"Whaddo ya know? There really WAS a physics lesson today!" Dina chirped. "Complete with a 30-minute rant on how apparently mind-boggling it is that ki figuratively flips off multiple fundamental laws of the cosmos, that literally no one asked for!"
"Oh... Cool," Neoru lulled, still not all-the-way-there as he scratched off dried saliva from the corner of his lip.
Dina gave an intelligence-questioning look. Then she shrugged. "Eh, can't blame you. Did that all the time back at school."
"Yeah, sure you did. Alright, I'm gonna go train."
"You mean work yourself half-to-death?" The young woman quipped.
The young man dryly chuckled. "Yeah, sure, let's call it that. Alright, good luck with that downward force shit your doin' or whatever," he waved two fingers as he strolled off.
"Yeah, of course, you too... Wait, hold that thought!"
"huh?"
Dina jogged toward some commotion. Neoru shrugged. "Great way to end up as crossfire but hey, go for it."
She turned back and scoffed. "Suit yourself, ya borin' mong!" She reached a decent point to watch what turned out to be a brawl.
"Is that all you have?" the saiyan warrioress on one side taunted, squaring off against the bear guy she allied herself with during her cute widdle fantasy versus debate that led nowhere. "Someone like you should know not to start fights they can't win, idiot."
"Oh, nice!" Dina snickered. "Prick has had this coming for a while!" She saw Bears's awesome scars lose adhesion and peel off his face, though, and her eyes began to sing a different tune from her frozen grin. "OK, maybe not, but still. Great chance to see how far ahead I am of her!"
She then saw Bears fly back. Kora hadn't moved an inch.
"... wh..."
Or maybe she did.
She'd've seen it if she moved, right?
That suddenly-flowing hair was convenient wind. Had to be.
Before she could question herself further, the bear guy sprang back and began to charge something within his hand. While she wasn't great at it, she could sense presences passably; that said, she could tell this guy was something else. An absolutely-crazy power washed over her like a tsunami in that moment, enough to set her off on a stretcher if he'd aimed and fired that thing at her. Almost made her glad she bet on him earlier.
"Bloody... well, if nothing else, this ought at least leave a bruise!"
And then Kora sent him flying through the sound barrier.
She moved, that time. Dina could only tell because she was now a meter away from where she once stood.
She hardly even tried.
"..."
If anything, the gap had grown.
Every ounce of effort that she'd put in. It didn't matter. Kora'd just go even higher. At this rate, she'd pass her, even as a "Super Saiyan."
An endless game of catchup that she'd never win, no matter what.
She gave a weak, dry chuckle.
"Who cares?" she said, weakly.
[OP: My First Story – King and Ashley]
A Terrible, All-Encompassing Flame! Dina Embraces The Motive of Vengeance!
Dina woke up early this morning, no alarm needed. A brisk feeling of liberation had taken ahold of her today, and she felt like she could take on the world.
"4, 5... 6 scoops!" she counted, making the 9th bowl.
For breakfast this morning, from the whimsical refrigerator that restocked itself every day, Dina had a bowl of ice cream. Why? Just something she wanted to do since she was little, now that nothing was holding her down.
She stared at her breakfast before maniacally cackling. "JUS' TRY N' STOP ME NOW, FATHER!"
After a few seconds, it was gone.
"... Now I just feel gross."
She shook her head, tossed the dishes into the sink, sprang upward, and headed to her bedroom. Dina found some crap in her wardrobe that she'd like to toss on, hauled it with her to the bathroom, other things were taken care of, she showered, tossed on the blank red shirt and blue jeans, and finally took a look in the mirror.
"Hmm... Did I grow, or..."
She tapped chin, gave her hair a thorough lookdown, and almost died.
Dina's unkempt, damp locks had taken on the appearance of the fluffy white bits of a tiger's face. In her haste to salvage her hair, Dina took a pair of scissors to her head. A few clumps and one painful combing session later, she'd gotten it to a somewhat socially-acceptable bob; she still looked like one of those chicks from a 750s space anime, but still. Progress.
The walk back to her room gave her some time to retrospect.
Saturday, academic intermission.
No more of those hellish exercises; she'd already informed Ayeva of her hanging-of-the-towel. Not like she was just gonna let herself go fat or anything, just a few hundred basic calisthenics here and there.
She slowed her pace. Leaning against her bedroom wall, she wound up asking the question which most with failed ambition do.
"... now what?"
Dina had no answer.
Then, she grinned.
"... Exactly!"
She threw herself off the wall, briefly twirling. "Blimey, I've been keeping my head underwater for so long! It's a whole new world I'm in, after all!" she laughed, pulling back her curtains. "Now that I'm not obsessing over some prick with an inferiority complex, who KNOWS what's next for me!" Dina took a giant breath of fresh air, before obnoxiously exhaling. "SPLENDID! WHAT A SPLENDID DAY, THIS IS!"
She made a hard turn, made for the door, failed to evaluate just how dreadful a job she'd done at cleaning up her clothes, and...
"FU-"
The teenager managed to catch herself with a solo-arm handstand. Her balance and reactions were at least thirty-fold what they used to be, that was for sure.
"Bloody hell, Dina..." she sighed, back to her feet and making sure to dispose of the failed fabric-based assassin with extreme prejud-
"..."
Yarg. Police. Department.
With a hand-sized hole near its left.
Her anger began to waver.
It still had its stains. One large and reddish-brown around the hole... the other one, the color of oatmeal.
This time, no stronger emotion could save her from that torrent.
Remembering that day. The days, months, years before it, when everything was still great. How and why she died. Inevitability of the ones she'd left behind sharing similar fates.
Nostalgia. Trauma.
How so much changed.
She pressed her back to the wall once more, legs quaking, grasp on the police cadet shirt weakening, before slowly sliding down.
Choked sobs echoed from the room.
"7 servings of apple-flavored Ice MIYMs, and 2 glasses of water, please."
The waitress nodded. "And you, sir?"
"..."
"... sir?"
"..."
The waitress began to force her smile to remain in place. "Sir would you please put down your book and place an order?"
The grey-haired boy shook down a page from the book he held above him.
"Fuck off, hag."
Her eyes briefly exploded in anger. The smile had turned psychotic.
Wabi sighed. "He'll have some tea."
"UUUNDERSTOOD," the waitress gleefully responded, grinding her teeth. "YOU'LL HAVE YOUR F...OOOD SHORTLY..." she marched off, applying the force she'd otherwise use to smack the absolute fucking shit out of that insolent brat into her steps. And notably so.
Aside from that, Kazikum had calmed down a fair bit since he'd gotten here. He even picked up a post-training hobby; literature. Turned out he could read at a 4th-grade level... somehow.
"So the coward drowns herself after getting in his way... what a crock'a shit..."
"Bobbing-twos, can you take your feet off the table?"
Kaz scoffed. "Easily."
"..."
".."
"Take your feet off the table."
"Take 'em off yourself, Wabi!"
"..."
"..."
Kaz took his feet off the table, slamming the print of Cutlet down with them.
"Pointless..."
"I'LL RAM THIS TABLE UP YOUR ASS, FATHEAD!"
The café door's bell jingled.
"That shout was awful convenient..."
Both boys recognizing the voice, the two turned toward the source.
"Oy," Dina waved in nigh-monotone.
"If you're expecting a show, then you're shit out of luck. This squishy trashheap won't let me train, says I should 'take a break!' What a load of horseshit," he grumbled.
"Bummer. Hi, Wabi."
"Howdy."
"You don't have food. Why."
"Oh? Yeah, apologies," said Dina, with weak posture. "Security's been up'd quite a bit. I stopped taking loans, as well. Would just feel like a leech at this point."
"THEN WHY ARE YOU HERE."
Dina sighed, taking a seat at the table beside him.
"I, uh... I just need to talk with someone like you right now."
Kazikum's brow raised. "The fuck does that mean? A confession or something?"
Dina's faltering gaze wondered to the side, thinking about how to put her question into words.
"I... uh..."
The grey-haired saiyan began to lose the 2 pints of patience he'd manage to gain.
"GOD, WHEN'D YOU GET SO FUCKING PATHETIC?"
"I-I'm sorry, I just-"
"QUIT WASTING MY TIME, DUMBASS!"
"... What motivates you?"
Involuntary tears began to slide down her face.
"Just... just tell me, ok? I wan... I need to know."
"Didn't I already tell you?" Kazikum thought back. "Yeah, I did. Find someone else to piss off."
He felt gazes setting upon him. Wabi buried himself within his palm.
"IF YOU WANT THOSE EYES TO STAY OFF THE MENU, MIND YOUR BUSINESS!"
While other cafégoers quickly averted their stares, Dina fidgeted her fingers.
"You needed to make someone suffer. That's all you said."
Wabi decided to chime in. "Why do you need a reason to get stronger, anyway? If you can, do it."
"That's not enough. Not for me, apparently."
He shrugged. "Unreal."
The waitress from before came back, with both Wabi's orders.
"Please forgive the weight. Preparing the tea took time."
After a thanks and pay... and an ominous grin from the waitress... Wabi offered the hot beverage to Kaz.
"I'm not thirsty. Have it."
"Suit yourself!" Wabi said gleefully, downing it with gusto. He found it so delicious that he instinctively smacked the table with his forehead, mouth frothing with sheer ecstasy.
"... I-is he o-"
"He's a pompous fucking drama queen. Don't give him what he wants."
That out of the way, he made his decision.
"Will you quit your whining?"
Dina hastily wiped off tears. "Yep! I'll leave you to your... what is that... Bakesphere, just like that."
He stood up, giving Wabi his book as a hat after checking his pulse.
"Come on. I was getting bored anyway."
"A while back," Kazikum began, by the waterfall which fell near the grassy plateau he'd begun to train by, "When I was still a pissy weakling like you, someone was taken from me. Right in front of me. The fucker who did it never told me why. Then, it escaped before I could tear it apart."
Veins began to crop up all over Kazikum. The grass and water began to bend and distort.
"That fucking weasel. She trusted it with her life, and it still snapped her neck. Like she was nothing."
Grass began to wriggle free from its roots, the water vibrating wildly.
"IT JUST THREW HER AWAY LIKE A TOY. IT WAS SUPPOSED TO PROTECT HER. WE WERE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT HER."
Blood gushed from his clenched fist, falling into the crystal-blue below and turning a portion red as the pond calmed.
"So I'm not dying until it's on its knees in a pool of its own blood, piss and shit. After that, I could care less."
Dina sat in silence. Kazikum couldn't take standing still any longer.
"Now get lost. I need to improve-"
"Bodies. That's what I remember."
"?"
Dina continued. Eyes fixated on the viscous, crimson fluid blotting the water before her as if in a trance.
[BGM: Hiryuki Sawano – Titan Advance]
"And blood. More so than anyone should ever see. An entire hallway caked in it. People I knew, some better than others for certain but no one... deserving of such a thing... laying dead... across the floor. At the end of the hallway was a... my friend. Since elementary."
The water began boiling.
Tears began to fall again. Dina, however, slowly began to lose the pathetic look on her face.
"She was fucking LAUGHING."
Sparks began to fly. Kaz's interest was peaked.
"Of every option she had, she chose to kill people who'd never so-much as spoke to her... and for what?"
Waves crashed. Grass flew.
"I blacked out after that. When I came to, whatever the sodding hell that power was had been jut straight through me."
With a single instance of recollection, every ounce of rage she'd felt during her stay at Conton City was dwarfed.
"And now I'm stuck here, moping about, while she's still there likely slaughtering everyone else I've ever cared for, with that stupid fucking grin plastered across her face."
Kazikum began. "Why are you-"
"Huh? Oh, I..." Dina took a shaky breath, almost calming down. "You were able to relive something so horrid. It's only fair if I followed suit-"
"NO, YOU IDIOT."
Kazikum flared. "WHY ARE YOU STILL FUCKING SITTING THERE!?"
"..!"
"THAT BASTARD IS STILL BREATHING, ISN'T SHE!? THEN YOU SHOULDN'T EVEN BE ABLE TO SLEEP AT NIGHT, KNOWING THEY'RE STILL ALIVE! YET HERE YOU ARE, A WHIMPERING SACK'A WORTHLESS WHO THINKS THEY NEED FUCKING PEP-TALKS TO GET OFF THEIR ASS AND FIGHT FOR SOMETHING!"
He grabbed her shoulders.
"ARE YOU OK WITH THAT! KNOWING THAT SICK BASTARD IS STILL STRONGER THAN YOU, GUTTING YOUR LOVED ONES LIKE FISH!?"
Dina's eyes strained, a grimace gradually contorting her face. That image she'd tried so hard to escape, to distract herself with, was now all she could see.
But instead of grief, or despair, genuine rage bubbled to the surface.
"HUH!? ARE YOU!?"
She was doing it right now, wasn't she? Ripping them apart, grinning.
She'd never see them again, and it was because of HER.
And yet here she was, chasing some twit who she hardly knew.
Snap.
"NO!"
Her hair briefly flickered a blinding, golden light as she screamed, bashing away his hands in a berserk fit.
Water exploded from the pond, drenching them both as hundreds of grass blades fell.
But if anything, her outburst calmed Kazikum down, by a considerable degree no less.
Dina dragged the air back into her lungs.
"I'M NOT."
Huff.
"LETTING HER."
Huff.
"GET AWAY."
Dina lifted her bangs.
"WITH. THIS."
She turned.
"Therefore..." she growled.
There were no thanks, no wave, not even a smile. She simply walked off, crimson eyes burning with a new, destructive flame.
Kazikum gulped, his heart beating out of his chest. He'd felt fear in the past, and while the sensation had all-but disappeared far before this point...
He looked down.
"That's new..."
He knew enough to know that this unusual feeling was not fear.
Ayeva racked her coat.
Moving on to the room she'd assigned to mono-work, she passed her personal training chamber. A light wave of melancholy washed over her, unreflected by her usual stoic expression. Still, she paused for longer than she'd've liked.
"May I ask why?" said Ayeva, a ting of sadness within her voice.
"There's just no need for it, yeah? Nothing's gonna come from it at this rate. If anything, I'm just slowing you down with this petty squabble of mine!" Dina smiled.
"But... there's a countless amount of alternative reasons to continue training! Strength isn't restricted to pursuing a superior!"
Dina sighed. "Maybe so. I guess I just don't care for them that much. If anything, I'm happy right here." She giggled. "Besides, 's not like I'm gonna sit on my arse for the rest of my exciting new life here, will I? I'm sure I'll find... something... to keep myself healthy n' occupied!"
"... If that's your choice, then... I'll honor it."
The plucky halfbreed gave her former mentor a hug. "Plus, we'll still be friends, right?"
Friends. The way she put it gave the white-coat a light smile. "Of course."
With that, Dina strolled off. "G'night, Ms. Ayeva!"
It was a gloomy sight, seeing a saiyan lose their drive to fight. Then again, Dina was only a saiyan by blood. At heart, she was just a teenage girl.
So the raven-haired scientist moved forward.
And found the door sliding open without need to disable the lock.
She lunged into the room, rotating ball of energy armed and ready.
"!"
[BGM: Shunsuke Kikuchi – M1312]
"W'sup?" Dina waved, sitting atop a massive printer with a deadpan expression.
"How did-"
"Hm? Oh, just somethin' I picked up off you, 's all."
"... Don't do that."
Dina hopped onto her feet. "Apologies. Would you mind helpin' me out again?"
"Not at all. What do you need?"
"Power."
Her ruby eyes cried bloody murder.
"So you're reinstating your training?" Ayeva cleared up, taken aback by the teenage girl's sudden, intense look. "If it'll help, I can relax your original regimen-"
"No. If anything, I'll need more."
"More?"
Ayeva cocked an eyebrow. "Dina... What happened, today?"
"Some well-needed introspect. To put it bluntly, I've stopped running."
After a wary look, Ayeva nodded. "Affirmative. Then let's begin."
40Gs flooded the room. Dina felt her weight skyrocket, gravitational forces crashing into her from above. But she didn't move.
She blew through every rep, fierce and enraged expression never fading as she relentlessly pushed, and pulled, and raised, and lowered, and exploded. With every second of pain wrought upon her, the sharper, gut-wrenching pain in her side amplified, and she bore through it with even more vigor.
By the end of it, she hardly felt whatever amount of pain was actually there. In fact, she began laughing at the sensation. It felt like progress. And progress felt good.
She stared down her last adversary.
"Alright... Now it's your turn..."
Her doppelganger sprung to life and took a stance.
"... You pathetic fucking weakling, you..." she grinned, clenching her fists and crouching low.
[OST: Hiroyuki Sawano – Exorcist (2:12 - 3:43)]
They charged at each other at the same time. They'd thrown around a dozen punches each before the terrific BOOM of the sound barrier entered the space.
To call Dina's fighting style self-destructive would've been an understatement. Every single attack D.I.A.N.A. landed was reciprocated by a fist to itself. Dina's eyes had faded, leaving whites akin to a shark savaging prey. They both clawed away, occasionally strafing to find a blind spot which turned out to be another fist lying in wait. They darted around the red confinement, scuffing the ground with their movements and glints of one absolutely decking the other abound. Dina's blood began to dot the ground, the girl pushing herself harder and harder as thoughts of the event which sent her here began flooding her mind. The dark, crimson and polished floor began to resemble bloodied marble more and more. Suddenly, with blind rage and a burst of speed, Dina bashed away a fist with a swung forearm and viciously backhanded her mechanical mate, before laying into her with sporadic punches of all kind while screaming like a rabid animal. It took tens of thousands of blows, but for the first time since they'd begun sparring, D.I.A.N.A. backed away.
Dina gave her no quarter.
D.I.A.N.A. threw a strong, straight right, using its own force in tandem with the charging saiyan's to finish things. With her own right hook readied, Dina sprang from her ground-hugging position and went for the body, preparing it as the final blow. D.I.A.N.A.'s punch made contact first, however, in a grisly shot that should've knocked the young halfblood out cold.
As she spun from the force of the hit, body nigh-limp except for the side of her that mattered, her fist remained clenched and barreled toward the android's center-mass.
In that moment, D.I.A.N.A. took a full power punch from Dina... and itself... simultaneously.
By stupid luck and even stupider tenacity, Dina had claimed her first-ever win.
That hardly mattered to Ayeva. Dina crashed to the ground, landing on a fist as the woman who'd cared for her rushed inside.
"Too far, that was too far!" she spouted in an anxious fit, hurriedly helping Dina to her feet.
The urge to pass out there-and-then was dwarfed by the sheer gallons of adrenaline coursing through the young fighter's veins.
"Come on, I'm not a sodding... CHILD!" she snarled, breaking free from Ayeva's gentle grasp and inching toward the door.
"Dina, you're hurt!" Ayeva stated, her matter-of-fact tone waning.
"Oh who cares? I'll just sleep it off. Can hardly feel a thing, anyway."
"Wait, Dina-"
"I'M ALRIGHT, JEEZ!" she yelled. Regret set in immediately, Ayeva's shocked expression doing no favors.
"... I just... need to work a bit harder. A bit of pain won't kill me." She forced a smile. "And hey. If academia's anythin' to go off, a saiyan oughta get stronger after a thrashing like this, yeah?"
Ayeva wasn't convinced. "What's with this sudden shift in you? Please, what's going on?"
Dina tossed out a gate. "I remembered who I should be working to murder. That's all."
"Murder!? What-"
Dina disappeared, leaving Ayeva with a mid-day game show's worth of questions.
But as she surveyed the grisly room, the android's grotesque condition, those questions dissipated.
All that remained was the thought of what she was doing to herself.
And how unaware of her limit she'd become.
[BGM: The Pillows – Sayonara Universe (Start – 1:58)]
Dina passed Kora on the way home. Spared her not even a glance.
The second she got through her door...
"G-GH!?"
Pain.
She collapsed, unintelligibly stammering before gritting with all her power and kicking the door closed.
It became so unbearable that she screamed her lungs out.
"FUCK...!" she hissed, punching the floor as her eyes bulged out her head.
"GOD, MAKE IT..."
She screamed and whimpered and rolled about, desperately clutching herself while her body and bones exploding in burning, breaking, biting fits.
But then the image reappeared. The stark difference of power. The certainty of her father, what friends she had left, being gutted. And the thought of her impotence.
A name seeped through her teeth.
"LUNA..."
With a surge of rage, she struggled to her feet, trudging toward her room. The walk seemed to go on forever.
"Luna... Luna... Luna..."
Everything she saw gradually doubled, tripled, quadrupled. Finally, her bedroom door moved to the ceiling.
"Lu..."
And the floor rapidly approached her.
"Na..."
[ED: Pay Money To My Pain – Weight Of My Pride]
3/3/2024 PATCH NOTES: Changed quote "90s space anime" to "760s space anime". Don't question me.
Yo! OP Here!
Yeah this chapter took WAY too long, I know. 3 weeks is ludicrous, and JUST BARELY 3 weeks with that. Still, I think it was worth it; I'm pretty happy with how this chapter turned out. Pretty heavy shit in this one, yeah. In any case, we're getting closer to that tourney now that Dina's got a more solid reason to get stronger, though it's not a very healthy one. Strength for the sake of revenge is kinda close to my heart for personal reasons, and while it can take you higher, that rage will eat at you. Being angry and hate-filled, even if justified, just ain't a way to go about living. I've got a chance to explore that with Dina, considering SHE'S human and Kazikum isn't.
In any case, Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds was a masterpiece (i just wanted to watch some cool martial arts shit and wound up sobbing like a bitch), I finally finished Dragon Ball all the way (Best DB series by far) and Outlaw Star's pretty sick. I also got a laptop. Neat.
And I'm 18 now. Yeah. Big Boi. Adult responsibilities. Fun.
Eh, I'll find my way and live through the rest of this life the best I can.
Existential shizz aside, vengeance is pretty relevant with all the stuff going on in the world right now, huh? Recent events have gotten us in a tussle, and for good reason. Still, I've seen horrible shit and good acts committed by both sides of this struggle. Don't think we'll ever get a justice system that'll successfully weed out every murderous sack of shit and leave only good apples, or assemble a completely peaceful movement without advantageous bastards who use tragedies as justification for acting like monsters, but it's those moments of humanity riddled throughout and shining through that maintain hope.
That's enough about the serious stuff, though. Onto some shizz from the chapter.
A MIYM (Melts-In-Your-Mouth) is a ice dessert for lifeforms that don't eat solids. They're flavored and junk, and you pop 'em in your mouth and they melt and everyone habe gud tiem. Light worldbuilding, probably.
Oh yeah, one more thing, I OWN BAKESPHERE NOW. THAT NAME PUN IS GENIUS. YOU USE THAT AND IT'S 5 GRAND OUT THEM POCKETS. ON SHENRON YOU BETTER HAVE THAT SHIZZ.
But uh, yeah. That's about it.
See ya.