"Alright, class," Krillin stated, cheery inflection toe-deep in melancholy, "As the Definitely-Last-This-Is-Getting-Absurd Class I'll be having under you all-"
He was cut off by a wave of teeth-sucking, forlorn moans, even a few words of protest. He tried not to blush and failed miserably.
"Y-yeah, guys, I know, but still. There's one last technique I'd like to explain to you all before I'm out the door."
He slowly raised his hand to the sky, palm parallel with the ceiling. The monk began concentrating. Within his subconscious, one word rang out.
"Cut."
It became a sole desire. Even further, it became his purpose. Soon, all he could see, or hear, or feel, or think, was cutting.
For a moment, his very soul became razor-sharp and rigid. And in that split moment, he took hold and envisioned it.
"HAH!"
A spinning edge rotated overhead. Blinding orange-yellow, the construct spun so rapidly that it appeared to stand still, even to upperclassmen.
{ Circular Ki Cutter: KIENZAN! }
Krillin slowly brought it down. "It's no longer… or ever was… the most unique technique, but at the same time, what techniques HAVEN'T been done before?"
"Um actually my Divine Gigashot is a MIDNIGHT-BLUE ki blast, AND it looks like an arrow!"
"Yuh-uh, and what does it do?"
"... it blows stu-"
"Blows stuff up, exactly. But that brings me to my next point."
He waved the destructive disk slowly across the air. It was as if the space in its path was gently being swathed through.
"Unlike others, that can explode or fizz out once a stronger opponent tries it on, this bad boy can slice through anything in its way. It's my strongest attack, by far."
"What, are ya tryin'a sell the damn thing?"
"Let him finish! Jeez!"
Krillin cleared his throat. "But that being said, I'm average at-best with a Kamehameha. No, even that's generous. In fact, most of the other techniques I know, besides the Taiyoken, aren't much compared to others."
A large chunk of black material ‒ the ultradense Katchin ‒ slowly descended from the ceiling.
"My point is: Absolute Refinement. It's taking a certain aspect of martial arts or concept of ki, and focusing your heart, mind, body and soul into perfecting it, at the cost of losing out on training with others. Sure, most are content with becoming Jacks-of-All-Trades concerning techniques, but devoting your all to a single art…"
Once it obscured the small monk from the class, a Kienzan sailed through the divine metal, cleaving it in two like a laser cutter through butter. It zoomed in on a certain red-white armored student, who bashed his head against the row behind him in a split reactive decision before the attack vanished in a brief trail of particles.
"Yields results."
He rubbed his nose, proud of the display, and the class's petrified silence further dialed that up.
"If any of you are still looking for lessons, I'll hang around the courtyard from time to time. Until then, make these last 5 months count!" As he exited, Stroga entered.
"Downright flawless for a closing note!" the scholarly namekian in a banded grey blazer-over-yellow shirt whispered.
"You know it," the astute human responded. The long-time teacher prepped himself, and appeared before the people.
"Well, out walks our favorite substitute, but rest assured, we won't be slowing down from-"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, SUBSTITUTE!?"
"BEST STROLL THE HELL BACK OUTSIDE, LIL' FELLA! THIS AIN'T YOUR CLASSROOM ANYMORE!"
"I SHAN'T STAND FOR THIS SLIGHT UPON MASTER KRILLIN'S HONOR! READY THYSELF!"
"YOU'RE NOT EVEN MY REAL DAD! GIVE US BACK KRILLIN!"
Amongst the uproar, weaving out of a book's way, Stroga stared.
"Ooh, boy."
Further back in the class, silent amidst the uproar sat a small, dark red-headed young woman. She was content with flipping a pen, nigh-mimicking the rotation of the prior Kienzan as it, too, spun quick enough to illude stillness. With dead amber eyes, she gave it full attention, the object serving as a proxy for the technique she'd just witnessed.
"An art which nulls armor from afar…"
With another, unnaturally-precise flick of thumb, the pen upon her hand spun once more.
[BGM: Granrodeo ‒ Remember Your Passion]
Xiao Mei's Bad Day... Unrelenting Ghosts from the Past!
In the process of hammering down another staked talisman ward, the pancake-faced man froze. He slowly craned his head upward.
With befuddled eyes, Kaza stared at the two.
"... wha-"
[BGM: Kenji Kawai ‒ Reigen's Theme]
"OH 1000 PRAISES, THE A-CLASS EXORCIST HAS RETURNED TO US!"
The tall, tendril-haired girl was lost for words. The eccentric "medium" didn't bother to help find them.
"You see, it's only a matter of time before this hilltop once-more falls under the curse of the Red-Headed Death Wench!" He cried, checking back to see if his bug-faced companion wrote that name down within their sacred paranormal codex.
"Geuysh, geuysh!" they shouted in confirmation with a what-could-be-classified-as-thumbs-up.
Kaza stared, a mixture of disbelief and disgust riddling her malleable face.
"Oh, if only you were an S-Class like myself, you'd surely wipe it from the face of this existential plane, but it seems the spirit pities you, so you'll do."
"For the last time," the fuchsia Majin grumbled, "That isn't a spirit, that's my f-"
"Friend, yes, yes. I'm afraid it's that regrettable bond you've forged with such a…"
He looked down at his marker-ridden hand, turning his back to her. Zinco wouldn't like it if she throttled the man then and there, so she didn't.
"Per… ni-is that written right? yeah sure it'll do-PERNICIOUS EIDOLON, that has foiled your prior would-be successful exorcisms!"
Zinco wasn't here right now. Zinco would never know.
"Alas, my noseless sister in spiritual arms, these wards can only do so much! Very soon, it shall fall into your hands to ensure this peak remains sanctified from the grotesque claws of-"
He froze. The same evil energy (which he'd hypothesized to cause famine, depression, and dysentery if felt by the weak) emanated right behind him.
"G-GGGG-GEUYSH!" his sidekick frantically squealed, as his carapace broke out in sweats.
An unearthly hissing noise slowly rattled through the air, like he was in the lair of some hellish breed of tarantula.
He slowly turned his borderline-2D head.
Arms stretched forward, dagger-like hands threatening to pierce right through him, within a massive, writhing mass of blood-red hair, stood the revenant of the hill.
"AIIIIIIIIIIE!"
He threw a ward at it in a heroic last-ditch effort, only for it to be ripped to ribbons. With every ounce of his courage, he made a decisive tactical retreat, placing full faith that his buddy would follow suit as he let out a mighty war cry, just high-pitched enough to warn every other resident in Conton City of the paranormal threat.
Even Kaza felt a bit pale. However, as the apparition's hair fell, rose again, and formed a loop holding together 2 overlapping, extensive pony-tails, she couldn't help but giggle.
"You're-a… bit... early today, Mei!"
Xiao Mei smiled innocently. She pointed to the peak of the hill.
"Yeah, I guess we should get started, now that-"
Mei frantically shook her head, adamant on not talking.
"Huh?"
Grabbing her hand, the much-smaller girl attempted to haul her up the hill. Despite using all her strength, the latter was unmoved.
"O-oh, okay…?" Kaza gave in, following her friend up. Once there…
"Is there something you wanted to tell me?" the Majin asked.
Mei giddily turned.
And cleared her throat.
[BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano ‒ Splendorous, Somewhat]
"Fair lady Kaza, with utmost sincerity, I hold you in thanks for allowing me the privilege of sharpening my craft alongside you, as do I hold the bond we have knit from the auspicious day from hence we first locked eyes." Her incredibly-long hair flowed gracefully to one side, despite there being not as much as a breeze at the moment.
"...eh?"
Mei clasped her hands together.
"But for as this dance of wills and fists draws ever-near, I plead with thee. Should we encounter one another in battle, may the friendship we share maintain itself, no matter the outcome of our clashing."
"I…"
A single tear dramatically flew from her eye.
"Yet still, as this Xiao Mei utters such words, my heart all but yearns for a duel in which we may spare not a drop of our ability, so as to truly test my own against yours. Oh, how my foolish soul haphazardly flutters between desires, as if meek flower petals within a divine mountain wind! I beg of you, forgive my selfish manner, dear Kaza!"
They held an awkward pause.
Mei proceeded to hunch over, desperately catching her breath.
"Too… too much?" she asked.
"I don't… I don't think anyone talks like that anymore. At least not anyone sane.."
"PHWAAAAA-chu!"
Tarubei rubbed her nose.
"But still, it's incredible how much ground you've covered with modern language!" Kaza made an "OK" sign. "Kùbì!"
Mei repeated the gesture, only softer-spoken. "Kùbì..."
"So what are we practicing today?"
"Er… I just wanted to show my progress."
"... oh."
Mei blushed a bit, scratching her cheek. "... yes."
"Great! I'll see you later, then-"
"Kaza."
She turned back.
"... thank you. Truly. If not for you, I would have eaten myself, long ago."
Kaza had a feeling she knew what Mei meant. At least she hoped she did.
"Don't be silly! You never needed me!"
"I did." The dark scarlet-haired girl smiled to the ground. "Your innocence in a world as this… it was assuring. That is not the only way you have aided me, but it is what I value most of our shared time."
She made her way past the taller being. "So thank you, my friend."
Kaza stood, speechless.
And then a thought sprung to mind.
"Mei?"
She paused.
"... Do you still hate saiyans?"
For a while, Mei stared blankly.
"... I cannot stand them. Their smell. Their grins. The way their tails sift through the air. And the thought of their touch still invokes tears."
The small human turned, her hazel eyes sullen.
"But those within this city have done me no wrong. I cannot like them, but I do not hate them as I once have. Why do you ask?"
Kaza nodded.
"Just checking on you. Anyway, I think there's something I can teach you."
The way Mei's usually-dead eyes lit up gave Kaza a bubbly feeling inside.
Mei was unsure where Kaza learned such techniques ‒ an even more-advanced breathing technique, peculiar footworks leading into various sequences of precise aerial kicks, even palm strikes which could attack one's innards directly through a concentration of soft/hard force ‒ but they were good templates nonetheless. She documented them through elaborate illustrations, and made doubly sure to both study their form and integrate them into her own style of assassination.
Soon after, Kaza had made a massive fuss about how much time had passed (the two had only sparred for 15 minutes, maximum,) and took off with haste. It was a fun quirk of hers.
As she meditated, envisioning a constant web of never-ending threads as a means of cultivation, another technique slowly burrowed into her mind:
"Ki… e... n… za… n."
It slowly fell through, snapping each thread on its steady descent through an abyss of web, said web sharing its color and even a bit of its jagged exterior.
"Such a skill cannot be replicated by sight. With its sharpness beyond strength, it harbors similarity with my art, though devastating from the outside rather than within."
Outside her world, Mei subconsciously gathered her hands, pooling qi within the gap between them. Envisioning a circular disk, she began concentrating.
"But still… could I-"
"GRAAAA~!"
Her deep concentration was almost broken.
"...mmph." A bit miffed, she resumed. "Now could I-"
"NRAAAAA~!"
She opened her eyes and raised her head.
"MMPH."
Briefly turning in the direction of the strained, distant roaring, she waited for a time.
Nothing.
She attempted to return to her cultivation. Now she struggled to envision her threads, much less the disk.
"..."
It took an agonizing while, but the threads began to take shape once agai-
"HRAAAA~!"
She shot to her feet, eyes strained.
"TĀ MĀ DE…!" she grimaced.
"Can you PLEASE tone it down?" Wabi pled. "If it's so much you have to scream to even move, just go down a weight!"
Kazikum refused to respond, gripping onto the 5000-ton barbell for dear life with his ripped in-every-way arms.
"If you're that dead-set on being this noisy, just use my stagnant timespace already!"
"For the fifth father-fucking time, I don't need it!" he argued back, preparing for another rep. "What, antsy because of what some paint-huffing asshat 12 miles away thinks about you? 'No Shoes, No Shirt, No Shell, No Service,' those scum-sucking shitweasels can all die!"
"Just wear a tank top or something, it's four hours for the love of pup!"
Kazikum began ignoring him.
"Look, all I want you to do is realize that there are other people in this city who could be focusing on, maybe, the same goals you are! But they can't concentrate if you're up here screaming at the top of your lungs! I just don't think-"
"Yes. That. Do more of THAT, for the love of fuck."
Wabi grimaced to the high heavens, and then threw his arms up there.
"Fine, whatever. But when someone barrels down from Kai-Knows-Where and turns you into a pin cushion, don't-"
Dark-red needles suddenly careened from above and into the aggressive young man, causing the barbell he held to crash into the Earth.
Wabi stared in shock.
"(... has this happened before?)" He snapped his mind out of it and his gaze to Kazikum, whose arm had been stuck with what were now distinguishably long, sharpened strands of hairs. One had been stuck into the center of his palm, another within his throat. The victim mouthed an inquisitive profanity before realizing his voice was missing.
"You would not do it yourself, so I did it for you."
[BGM: Kenji Fujisawa ‒ Thugress]
Behind Wabi landed a young woman, donning a deep-black hanfu with muted indigo highlights; its sleeves were tightly laced upon her forearms with more-blatant indigo binds, and in place of the bottom half's dress was a detailed knee-length cloth of similar color, open in the front and draped over both sides and her flank. Most important, though, was how her obscenely-long hair was a perfect match for that which pierced Kazikum.
But even more mind-boggling, the small girl was a dead ringer for a human. Her power level was lackluster at-best, as well.
"Láogōng. The flow of qi in your arm is lost. Yǔyīnliú. Your voice is broken."
"(How…)"
Kazikum plucked out the hair, expecting his voice to return to no avail. He shared a glare with the girl, before his sudden epiphany-like expression seemed to indicate history between the two.
She did much the same.
"You…!" Mei gasped.
The first time the two had met, she was suddenly somewhere else, terrified, and enraged. One of the first things she'd witnessed, besides the lavender-haired man in black, was that… thing… and his tail. Everything between that, and her hospital bed awakening, was a rage-induced haze. That, and flashes of the beast that sent her there, intertwined with those of the crueler beasts that brought her… here.
All HE remembered was attacking the first thing that moved, and then the second smaller thing that moved, in a similar state of berserk as his limbs began failing and small geysers of light shot from parts of his body at random.
Apparently, both were hanging onto life via sheer will by the end. One was struck 248 times. The other, once.
A sinister smile crept up her formerly-stunned visage. "No. I am GLAD it was you, Saiyan."
Wabi attempted to intervene. "Hold on, I get that he's a bit obnoxious, but that's no reason to attack someone out of the blue!" he reasoned, before being hit with a spine-chilling glare.
"You have no place in this. Leave."
"I… No! I don't know who you think you are, but you think I'm gonna stand here and LET YOU that's a hand on my head."
On cue, Kazikum lovingly tossed him into the local pond like one would a pillow onto a bed, head first. An agitated frown bled into a malice-infused grin; he only had a vague idea of who the girl was, but he'd pissed them off, which made him happy. Said-loco grin shot a brief shiver through her being. As much as he'd liked to talk smack, he couldn't, so he compromised with a neat little trick he'd picked up from Dina.
Mei suddenly beheld his longest finger, directing her gaze to the sky. Judging by his obnoxious grin, the beast obviously expected her to drop her guard and look. She chuckled at the attempt.
"Do you believe me so foolish, idiot?" She gave a small grin.
And then, in the motions of two overturned karana mudra, she clasped together her hands.
"Zhū Sī."
Slowly, she pulled apart her hands, a small, golden strand of ki between them as if unwinding a thread.
"Zhizhū Ying-Quan Technique:"
[ BGM: Yasushi Ishii ‒ Hyaku Yorozu Hatsuden ]
She crouched under a swing before it was thrown, weaved her thread 10-fold in the moment of breathing room she possessed, pivot-sidestepped the following straight punch, struck into Kazikum's exposed side, jumped a meter into the air before his lashed-out roundhouse kick could be thrown, and bounded off it upon its launching, sailing through the air. She continued weaving her threads, before landing hands-first.
"That arm… he did not enforce it with qi, it was his own strength. Nevertheless…"
In that instant, one hundred golden strands spread across ground in a 100-meter radius.
"All-Seeing Strike Prison."
Kazikum prepared to throw himself at her again, until his body violently jerked to the side; a weird, translucent light spurted out of him. Much the same happened to the section of his leg where the girl had leapt off.
Xiao Mei smirked, proud of her work.
"You should be writhing in pain, beast. No matter. Worse is yet to come."
Kazikum checked himself curiously, shifted his gaze toward his opponent and the strands across the ground, and charged over them at her.
"Niúbī."
There was not a single instance throughout their battle that Xiao Mei surpassed Kazikum's speed.
That said…
Xiao Mei proceeded to disappear before Kazikum's eyes.
2 attacks pierced his side, more like he'd been shot than struck by hand. Mei reappeared behind him, as his disrupted pressure points burst shortly after.
The dead-tailed Saiyan spun around with a backfist. The second his feet shuffled in such a dynamic manner, Mei zero'd in ‒ the intense pressure from her side alerted her to the oncoming attack ‒ and she struck him directly between the rib cage.
For the first time, Kazikum staggered, damage beginning to compile. He took a step back, stomping firmly onto the string-lined earth behind him. Once again, another attack pierced him, as if Mei were teleporting toward him each time he'd move with how unnaturally fast she closed distance. The instant he regained visual, he launched a punch at her; she slid up the side of it, struck two points in his chest at once, and vaulted off his knee in what seemed like one movement. Her two meter-long hair now floating above him, he instinctively snagged what appeared as a glaring weakness, and yet it was the strands that would grab hold of him; it dug into his hand's flesh like razors, and a dagger kick struck him a dozen times before the hair slipped through his grasp.
Each attempted attack, every step onto the ground, every sudden jerk through the air caused another new part of him to be stabbed, and the red-haired assassin would appear somewhere else around him. Kazikum's attacks were beginning to slow, and he seemed more like a red fountain as the martial artist controlled what could vaguely be considered a "battle."
For a moment, Kazikum stopped his formerly-relentless attacks against her, and as such, so did Mei. His limbs borderline-useless now that the effects of his disrupted pressure points had set in, he fell onto his knees, arms limp at his side. A sadistic, almost-perverted smile had shaped Mei's mouth; the sensation of thrashing a foe that by-all-accounts was vastly stronger gave her a thrill, and she made no effort in hiding it.
Yanking himself out the pond he'd been self-confined to out of awe, Wabi bolted toward the center of the two.
"YOU'VE MADE YOUR POINT, PSYCHO! NOW STOP IT-"
A torrent of bloodlust froze him in his tracks. He was a bit too close to Mei's web.
"You have no place here. Stay out."
The berserker in front of her began shaking, slowly lifting his head, yet, to her surprise…
He gave a child-like grin.
"(A human would be dead at this point. No, even a Saiyan would be floored! Why does he laugh?)"
She hadn't realized how far she'd gone with him, due to managing the strain of her technique's speed upon her body.
Inaudible giggling ensued, as after a moment of bite-assisted hand-adjustment, he did his "look-up" gesture from earlier.
"(No… he wants not to avert my gaze. He wants me to look at that finger.)"
"..."
"(So he INSULTS me)?"
Before she could blow her top off, words from her past mentally beckoned to her.
"Mei, it's important that you always bay your emotions…" spoke a fragment of her late master's words from memory.
Taking them to heart, her grimace turned into a stern frown, and she dove in. To her subtle surprise, he did nothing to stop her advance or her rapid incisions; even as blood flew, once she bounded back, he wordlessly mocked her with a grin. Her eyes strained due to a multitude of factors, as if she'd stared at a screen for 8 hours, and she dove at him again. 3 strikes later, she was behind him.
Kazikum turned his neck, and blew a raspberry.
Despite her best efforts, she was ALWAYS terrible at baying emotion.
Mei's eyes were now bloodshot. At the same time, her web was beginning to fade, and she used the last of it to hone in on the rage-inducing dog, face contorted in anger once again as she stabbed deep into both sides of his neck and bounded over him, the proceeding qi bursts causing his head to finally fall; yet still, as she looked over her shoulder, his silent chuckling persisted.
Mei grit her teeth. Despite the battle being all-but over, she went in for a rage-induced blow that would finally put him to sleep.
Kazikum then jerked his core.
And then his neck.
There was a sickening tearing noise.
And Mei's right hand was gone.
Right down Kazikum's gullet.
[BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano ‒ Exorcist (Start-2:11)]
Screaming, ever since the day she nigh-shattered her voice, badly wounded Mei's throat. Even strong-enough words strained it.
That pain was now too minor to notice.
The berserker's body violently twisted once more, and a fist snapped into her stomach. Her life briefly flashed before her rolled-back eyes, and the unearthly pain of important pieces having been crushed, splintered, and moved out of place followed very soon after.
Taking her mind off it was useless. Focusing on anything but that was useless. As she lay in silent agony, the Saiyan slowly rose, the small, 17 year-old piece of history and rigorous craft perfection serving just meager enough a meal to patch up his wounded innards.
"What's wrong?" he grinned demonically, after clearing his throat. "What the fuck happened to that smile, huh? Did this stop being fun once you took a hit?"
Mei slowly raised her head to confront the beast once more.
And was met with the sadistic, joyous smile of a monkey wraith hovering over her, the latter now defenseless in spite of blood, sweat, and tears.
She was no longer on the top of a hill, in a city outside of space.
She was outside an imperial castle in ruins.
Once more trapped within the day when a Hóuguǐ belittled her martial arts and made sport of her.
Kazikum stopped in his tracks.
The rabid eyes of a dangerous, bloodthirsty warrior faded, and those of a scared, pleading little girl showed themselves.
As they did, monstrous eyes dimmed, and a boy's confused rage overtook them.
"... tch. Gutless sack of shit, you're all the same." He gave her a lowly look, and turned. "Always the first to throw the stone, but too pansy-assed to take it when it's hurled back."
He limped away, and told his green friend to do something. They had a brief spat. The green one approached her.
". . ."
"(ALL OF THEM.)"
An inhuman growling raised a brow from Kazikum, before Wabi's backstepping compelled him to turn around.
There stood Mei. Her face maniacally contorted with rage, dripping a red saliva.
"The fuck...?"
Her tongue was no longer modern.
"I'll kill you all," she muttered in a lost dialect, shambling forward, stumbling on every other step. Tears from her prior humiliation fell, enraged just as much with herself.
"I won't die until I k..." She croaked blood. "Kill you all..."
Kazikum rolled his eyes and walked toward her.
He came within one meter, and then...
"RUAAAAAAA-"
Before she could decapitate him with her stump, he took her by the face and drove her into the gro-
It was much later in the day when Mei's eyes snapped back into reality.
She slowly uprighted herself, half-convinced she'd had a horrid dream. Thus, she inspected her hands. Both were present.
No. Something was wrong.
The left was sharpened, a tone darker than her skin. A result of many, many years of hard work, in order to optimize it as an all-piercing weapon without a weapon.
The right was pristine.
"..."
It wasn't her hand.
"... gh… gnn…"
It wasn't her hand.
"Gutless sack of shit."
She failed to control herself.
She froze.
She'd spat in her late master's face.
She was still so weak.
She should've just stayed on her damn hill.
And now she'd lost a part of herself.
Tears still trailing down her bloodshot eyes, she moved.
Broken or not, she just needed to get stronger.
An image of Kaza repeated within her mind.
It distracted her and kept her focused.
All she needed to do was find her. It didn't matter what occurred once that happened. Something good was certain to come of it.
Mei pushed herself throughout the plaza, concealing her reformed hand behind her back as if Leper's had consumed it.
In all honesty, she was searching blindly; she no longer could muster up the spirit to trace her signature.
It didn't matter. Kaza stood out. At this time, she'd be around here. That's all she needed to know.
All she needed to do was find her.
And she found her.
Laughing with that blonde Hóuguǐ.
She stared.
Kaza must've something, because she turned in her direction not long after.
"Mei! I was worried sick! Are you ok?"
Her words had never sounded so insincere.
"I waited for you on top of the hill, but you never came! Did something happen?"
Mei never broke eye contact with the Hóuguǐ before her. Kaza began to notice.
"Oh, yeah! There's someone I want you to meet!" she giddily exclaimed, flanking and pushing that thing forward.
It was right in front of her. It expressed uncertainty. Then it shut its eyes.
Then it smiled.
"This is Zin-"
Mei's hand was a centimeter from its face before a full nelson ensnared her.
"M-MEI!?"
The blonde staggered back, a monsoon of murderous intent crashing into him.
"WǑ HUÌ CUĪHUǏ NǏ! NǏ TĪNG DÀO LE MA SHĂBĪ!? HÓUGUĬ HÚN DÀAAA–N!"
She didn't care if it understood. As she impotently tried to claw her way out, she simply screamed at it.
"MEI, CUT IT OUT!"
"LET GO OF ME, TRAITOR! LET GO!"
"Wait, I…"
Zinco couldn't form any words to deescalate this. He wasn't smart or suave enough.
"YOU'RE HURTING YOURSELF! PLEASE STOP IT!"
"GO TO HELL! LET GO!"
"I… please just…"
So in the heat of the moment, he resorted to an act that'd stop this.
"YOU DON'T MEAN THAT, MEI!"
"ALL OF YOU CAN DIE! EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU-"
CR–CK!
Mei stopped.
Kaza stared in horror.
"Pl… please stop fighting… aren't you two friends?"
The moron had snapped his arm.
Mei was slowly released. Kaza inched over to Zinco's side.
"... Kaza, you don't have to-"
"Shut up."
She began healing him, choking back tears.
"You're both such idiots."
All they did was take.
No. This was her doAll they did was take.
She'd pushed away her one frAll they did was tafriend.
She turned.
"Wait."
Kaza's voice reached her.
"Please don't go."
"..."
"You're my... friend… too…" she spoke through shaky hiccups.
"... i have done nothing but pain you."
'That's not true."
Mei kept walking.
"It's not… it's not true..."
"(If I had slept a moment longer, could I have avoided this?)"
Everything seemed distant now.
"(Yes… of course.)"
She went back to the top of her stupid hill.
"(If only I had slept in… no problems for Mei.)"
She threw her back onto the grass.
"(... why am I here?)"
She raised an unfamiliar hand to her face.
"(... Is this the afterlife? One... unending nightmare?)"
She wept.
[ED: Pay Money to My Pain ‒ Weight of My Pride]
6/20/2023 Patch Notes: Improved Mei's """""Baozi""""" screaming at Zinco. Yeah you'll understand next chapter.
DUU DUU DU-DUUUU! DU DUUUU DU-
Yo! OP Here!
Not one of my characters is mentally stable!
In fact, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM is traumatized beyond belief, and it shows in everything they do!
See ya next time for more wacky lighthearted antics between our favorite lovable rascals!
... nah but seriously. Dark chapter. Dark stuff. Real dark stuff.
Seeing as this is more young-adult than teen orientated, many of the story's themes still apply to young adults (source: am) and we're still able to take darker stuff, I'm finally gonna take the leap and bump this story to M (if that's possible.) Don't worry, the story won't devolve into mass-degeneracy because of a rating bump. This just gives me a bit more flexibility and eases personal concerns.
Fun fact, Mei actually swears like a sailor. Her Mandarin (not in-verse, just like how the Universal Language isn't actually Japanese) dialogue is laced with curses and junk. Why? She's a young, impatient and reactive rudeass. Kaza, Zinco, Ceushius and Wabi are the only well-mannered characters I have, and Wabi still curses from time-to-time. Even Zinco brought out the A-word a few chapters back. That's why you should watch your fucking mouth when around these damn kids. Shit, why can't people understand that? OH GOD THAT WASN'T FUNNY AT ALL-
Another Fun Fact: This the first time each member of my 3rd planned team meets each other. Dina and Voshyo beat the shit out of each other while Neoru watched, Kaza comedically broke into Ceushius's Stagnant Timespace while he and Zinco were chilling, and Kazikum and Mei mutilated each other while Wabi screamed in confused horror.
More on Mei, though: she's still the hardest character for me to write for, considering she speaks a language I don't know, fights in a complex way I know nothing about, and has went through shit I have no business talking about. But I follow my own path, so I'll keep trying my best to get things at least 60-70% vaguely-correct, and try to pay respect to that which demands it. Regardless, the wait this time isn't about that: Next chapter in a sec.
But uh, yeah. That's about it. See ya.