms.

Neo charged her with a flying knee that she grabbed in mid-air, lifting him up with another shout before slamming him down, cracking the earth below for hundreds of meters. One foot pivoted to her flank, and the other soared to the heavens over the boy. He spun in place, countering it with a dual-legged kick from below, having thrown himself off the ground to do so. Her leg flew back down, and she'd conveniently slammed it into a bow stance as he flung himself back onto his feet. He dashed into her range, and his fist was bashed to the side, instantly countered by a full-throttle straight punch that Mei lunged into with a back foot. Neo took the force – choking on his own saliva all the while – and tucked into a roll, sending her into the air. She recovered almost instantly and landed on her feet, only for the violet-eyed boy to've rolled after her, landing an aerial spin-kick to the face. His feet touched the ground, and nearly left again after Mei's foot left it at a speed that pierced the sound barrier a thousand times over.

"Holy shit…!" He didn't know who'd impressed him more — Mei or himself for dodging her. There was no way Videl hadn't given her more weight.

The kick was retracted before he could make any counterplay, and she'd leapt back up from a single hand after he'd decided to sweep it from under her. She'd landed so close that her nose would've bent across Neoru's chest if she'd faced him — instead, both faced away from each other, feeling their respective heartbeat. With every minor fluctuation, every pulse of decision born within the soul, they immediately intercepted, wearing down each other's limbs with every harsh blow until Neoru dropped restraint and balled a fist, Mei following suit. He shot a full-strength hook that she intercepted with her own, both colliding, contesting blows sending winds that tore through the forest outskirts. Both caught a devious smile amid the test of might, before finally dropping it altogether. They engaged each other in a manic display of punches, elbows, chops, and guards, counters, and parries for all of them, very quickly going mobile across the stalagmite-laden terrain, both casually teasing the other's footwork with feints as they pressed for an opening.

— Everything she dished out was 120%. If she missed, she'd almost spin in that direction. It reminded him of the way Dina and that saiyan chick that she hated fought; all the way through the opponent. Mei took a hit and slammed through a stalagmite, catching herself on the one behind it and darting toward Neo in a kick that he saw through and sidestepped, and he wound back with all he had to check the inevitable spin kick that she had in store for him. Every rock structure burst into a dust that clouded the battlefield. Both grit in the face of the pain that momentarily blurred their vision, but the light in their illuminated eyes, and the ki that sparked them aflame, allowed them to continue. There was a desperation in Mei's, though; oddly enough, not one that pleaded for the fight's end. Quite the opposite, in fact. Their battle within the cloud was made clearer with every missed strike, swathing arcs and sending holes through it until, finally, both careened through it altogether, rolling across the ground and into the grass.

Mei had taken him into a collar-choke. Neoru had her in a sleeve wheel-choke.

Each breath they took was ragged and strained.

They stared into each other's eyes with a breed of intensity they'd shared with each other once before, and never with any other. A level of proximity, of evenness, of understanding, of passion that they'd never be able to share with anyone else.

.

.

.

Their holds loosened. Their breathing slowly evened.

Neither knew who struck first. Neither cared.

It was instinctual, almost. Their bodies moved, and their souls cried for it to continue. With every shared moment of warmth, they held each other tighter, as if letting go would be the end of everything. Neither had ever been so close to someone, in any regard. So vulnerable.

He found her so bottomless annoying. She found him so head-splittingly insufferable. Their every act nettled them just a bit more.

He loved her finesse, how she could stand almost-fearlessly and insisted when under pressure, her cute mannerisms behind closed doors. She loved his erratic nature, his refusal to kneel or bend, his boyish accidental charm when no one saw him.

Every sense exploded the longer they kissed. An almost animalistic emotion enveloped them. Their skin almost burned to the touch, but like a hearth after a blizzard, it only drew them closer.

He began to almost pin her against the dirt as his vest fell.

"Sure, give it a shot, just do it somewhere else. Gross."

"You hear that? I'll give you a head start. Run."

And everything came crashing down.

"Ngh…!"

Neoru snapped out of his trance. He propped himself up.

Mei's hollow wide eyes looked off emptily, absent, on a face frozen in terror. A wave of dread slammed into him, catching him off guard. "Mei!?"

She exploded away from him like a spider, stopping just as abruptly. Consciousness returned to her, but it only amplified the horror in her eyes.

"... oh my g-Mei, I didn't… hey wait I-I…"

She looked at him and then the dirt one more time, welled up with an angry agony, and ran off. He heard a gate open not long after.

He knelt in place. His head slowly lowered under the weight.

---

Mei had returned to that same grassy mountain top she'd chosen to live upon for over a year, as the night neared its swallowing of day. She tried to calm herself, the same way she had when she first arrived, and every day before then. But for once, it didn't matter.

Now it had… they had begun to take from her again. No abstract idea of people, no species to throw blame upon.

"(Everything was perfect, and then…!)"

It kept replaying in her head, like a haunted system. It always came back to the saiyans that shouldn't've been there in the first place. No matter where she ran, or how much happier or how much stronger she grew, they were there. Waiting behind every dark corner to come from nowhere and kill her everything and violate her and gamehunt all over again.

Anger filled her body, but the ki within was too conflicted to burst forth and reflect externally. There was some unfathomable shame that hounded her, one she knew was almost childish to feel, and that only amplified her rage.

— She saw it in his eyes, once she'd returned. The stupid boy would now blame himself for something those three bastards did to her.

She couldn't bring herself to live through it again. Not with him. Just the thought brought her dread. It was like she'd been demystified in his eyes, which devastated her pride as well. It had all happened so fast, the emotional whirlwind hit her only on reflection.

Fooling herself into believing she could open up to someone so deeply without that blight on her spirit getting in the way, or waiting to explode.

"(... fool.)"

She keeled over, the sheer hate she felt making her sick. Her tear-laden glare burned through the ground.

"... no…!"

Her fist pounded the ground. A violent amber storm of air-scything wind surrounded her, slowly condensing onto the successor's body.

"They have taken ENOUGH from me…!"

---

"Dumbass."

Neo had said it aloud in random intervals, as he lifelessly stared into the ceiling.

The broken silverware, the messy plates from that morning, the scent that still lingered on the couch that he'd freshly kicked to hell and now laid upon. Every last moment, every last reminder filled him with an unearthly shame, like he'd killed a man.

He'd never felt so strongly about someone in his life. Never so enchanted, never so enraged. Now this.

Just thinking about it made him angrier at himself.

"Dumbass."

And the cycle began again. It was like he was eating his own nonexistent tail.

BMMMMP!

It was like 2 in the morning. He checked the stupid shit PDA that the idiots without licenses had to carry around, even though he was more fucking qualified than the fuckheads who only had to pass some stupid shit test, the cOCKSU-

…

He stared at the message.

…

"... f—uck, dude."

His soul wanted to move, but his mind was in too much of a panicky, jumbled mess that his body shut down.

"... hell's there even to talk about? Why NOW? It just fucking HAPPENED, stupid!" he bitched to no one.

"... I dunno, maybe she's just doin' me a solid an' chopping my head off."

That seemed to get him onto his feet. "Guy can dream, right?" he muttered.

---

All that awaited him within the time-space was an orange thread. He looked around to see where she was hiding to take him off this wild ride permanently, and felt out her qi (she liked saying it so much that he'd just begun associating it with her), only to turn back in the direction of the thread.

Far out, leading to the dead God Tree.

"... dammit, Mei."

He could lighten his body enough to bamboozle a scale, and reinforce his body simultaneously. The trip didn't take three weeks for that reason, but his legs sure as hell burned afterward.

A capsule bonk'd him on the head as he panted. He grabbed it mid-air, and looked up at where it fell from.

[ BGM: Brain – Alibi ]

Sure enough. In her classic black-indigo robes, too.

"... Hey, I just-"

She shook her head. She then started clicking an invisible pen. The boy took the hint and activated the capsule. She wouldn't tell him that it cost her every penny to buy one chock-full of healing essence.

He felt better. Which meant he was going to feel worse, very soon. Before his mind could race, she pointed to the top of the tree.

"... you're shitting."

With her neutral expression, she slowly turned, her now waist-length ponytail swaying behind her.

"YOU'RE SHITTING."

She vanished.

"..."

He could honestly go home.

He really didn't need to make this dumb fucking climb.

Kaset had told him not to about once or twice, Videl and Tenshinhan had dismissed it altogether.

It was very-much so a needless danger, especially for someone on his level with half the tricks others on it had access to.

He could go home, and not worry about the tiny slippery holds at the base, some rife with some adamantine-type thorns for whatever reason.

He DEFINITELY wouldn't need to worry about the dead-sprints he'd need to embark on in order to meet the steep shit hills that waited for him at the top of some climbs.

Or the parkour that he had to pull out his ass from the days of building-hopping and escape artistry, just to not fall between the bark.

And most-certainly not about the agitating strain on his spirit. He didn't get it, it felt almost… good? At points?

In any case, he felt like it was high time to call it quits once the balance and speed checks along branches hit. This was getting stupid. Also, it was getting piss-cold.

But he kept going, of course. By the time he looked down, it was painfully apparent. The bottom was clouded, literally.

"... fuck me."

He kept climbing.

After every close fall, every gust of wind that sucker-punched his whole body, every close encounter with thorns on par with spears, he climbed.

Bark could be used for a jump pad. Branches could be used for picks and bridges and split-second bars to swing off, they were sturdy enough here and if they weren't, he could make them.

He hit an area where speed and power were everything. Summoning something within him, he cleared the borderline-obstacle course by the skin of his teeth. From there, just a branch climb.

Up and over, and there he was. The top.

Seconds later, an orange thread looped around the top branch. In a small flip, Mei yanked herself upward. She panted in what seemed like victory, until she heard his own.

"... oh… you are already here…" She sank further onto her knees, huffing and puffing like one missed breath meant death. "... drat…"

---

[ BGM: Haruka Nakamura – Faraway ]

"So how're we gettin' down?"

"The gates, of course."

"Oh. Yeah."

"... y'know, I wanna call this kinda view pretty but… I can't even understand it. It's just… space, everywhere. There isn't even a bottom."

"Right? I had expectations of something greater but, perhaps I was just deluding myself."

"Really. S'at why you climbed up here?"

"... I just wanted to do something with you, I suppose."

"..."

"..."

"I gotta talk about it."

"..."

"I… don't know what came over- no, fuck that, it's… fuck it, fukkit. I… I messed up. I fuckin' threw myself onto you and, and I didn't stop myself. Just thinkin' of it just… I can't make this shit up to you."

"I threw myself onto you, as well."

"... huh?"

"... What I felt for you yesterday… it was real. I felt closer to you in that moment than to anyone I had ever met. Even my master. Even Kaza."

"... but-"

"Stop blaming yourself."

"BUT I KNEW-"

"I said stop. You will not make things better by seeking a guilty party that is not present. I have tried. Over, and over, I have tried. But those responsible have been dead for many years now."

"..."

"I never told you, did I?"

"... I started piecing-... no."

"Hhh—hnn... When I was fifteen… my world was attacked by thugs. With technology they should not have held at the time. They arrived in a time of war, so I thought they were angry demons. But no, they were thugs from space. They pillaged the land, they brutalized my master before killing him, and then they brutalized me. A woman beat me to the verge of death. One man ate from my shoulder. And a man… chased me down and… and a man violated me."

"... fuck. FUCK. MEI, I'M-"

"Would yoU CUT IT OUT!? STOP FUCKING APOLOGIZING! YOU ARE NOT THEM! NO ONE IS THEM! THEY ARE GONE! DEAD FOREVER, ALONG WITH THEIR SINS!"

"..."

"... I'n sorry, I…"

"... What'm I s'posed to say then?"

"You... you don' need to say anything. I just want you to listen. You are fine, sitting right there in silence. That's all I want from you. I promise."

"..."

"... they hunted me for fun, after that. My every day was spent running and plotting their demise. I was scared. To wake up alive was a moment for mourning, I just… I stopped being a person. I can', ever, forget that misery. I just want them to stop painting my life but even now they won'. That's why I froze and ran from you. Suddenly I was there again."

"... you talk in your sleep. I just needed to tell you."

"I know."

"... I... uh..."

"..."

"... nothing."

"... what did yesterday mean to you? Before I froze."

"..."

"Neoru."

"I can't just answer shit like that after... come on."

"... Humor this pitiable Mei? Please?"

"OK, ok... I… ever since that time on the mountain, I… I dunno. You were always somewhere in my head. Ever since, the way you smiled, the way you laughed, that mystique around you, I…"

"... Hnhm… Mystique?"

"H-heh, yeah I… Wanted to describe it so I went diggin' through a thesaurus."

"So the mountain? That day, I tried to kill you and a child."

"You were a dumb fucking kid back then, too. Everyone there was a dumb fucking kid."

"How callous."

"Yeah."

"..."

"..."

"You released me, as soon as you noticed something wrong, did you not?"

"I did."

"So you were willing to lie on yourself today."

"No. You can call me a stupid boy all you want, I genuinely thought I went too far."

"... you stupid, stupid boy."

"Uh huh."

Mei stood up, wiping off stranded tears, and threw her gate behind her. "Stand."

"Why?"

"Just. Stand."

Neoru sighed, started to get up as Mei approached him,

And then a blue flash.

[ BGM: Brain – Speed of Light ]

"...?"

Both had been cast into the air. By the time she'd realized, they were already in freefall.

Mei panicked. Her gate was destroyed. The God Tree was breaking off in a monolithic slow-motion display of carnage, akin to a giant wood avalanche. And both were so low on energy, the bare-minimum they'd been using to keep warm had sapped them.

Her world slowed to a crawl as she desperately searched for Neoru. Amidst the literal billions of tons of debris and cumulonimbus-worth of dust, there he fell. She called his name and dove after him.

"GATE!"

He barely made her message out, but it clicked for him in an instant. He pulled it out, activating it within his pocket in his unrest, but in his tired and cold hands, against the wind pressure, it slipped free.

Both eyed it in horror, Mei channeling every octave of her being into one thread and managing to pull it down with them, it activating mid-fall.

Chunks the size of mountains and splinters like falling bullets descended around them, Mei condensing herself to fall just a bit faster to get to the boy aggressively trying to ward her off.

"-CKIN' DUMBASS, GET TO THE GATE!" She began to make out his frantic screaming and ignored him, grabbing him in an embrace.

"... What did you just-"

She smiled. "Don' hate yourself, Neo. You made me happy."

"... Mei?"

"hn- HAAAA—"

She fired her very life force into one last straight kick into his centre mass, paralyzing him. His violet eyes gleamed all the while before the portal was obscured.

"(... was I happy?)" She questioned herself as she fell.

"(... how cruel.)" It would've been nice to look back and smile at things, but she couldn't. "(Just as I began to live…)"

Her fist balled. She was happy. Now it was being taken. Maybe it wouldn't have happened if she'd stayed put, hadn't been so adamant on something as foolish as this, but...

And then she heard something horrifying.

"... nO…!"

The same incessant yelling, a third time.

"NO, NO, NO…!"

"RAAAAAAAA—!"

Bursting through debris, burning away dust, that stupid fucking snake egg had come back to die with her.

"YOU MORON!" she screamed at him in a rage. "WHY!?"

"SHUT UP!" he screamed as he barreled straight into her, holding tight.

"WHY STOPS YOU FROM DOING WHAT YOU ARE TOLD, YOU BASTARD!?" she sobbed. "WHY COULD YOU NOT JUST LIVE ON!?"

"I SAID FUCKIN' ZIP IT! DON'T TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK I CAN AND CAN'T DO, DAMMIT!"

That heat within him began to die off, and she violently rejected the end. But then she saw it, once again.

"YOU'RE GONNA WORK FOR ME FROM NOW ON, YOU HEAR ME YOU PIECE'A SHIT!?" he screamed to himself, streaming steaming tears.

— Social.

— Kuole.

— Kaset.

— Even Cleo.

"I SAID YOU'RE THROUGH HIDING FROM ME!"

A dragon's roar boomed out, and . . .

.

.

She opened her eyes.

The star closest had begun to rise, cascading the clouds around them.

She was weightless, without need of technique.

"I… did it..."

Mei looked up.

Down stared Neoru. His hair loosened, dragging shaky breath after shaky breath into his lungs, his eyes gleaming brighter than ever — with light, with moisture.

"... you…!"

She prepared to bawl her eyes out, call him every curse under the heavens, beat him senseless now that he was unable to move.

He attacked first.

It was gentle. Nowhere past the lips. He held onto it for a while, tears streaming down his face, down hers. She pressed tighter.

They split as the star began to move, and he returned to his dragged breaths, head skyward.

"I hate you," she frowned.

Her words felt like… he didn't know. Something warmer than warm.

"I know."

She cuddled into his neck. In the cold sky, he had a hearth's warmth. "With every drop of my blood, I hate you."

"... you hate that?"

They stared off into the newborn horizon, silent.

"... there are worse things."

"Y'know… this is the third time you've… done this for me. No one gets me… burning… up, inside… like you do, Xiāomèi."

"... what did you say?"

Neo smirked. "Hey. I can p… pay attention when… it's something I wan'."

She leaned into his lips once more. They held on for a bit longer, this time.

Neo sailed down. To drop her off, to not drop himself on account of breathlessness, both were valid reasons.

---

"Feels like I'm back to where I was, just about." Neoru yawned along the side of a plateau. "Weird though, it's the best I've ever felt. Tlatla just… finished opening up everything, I guess."

The back of Mei's head leaned against his back. "... Do you remember how ghosts take shape, Neo?"

Neoru scoffed. "No."

"Of course." Mei composed herself. "Those who don't steal a vessel of weak inner fortitude, steal energy from this world to interact with it. It is why their presence feels cold."

"Spooky."

"Neo, what do you think your Tlatla entails?"

"From what I gather, it's like… something inside me gets 'lifted' like a floodgate, then once my body can't go any further, it diverts into my soul. From there I keep gettin' stronger until my soul, uh…" Neo made a pop sound with his lips. "Seems I can handle it better now, for what that's worth."

"And your soul becomes physical in that time, yes?"

"Sorta? Pretty sure I'm vergin' on the edge whenever that happens, though."

"... I recall tales of those who attain such vast strength of spirit, their souls could take form and leave their mortal shell, and even harbor qi birthed from the exceptional's ascendant Dantian. But beasts, as well, could reach this height, should they live to certain ages." She looked over his shoulder. "I wonder, must your soul have belonged to something as incredible as a dragon, long ago?"

"... I've never told you about the time I meditated for a month straight?"

Mei's head shot to attention. "Madman...!"

"Guess not...! Well uh... the gist is that I got to talk to some dead people, and a not-so dead person. Depending on how you see it. Anyway, after that... I saw it. A HUGE motherfucker with like four wings and a damn, MANE of feathers. Right after havin' a chat with me as a kid. Whatever it is, it... THEY... are a part'a me. And before then, before you and Zink, I'd just... lost 'em."

"... a shared... vessel..."

"Hah?"

"I have a hunch." Mei turned her back onto Neo's again. "You are both. The dragon shows itself in the embers of your spirit, as it does your eyes. The boy reveals itself in your thoughts..." She lifted her head and butted it back into him. "And your body. But your feelings... that is the bridge. The dragon's rage is the boy's. The boy's sorrow is the dragon's. That is why you are able to bear each others' burden. How this union came to be, I don't know. But the past doubtlessly holds more romance."

Neo's thoughts trailed back to what his brother had said to him as a child. On the feeling that had always kept him pushing forward in spite of himself, back in his forsaken history. He smiled, but attempted to conceal it as a coy tease. "Even make it sound like I'm married to the thing... you're a real sucker for romance, you know that?"

The successor shrugged. "I am not ashamed of my romance. Two parts create whole. Heaven and Earth create being, Yin and Yang create cosmos. It is simply the way of things."

Neoru smirked. "So damn corny...!"

"Tch!" Mei stood, folding her arms as she moved to his opposite side. "A rising sun come morning, a blooming flower come spring, and a clueless boy come nuance."

"Uh-huh." Neoru fell onto his back, taking in the sky. "Rising sun... tomorrow, huh?"

"Do you think yourself unready?"

"Nah. I mean, yeah, but I can't ask for more than this right now. It's pretty much miraculous."

"... then… perhaps… it would not be wrong of you to absolve yourself."

Neo's eyes flashed open. "I'm sorry?"

Mei continued to stare forward, unwilling to meet his gaze. "You could leave this battle behind you."

"... what, so you can have me all to yourself, huh?"

"Yes."

He was getting sick of being caught off-guard by that.

Mei continued. "That man… he will take everything that I love about you."

"Whaddoya mean? It's just some weird un-evil teq, right? C'mon, I ain't that bad Me- Mei…?"

She laid down, facing the sky as well. "He kills the fighting spirit. All of it." Her fingers and his interlocked. "Even with a soul as powerful as your own, his fist is among the few beasts that devour even dragons. There stands the chance that he could reduce you to a husk, if he so willed it. I have seen such a thing up-close, and it is haunting. So have you."

"Oh…" He remembered the ex-FF soldier. "Oh, shit. That's what he meant, back then."

"I…" She looked away. "I saw you as a means of testing his power with your resolve, your personality, your tenacity… I was selfish. I sentenced a good man to something worse than death. But I don't want you to fight anymore, Neo."

Neo kept staring into the sky. "You were settin' me up to fight someone like that, this whole time?"

"I-..." Her hand weakened. "I'm sorry, I…"

"Cool." He snickered, to her horror. "Guess I left one hell of an impression on you huh, dumbass?" Neo sighed. "Man… Zinco's been this strong, this whole time… and I still would've fought the guy. If you didn't ride my ass like you did, then what? Wouldn't'a got as far as I am now." He balled their fists. "Not given' myself an out. I've gotta show ya, show myself, what this has all meant."

Wordlessly, Mei rolled atop him with her pained eyes, a sharp pain directly over his dantian.

"That a finger on a pressure point, or are ya just happy to see me?"

"Please." She sounded unsure of her own actions.

"I'd do weird stuff with my soul and undo it."

"Then I'd take your limbs."

"Then I'd inch on with my shoulders."

"Then I'd sever your tendons."

"Then I'd bite my way forward."

"Then I'd seal your mouth shut."

"Then I'd fly."

.

[ BGM: Brain — Higher Elevation ]

She fell into his neck. "... you would," she whispered.

He held her close. "Damn right," he whispered. "Lemme pay back that faith. I'll show you what I'm really made of, out there. Mind, body, spirit… all of it."

"... then fly for me."

Neo raised a brow. "... I don't think I follow?"

She looked him in the eyes. "It is just as I say. Fly."

His brow kept its higher elevation, but he smiled. Mei picked herself up just as Neo did. They shared a smile halfway up.

She looked into his confident eyes, as he approached the edge with a backward walk, and punched a thumbs-up to his side.

And then he fell off the edge.

Mei waited, arms folded.

A violet-white missile shot from beneath.

He somersaulted into the air before slowly coming to a halt, weightless as his clothes and hair fluttered.

A hand raised, and two fingers blocked out the star's rays, letting him behold the vista below. With a high expression, he fell like he'd been shot through the head. As he descended, and his heart raced from the human fear of heights and falling, his aura slowly burned into corporeality until finally, he stopped himself. Trees in a mile's radius rustled in a light wave as he burst a hundred feet into the air, and he disappeared again, causing an even bigger wave of rustling. He soared through the sky like a bat out of hell, shattering the sound barrier in his first second of flight and only going faster. He slammed into the side of a mountain range without more than a kick of dust, launching himself upward before vaulting up a peak and flipping onto the summit.

He stood atop and took it all in with a deep inhale.

In his hands, two orbs of ki steamed away at the snow before falling from his hands, through the surface.

His hand rapped along his hip. His heel rapped on the mountain peak.

He heard something crackling like thunder, and a sharp inhale and nervous grin followed, before he was enveloped in an eruption of light.

Mei beheld the breathtaking display from a distance, and waited. And waited. For a moment, she grew anxious.

Then she rolled her eyes with a scoff. "What a boy…"

From the crashing rubble and spokes of light, Neoru vertically bolted into the sky like a phoenix rising from a volcano, cackling maniacally. One explosion later, his careening lightshow went horizontal, ramping steadily into the air before giving his body to momentum in a slow, 360 backflip that lasted his entire ascent, before spiraling madly on the way down. Not long into it, he shot across the dimension in every manner that one could, randomly stopping his flight to enjoy the feeling of being tossed and falling freely, only to substitute nature's laws with his own, firing back off into the air or hopping off a ki blast.

He'd disregarded the idea of slow and steady, about any future battle, and lived in the moment, flying.

Mei smiled, pushing her hair back as the winds raced before her.

"(At long last… the serpent has begun to sprout wings.)"

Along the way, he feigned grabbing the blazing star above in his hands, grinning like an idiot.

"(How many years before your true nature takes shape, 'yinglong'?)"

[ ED: Mike Shinoda, Joseph Trapanese, Chino Moreno – RAZORS. OUT ]

or

[ ED: Motion City Soundtrack – My Favorite Accident ]

---

1/7/2024 PATCH NOTES: A lot. Changes to dialogue and scenes, re-explanations and additional info.

Also, I'm starting to see why this is all such a pain. DB shares a Ki power system with Wuxia and Xianxia, sure, but a lot of it is still so foreign to DB that I've gotta "sell the idea" of a lot of this stuff to the readers/myself, who is also a DB fan that knows the universe. It's me squeezing what I can inside of this thing to expand on the vast pre-existing power system while being as non-intrusive as I possibly can.

Yo! OP Here!

WELCOME TO 2024, FUCKO.

THE ERA OF "CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT" HAS ENDED.

THUS, HANDS SHALL BE THROWN. POCKETS, RAN. JUDGEMENT, LOST. FAITH, FOR. PRIDE, WEIGHED. DREAMS, BATTLED.

Yeah. That Ki portion took me more than a week. I.E. damn near all of my leave. I now know way, waaaay more about Daoism and Qigong and shit than most not-Daoists should. You can thank Derek Padula for, like, all of that btw. This entire chapter was me figuring it the fuck out, Neoru and Ki-wise. Am I happy where it is now? Sorta. Am I happier than I was? x10,000. On that note, to break it down:

Sobriety/Consciousness/Stable Mind (Has also been translated as Moral Up-Rightness) = Shōki

Courage/Bravery = Yūki

Righteousness/Chivalry = Giki

Tenacity/Fighting Spirit (I like dis one) = Tōki

Sickness = Byōki

Insanity/Instability = Kyōki

Yang Qi = Yoki (not to be confused with Youki)

Yin Qi = Inki

I almost forgot to mention this. Mei.

I don't think I did the, fuck this, rape subject enough justice, but I didn't want to throw it under the rug, either. I couldn't. It's a part of her character. Sure as fuck doesn't define it, trauma doesn't FUCKING define people, but... fuck it. I wanna explain past me's thought process as to why it's even there.

1) I read Berserk and thought angrier = cooler, so I threw whatever I could to make Mei really, really angry. Immature decision.

2) I rationalized it in the early days because "muh heckin violent warrior race."

3) It's still there because a prevailing theme of the story is, at its core, struggle. And people learning to manage it, and keep struggling. So having an SA survivor not just have it for the purpose of a sad backstory, and forge new bonds, and reforge them, and have this shit pop up again and again over the course of her life, and STILL have the resolve to continue, and learn to be vulnerable to loved ones again, and have people around her to keep her going and hear her out and give her a reason to keep struggling... did I mention that I read Berserk at a point? It was pretty important to me. Yeah. It's still there because I look up to the struggler.

OK that got WAAAY too personal, funni time again.

Next chapter: Videl and Kaset fight for mentorship custody (and indirectly set Neo and Mei up), I offscreen the rest of their training so Neo can pull cool shit out his ass vs Zinco, sendoffs, one last night with the lad/sses, Mei and Kaz join Neo and Dina's Dumbfuck Family (A Tojo Clan Subsidiary), Pan solves her Mommy Issues (somewhat), Videl solves her Baby Issues (somewhat), Tenganosu may or may not yap with a third South Stretch tribe member, something might happen with Devine, and MAYBE. MAYBE. A Neojin fight before THE Neojin fight.

It's fucking happening. I feel like I need to say it again to confirm that it's real but, it's actually fucking happening. In reaching this Final Destination, my Unwavering Belief paid off, all I need to do now is Dig In My Heels and work like a Killionaire. On. Grindset, cus who knows, I could be struck by a Viper, or lay down my life in the coming battles in which history declares which side was of Justice or Evil, and never finish this.

Vorarephilia.

Yeah I finished Lost Judgement. GOATed. Made me cry like a bitch. So yeah, typical RGG. Don't ask me why it took me this long.

Speaking of, 15k including OP Talks. I wanted to make Ki as flexible and powerful as possible. And work on Tlatla again. Yes, I'm taking back the last Tlatla explanation. Why? Because while I don't hate myself anymore, I enjoy watching myself suffer. It intrigues and amuses me immensely.

So yeah. That's about it. If you're still alive, thank you. If you're gone, we'll keep living in your honor. Here's to 2024 being a year.

See you.