Trunks took a seat.

Mei sat adjacent.

The still-young sunlight crawled through the slits of the office's blinds, casting shadows upon both and revealing the black-coated leader's cross expression.

"I'll make this as quick as possible."

Mei stared off.

"There are 3 ways this little skirmish of yours could've gone down, and all evidence points to you."

Mei stared off.

"This is the first and last time I'll ask."

Mei stared off.

"Did. You. Start. It?"

.

.

Mei nodded.

Trunks sighed. "Let me make this clear: there is nothing you could do short of destroying history itself that'd make me want to send you back. You, and every patroller here, has SOMETHING within them which warrants becoming a force for good. "

"I would be a pawn?"

"No. Of course not."

Trunks's expression shifted.

"Still. You aren't a pawn, but you aren't free enough to do and kill as you DAMN-WELL PLEASE. Whatever grudge you have, it doesn't justify murder!"

Mei grit her teeth, before returning to a dead expression.

"What will become of me?"

Almost on-cue, the outside sunlight was muffled by a stray cloud.

"That's the problem. My higher-up doesn't quite share my point of view; they're the 'if broken, return to sender' type. That means I… may not be able to stop them from doing exactly that; send you back, I mean."

Fear consumed Mei's deadpan expression.

"I AM NOT YET READY!"

"I know. But unfortunately, I'm losing control of the situation. See, my higher-up values saiyan power and potential. Knowing there's someone in Conton with a hatred for them – and the drive and means to take a few out – may or may not sway their decision to 'expel' you."

"BUT THEY ARE MONSTERS!"

Trunks shrugged. "Say what you will about them. Doesn't change anything."

The scarlet-haired mystery found herself in a corner: submit to beasts, or be sent to death.

Fortunately, Neoru just-so happened to be passing along.

"Found you," He said nonchalantly.

"(I definitely locked that-NO, NO, plan won't work if I show weakness!) We're discussing something right now, sir. I'll need to ask you to-"

"Yeah, yeah, it's about that."

"OK…" Neoru yawned and stretched a bit. He proceeded to bolt out the building."

"Wai-WAIT, NEORU!" Zinco suddenly yelled from his bedside.

"Eh?" Neoru stepped backward. "Looks like you're done chewing polyester, dumbass. What's up?"

"The scary girl with the long red hair got taken out of here a while ago! Please check if she's OK!"

"Where to?"

"I KNEW YOU'D DO IT!"

"Yeah, turns out I'm just a reeeal sore loser. Now where to?"

"I'm not… sure…"

"Fuck's sake, kid, at LEAST gimme a general direction."

Zinco pointed right with his tongue.

"That, I can work with. Try not to choke on air while I'm gone."

"OK!"

"You're not leavin' until I beat you myself, you crazy bitch…" he mentally swore as he covered the city.

"That moron was tryin'a break up a fight, she didn't start a thing!" Neoru proclaimed before boldly pointing toward himself. "I'm the one who started it!"

Trunks's half-shut eyes of doubt weren't swayed just yet. "Sure… what motive could you possibly have?"

"Don't fuckin' talk to me like I'm some sorta chicken! I don't like yellow, so I followed Zinco up a hill, and I beat the shit outta him! This bitch-"

"Shào Mei-"

"THIS… BITCH… tried to save him, somethin' about 'young saiya teach me value of friendshii,' I didn't like the way she talked, so I beat the shit outta her, too!"

"Even though a deep point of pressure within Zinco's core had been irritated, one that sends ki flow haywire and could only conceivably be ruptured by a skilled, trained martial artist deliberately aiming for it?"

"I read a book and thought I'd try it out on the schmuck."

"(He… mocks my arts…)"

"Beginner's luck, sure… How about the nigh-identical puncture point found square in YOUR mid-section? One that ALSO aimed at a pressure point connected to the ability to draw forth energy?"

"I fell down some stairs-Jeez Louise, guy, quit the questions already. Did I or did I not kick the shit outta both these assholes?"

"(S… stairs!?)"

"I can't deny that."

Neoru snapped his fingers. "Boom. I'm guilty."

Trunks rubbed his procerus.

"Well. Don't do that. And try not to… FLING yourself down any more stairs."

"Fuck you, I'll fling myself down whatever I want!" Neoru declared as he stormed out the office.

"I don't think he even knows what that means." Trunks turned to Mei. "Looks like you're off the hook, young lady. Still, this ever happens again, maybe you won't be so lucky. Dismissed."

"Y… Yes."

"Fling myself down these stairs, jackass, don't test me…" the mostly-uneducated vagabond grumbled as he stared (HahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA) down a flight.

"Stranger."

Neo looked back. "Neoru."

Mei's confusion was visible. "Why did you take my blame?"

"You know, the big bad Saiyan whose head you damn-near lobbed off told me to check on you. Funny, right?"

The former assassin scoffed. "TELL HIM LEAVE ME BE."

"Sure," Neo shrugged, turning to walk off. "Still, there's that other thing… I'm workin' on getting stronger myself, you know. I'm not stupid enough to dedicate myself to revenge, y'know, but it'd be a bummer to know that you're gone before I can take a crack at you for real. With what I KNOW I have."

He twisted his neck to the side, exposing a devious grin.

"Once I'm strong enough, you're mine."

And on that final note, he strutted downward.

He tripped and fell down the last flight of stairs, screeching profanities all the way down, but nothing significant came of it.

"... Shǎchā ..."

[OP: King and Ashley]

Kora's Dilemma! The Super Saiyan Problem!

Conton City.

Yeah, uh…

No, no it still fucking sucks.

[BGM: J Dilla - 2 Can Win 0:00 - 0:06]

"Look, ALL I DID was make an observation," a petite pink-haired woman in a yellow gi stated in defense.

"HOW COULD YOU SAY SUCH A THING?" an azure, horned and tailed humanoid clad in bio armor maintained.

"Hey, you wouldn't be so upset if you didn't believe it yourself!"

"WHAT KIND OF BACKWARDS LOGIC-NO, I'M UPSET BECAUSE THAT KIND OF THINKING ISN'T JUST WRONG, IT'S VENOMOUS!"

"You say that like I'm not basing this on anything! If it were so "wrong," then how come-"

"NO YOU DON'T-"

"-espite only making up approximately 0.0001% of the universe's population, musai are responsible for-"

Big green arms were all that stood between the musai and the human's throat.

"BACK OFF, UZUM! I'LL SHOW THAT SNARKY LITTLE ASSHOLE 20%!"

"Only proving me riiight~" the vibrantly-dressed pro-observationalist taunted from the safety of a few meters.

"Metats, if you didn't explode every time she did this, she'd've stopped the first time," Uzum calmly reasoned, before the tall, blue-loose-pants donning namekian turned toward their human counterpart.

"Still, humans aren't exactly angels, Legin. If the man-made happenings on Earth are anything to go off of, if ever given the technology, what's to stop humans from doing the same as the, what, 10 musai maximum who terrorized the galaxy at points?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny such an accusation."

Uzum groaned. "Regardless, the point is that you're being a massive hypocrite by putting entire species under a microscope because of the atrocities of a vocal minorit-"

"Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…"

Uzum's eyes began to narrow.

"-hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-"

Uzum's eyes grew irate.

"…hhhhah. Humans have always had their own reasons for conflict," she shrugged. "No human's born evil, for example. Now, name one good reason for Frieza's conquest. Trickquestionyoucan't." Legin proceeded to laugh victoriously for some reason.

"THAT'S A CAN OF WORMS YOU DON'T WANT OPENED, SISTER!" Metats screeched, still in his green companion's grasp. "THOSE FEW MUSAI HAD SCREWS LOOSE, THAT, ANYONE CAN ATTEST! THE R.R.A'S LEADER DID EVERYTHING HE DID JUST TO BECOME TALLER! DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY GALLONS OF BLOOD WERE SHED FOR THE SAKE OF A FEW CENTIMETERS?"

"You know who ELSE killed for a few centimeters?"

"…"

"…"

"…!-"

"Frieza."

"GRAAA-"

Over the commotion of the city's antics, a certain saiyan gave a frustrated huff.

"Every… day with these people, great galax…" she mumbled, closing her binder with a thud.

Throwing it over her shoulder, its rings gracefully slid down a bushy tail, the black-armored young woman made her way toward somewhere a tad more peaceful.

This is Kora.

No, not that one, you're thinking of the cat lady from a GOOD time patroller fanfic.

"Hey!"

Shut up, keep walking.

"At least… act like I'm right here… jeez…"

Age 17, Height 180cm, Born and raised on Planet Vegeta. Blood Type A, Equivalence of a perfect 4.0 GPA, Favorite color being green (deductible via the verdant sections of her armor), and if she were to be reincarnated into any animal that couldn't be herself again, it would be a Paozusaurus.

Most importantly – or, most likely, the only detail of importance – would be that this saiyan has recently made an enemy. One that's radically challenged her beliefs.

"Hey, Kora!"

This young man is most certainly not that enemy!

A tall, incredibly-muscular saiyan made his way toward the girl, tail wagging all the while. He wore a familiar, crimson and skin-tight training suit; now, though, he adorned over it a white chassis, not far-off in design to Kora's, coupled with black-and-yellow highlights though lacking the 2 sizeable plates coming off the waist.

"What is it, horndog?" Kora sneered.

"Aw come on!" the young man pleaded, shaking his hands. "I Just wanted to check on you, that's all!"

"Check on me or check me out?"

"I'm not THAT bad. Seriously, I just wanted to-"

"Then LOOK ME IN THE EYES, ARCHI."

Archi's face went pale.

"A-as I was saying," he sputtered, maintaining nervous eye-contact with Kora, "You've been acting weird ever since that fight you got in 2 days ago."

"Weird?" Kora shrugged off the accusation. "Whatever you're seeing, you're overthinking."

"Well, for one, you're not training nearly as hard as you used to."

"Well maybe I'm just getting burned out, ever think of that?"

"No, I don't think that's it. You're only passed out after our sessions for 30 minutes now, used to be an hour. Not just that, you're getting in less blows than usual."

"Would it kill you to rephrase that? Just… all of it?"

"What do you…" after a brief interval of silence, Archi giggled a bit. Surprisingly, Kora followed suit.

"Yeah, I wish."

"What?"

"Y-YEP THAT DID KINDA SOUND OFF, DIDN'T IT? HAHAHAHA, haaaaah…"

Kora raised an eyebrow. Archi was quick to salvage the moment.

"Wanna grab a bite? My treat."

"How much?"

"As much as I need to keep you in one spot."

Archi was a fool.

Archi was a broke-ass fool.

He could only watch from the opposite side of his dining room table as Kora ate through tens of thousands of zeni.

"So, uh…"

Even if she wanted to talk, Kora's face was too stuffed with spaghetti strands and takoyaki to communicate in a way that wouldn't result in some poor schmuck mopping up tons of wasted food.

In a way, attempting a conversation with a hungry saiyan was like combat. One needs to wait for an opening and, in that split-second time frame, strike with an attack that opens them up to an even greater assault. And Archi wasn't green enough to miss that shot.

Kora finally managed to wolf down her current mouthful. Just as she grabbed another stick of seasoned flour balls…

"Super Saiyans."

Just as planned, the young woman came to an abrupt stop.

"…What about them?"

"That's what this moping is about, right?"

"… No."

"Wait, it isn't? Darn it, I really thought I got it right!"

Archi would've taken a few hours, but he'd've guessed the answer eventually. Kora took it upon herself to end it, then and there.

"It's. Her."

"… You mean the new girl who threw you for a loop at class?"

"No. No, it's the OTHER girl who's done nothing but push me off the edge for the past week."

"Jeeeez. I get it, you're upset."

"UPSET? WHO, ME? NOOOOOOO! I'VE JUST BEEN WALKING ON FUCKING RAINBOWS ALLLL WEEK! THAT'S WHAT YOU NOTICED, RIGHT? MY UNCANNY AMOUNT OF UNRELENTING JOY? CAN'T YOU JUST FEEL HOW HAPPY I AM?"

Archi couldn't tell if Kora was trying to ironically force a smile or tear her mouth apart with force of face muscles alone. Whatever it was, it petrified him.

"I… I'm sorry. It's just that I… I just can't stand the fact that I know she exists. That something like her exists."

"But you beat her. No, you down-right humiliated her in the middle of town. You beat a Super Saiyan!"

"THAT'S THE PROBLEM."

Archi's eyebrow kissed his forehead.

"If she HAD beat me within an inch of my life, if she'd proven her point, I'd be angry. But I'd be excited, too. 'I fought a Super Saiyan! I know what it's like to fight a Super Saiyan! I know what kind of power it takes to reach that state!' "

Kora's formerly-balled fist sank.

"But that's not how it went. Now I know that some 2-bit idiot who's only known the comfort of Earth living, who only sees it as some cute outfit, who DOESN'T. EVEN. KNOW. WHAT A SAIYAN. IS."

Her vision began to blur. She held a forearm over her eyes.

"Now I know it means NOTHING. That I, that my family were a bunch of fools who placed all their faith in a legend who might as well've been Chuck from South City running the hotdog stand across the street!"

Sobbing.

"I just wanted to be wrong."

A napkin crept under her forearm, and began dabbing off crumbs and sauce. Tears just-so happened to be cleaned off, as well.

"…?"

"There's still food on your face. Can't have that, can we?"

Kora gave a small chuckle. "Seriously?"

"Yyyup."

"I have to look 4 right now…"

"Still that gorgeous Kora to me. Only difference being, your eyes are even prettier right now."

Saiyans tend to all share the same onyx eye color.

Didn't stop Kora from blushing all the same.

"You are such a brown-noser."

Archi smirked.

"That day, right after you 'proved yourself wrong,' she swore something to you, right?"

Kora shrugged. "She was just being petty. Idiot'll give up half-way through at best. Definitely."

"Probably." Archi gazed outside the window. "Still, it's scary what humans can do when they put their all into something, and she's got our saiyan tenacity to boot. I wouldn't rest easy over one giving you a threat like that."

"Oh, you'd know, Archi."

"Heheheheh…"

"(HOU GUI . . . )"

"Ahahahaha, ahhhh… stupid martial arts…"

Kora wiped away what little stray moisture remained on her face. Off the edge of the balcony, she took a deep breath of fresh air.

"I needed that." Her eyes became razor-sharp once more.

"I still think yours was a special case." She gave Archi a stern look. "You overconfident dork." Archi sank as Kora left his apartment, not before giving him a friendly tap on the shoulder.

"Thanks."

"For the food or-"

"This."

Archi cracked a smile.

As Kora made her way out the door…

"ATTENTION, ALL PROUD WARRIORS!"

[BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano – aLIEz Instrumental]

Kora took notice of a certain halfbreed. Said halfbreed looked like she'd been recovering from a collision with a meteor.

The booming Trunks voice kept padding for whatever reason. Still, as Kora examined the nigh-corpse, resting with eyes open, something began to well inside her. She looked up briefly and mumbled something, before her head happened to turn in the fullblood's direction.

They each shared a full-contact stare.

"In OnE Yeee…. iRsT Offf… nD…"

Welp, there was Kora.

Staring directly at her.

Oddly not fuming.

Great.

No, no sarcasm intended, great.

"(Yeah that's right.)"

Dina, with what little strength she had left, smirked.

"(Whatever… it…)"

As she faded into unconsciousness on the bench, and as a gazillion people suddenly started screaming for some reason, her final sight before black was Kora's eyes widening to an immense degree.

A thousand more reasons to train.

Kora's blood flared. A tournament to decide who'd become a time patroller? Beats any boring test, any day.

But most importantly… she was giving this personal bout her all.

Maybe Archi was right. And maybe she… Dina… wasn't as pathetic as she thought.

Kora made her way.

"Who knows?" she smirked.

[ ED: Pay Money To My Pain – Weight of My Pride ]

Yo! OP here!

Uuuuh quick shout out to Time Patrollers 2, it's a sicc ficc that I referenced at Kora's expense.

But anyway, not much to report on this week, besides how grateful I am for you uncouth wingdings and your support. I wuv wu awl, for serious.

Next one will be an obligatory Thanksgiving special because dammit I'm one of the few who remember what a Thanksgiving is. I mean, its origins aren't shit to celebrate, but it still has a decent premise.

Also, I finished Great Teacher Onizuka this week, fantastic series all-around and Onizuka's shadow is high-key gonna appear through this arc, considering mentorship is a theme of it and such; hell, Trunks already showed off a bit of it during that prologue in the beginning of this chapter!

More regarding the chapter: I wanna take a sec to go over some text cues.

First off, this is me, OP. If it'll be funny to have a character break the fourth wall, it'll happen, standard narration text will bolden, and I'll take a second to cuss out words. Productive, I know. Le funni self-aware comedy, I know.

"This is standard narration. It's just that." OP struggled to come up with anything else to jot down this chapter before proceeding to procrastinate further. "(And these are thought cues. If I think placing a 'he/she/they/it thought' would be too jarring, I'll use parentheses to express thoughts right then and there,)" he thought, after googling what a "(" was called due to his IQ of Peanut Butter.

THIS is emphasized narration! While usually appearing to indicate thoughts or a flashback, you'll know it's emphasized narration if the story suddenly takes a moment to describe something or someone, like a technique or an explanation of events! Think the narrator for Kengan Asura or Baki, who has the innate ability to make anything sound unbelievably hype!

[BGM: Guilty Gear STRIVE - Smell of the Game]

^And this? Just an optional music cue to enhance the scene.

If it doesn't have any quotations near it, chances are it's a text cue. You'll know either way.

One more thing, take a shot for every line break in this chapter.

But yeah. Besides that, just remeMBER YOU ARE BLAAAZING! STILL YOUR HEART IS BLAAAAZING!

That's about it.

See ya.