"Pride?"
"What, are you unfamiliar with the word?"
"Of course I am, I know what pride is. I'm not that stupid."
"Oh come on, I'm mucking!"
Dull, bloodshot red eyes stared down the four-story drop as if it were four hundred. "Pride… pride, wha' do I have on me to be proud of?"
"Is that rhetorical, or do you want me to pull out the list?" asked the pale, night-haired girl, with a reserved playfulness present in her voice.
The brunette kept hunched over the railing. "Three years of bein' under naturally leaves one in the dark, mate. So it wouldn't right for me to keep you there, n' not tell you what trouble you're in, just by bein' next to me right now."
"Well I ought to know of all people, with our histo-"
"LUNA."
Dina's nails dug through the steel pole as if it were dirt.
"... please."
The night-haired girl's seat on said pole was unshaken, even after the brief jolt, but she held silence.
"... Everywhere, outta the corner'a me eye, everywhere I go, I see… I see these glint person-shapes, and I KNOW they're there because when I turn their way, they just magically disappear, n' they're not ghosts 'cause ghosts don't have a FUCKIN' life force attached to them, but even past that... People who I used to talk to fine, people who I've never even met, have all left me in this hundred meter bubble, and I always… ALWAYS… get this fritz look from everyone. And I can, FEEL, their animosity, like… no, I AM a wild animal in their eyes, and they can't stand that I'm able to go anywhere outside of a cage, and they target EVERYONE that makes even the slightest effort to treat me any way other than that."
With the last statement, Luna filled in a blank she'd quietly drawn. "Chesta…"
"M-...my Da', he's…"
The banister deformed in her quivering grasp. "He's… been gettin' calls an' emails, an' pricks comin' to his office, an' notes from fuckheads too CHICKENSHIT to tell it to 'is face or mine… it's gettin' to 'im…!" She hid her face and tried desperately to hide her sniffles. "... an'... and they're all… right. There is a chunk of city that is gone, because I could not be fucked to watch myself, and I k… illed people. I am a walking, natural, disaster, and a net negative for the human race, and my dad's pal can't even be bothered to haunt me, not to mention anyone who told the evac notice to piss off, because why would they? Dina was on top of it, right? Nothin' to... worry… about…!"
The winds started picking up, muffling her already-quieting muttering.
Her whimpers devolved into sobs which she grew ever-desperate to stuff back down, cracking her voice to a point verging on unintelligible. "I got all this power, righ'? Bu' 'f I can' even use it proper… and I'm still this fuckin' powerless…"
She gave up, and asked the other girl directly. "What good am I alive…!?" Dina slowly sank down the railing as she spoke, in a sobbing, shaky mess. "I can' do dis anymo'…"
Luna watched her devolve, giving her time to release everything she'd been holding. "... guess I need the list after all…"
"Wha'?" Dina asked through her tears.
The indigo-eyed girl, with a hand on her shoulder, gave her an honest-to-god list.
Dina's leaking eyes traced the piece, before they drifted up toward Luna. "... I don't…?"
"What? If EVERYTHING I said was just mucking, I wouldn't be able to keep you on your toes now, would I?" she giggled, before sobering. "It's a list of what I could look forward to every day, way back when. It kept me going when nothing else could. Now on, then. Read it!"
Dina's shakes forcibly eased up, seeing Luna's composure as a sign to rein back her own.
Reading through, her sobs stopped, despite her ever-falling tears. Her head slowly began to sway, left-to-right. "... I am not witty, never mind... 'sharp... tongued'?"
"Oh, pish-posh."
Dina sighed through her teeth. "Melon…" she muttered with a developing smirk. " 'Crafty'? Really?"
"What else would you call the twit who manages to solder the jewelry teacher's room shut with doornails and hastily-welded beakers, then somehow has it all pinned on the chemistry teacher?"
"Only worked 'cus Errenmaier's wife shagged the stupid- 'Daring'?"
"Nothin' better than to hear you talk smack directly to those who lord over everyone, then throw them a technical curveball that forces them back in line. It's lovely whenever that bizarre breed of smarts you've got manages to synchronize." Luna hid her sly smirk with a hand. "Not like it'd ever net you any mark over a C-Minus, mind…"
"Oh, piss on you!" Dina chuckled, her tears having slowed. "God, you are such a…"
Her eyes landed on a passage, and the sight of it shocked the slip right out of her grip. "Wh-...! No!"
"Dina, it's fine."
She turned to Luna's smile, her dark hair fluttering in the direction of the lost piece.
"I don't need it anymore."
"But…" A blush formed on her face. "I could've-"
Luna hugged her, tight.
"You get it, yet? You've done so much for me, just by being you. If nothing else, can you not find some pride in that?" She faced her with a stern, strong frown, indigo meeting crimson. "You are so much more than your power, and then you have that, too. And there is so much more that you are capable of doing with it. No mistake you ever make will change that."
She couldn't describe her embrace in simple words. It was cold, like the cutting winds on a stormy night. But the deeper she dug into it, the greater the warmth of her skin became.
— The most affection she'd been privy to, that she'd allowed for herself, in a year. From the love she thought she'd lost.
"... I missed you."
Dina didn't want her to let go. So she held on, too.
[ BGM: Cristobal Tapia de Veer – Bambino Criminale (0:10) ]
Every word, every touch. From the arms to the lips, she held on.
Luna let go, regardless. "You're strong enough to be stubborn," she whispered, interweaving her hand in Dina's. "So be more stubborn than anyone."
With it, Dina made a fist.
"Count on it."
The door to the YPD swung open, turning heads. To her subtle shock, both scorn and bits of relief crashed into her, but she maintained.
"I WANT A JOB!"
The head desk almost scoffed. "You? After what y-"
"I WILL START AT THE VERY BLEEDIN' BOTTOM IF I'VE GOTTA!" She drew a thumb to herself, marking her conviction. "I don't need a badge, and I don't need a salary. But I WILL leave here an asset of the YPD, if I've gotta write my OWN DAMN NAME on the roster!"
A steady commotion followed. Dina sternly awaited a straight answer.
A counter-question flew at her. "And just why the hell should we?" Her eyes widened as the chief approached from the back of the office. "Hm? 'Cus you're 'strong'?"
Her conviction wavered for a second. But then she remembered: yeah. That was the reason.
"Because we need each other."
No. A reason.
"You've all got the know-how, the training, communication, all that. I'm a smart weapon worth more than a hundred pistols, that can bash a sorcerer in the time it takes to ready one. Without me, you're worth fuck-all. Without you, I'm worth fuck-all. But by all means, if anyone'd like to argue contrary, I'm all ears." She crossed her arms. "Just know the next 'HiGhBoUrNe' who rolls through 'ere will be just as stubborn as me and half as nice about it."
A tense stand down ensued. A reluctant agreement spread around the many skeptics, as the few hopefuls grew louder.
At long last, she got her answer; a uniform shirt etched with "YPD," in small across its front beneath a heart-spaced crest, and large bold across its back, flew at her in a bunched-up mess.
— No longer a mascot that grew up and became too big to control. A legitimate force, no matter how low on the totem pole. Dina held out the result of her blossoming resolve with pride.
As stubborn as it took her, a difference was being made.
"Point taken. Now piss off until that shirt's without a single wrinkle, then," said the chief, Ord Spaurk, actively fighting his proud smile with a stern grimace.
Battle For My Pride…
"Tea Girl."
[ OP: Minami – Rude Lose Dance ]
"The 'Flow'?"
"Will you die if you don't repeat every word someone tells you?"
Kora pouted. "I'm… just… checking myself over…!"
"Well have some self-assurance, or someone's gonna bully you for that one day. Anyway," Akaki spun back around in his chair, "It revolves around the idea that a true 'vacuum' doesn't exist."
Kora almost repeated the statement. She caught herself with a frustrated blush. "So like the vacuum of space?"
"Depends on what you mean," the tsufruian replied. "Space isn't, of course, a true vacuum. Know why?"
"Radiation?"
"Wrong, cosmic radiation isn't everywhere. However, if you'd guessed something like 'planets' or 'asteroids', you would've been just as wrong. All of those are just additional bodies inhabiting space, from the smallest photon to the largest nebula, and the energies drifting in between. After all, unlike atoms on almost any inhabitable planet, it's not like there's any sort of omnipresent 'force' proliferating each and every cubic picometer of the cosmos."
.
.
"... 'or is ther'-"
"OR IS THERE!?" Akaki wouldn't let Kora have hers. "The concept of 'The Flow' has to do with 'Ki' flowing freely across all of space and time, transcending both as one conglomerate beyond our understanding. In that, it would fill the traditionally-considered 'empty spaces' like the void. It's… funny, actually. My instructor called it something different. He said it like 'Chi', in the same way one would say blood."
Kora discarded his last talking point, too bothered by the main idea. "But that's impossible…! If that were true, something like the Spirit Bomb could take ki from… nothing!"
"Who's to say it doesn't already?"
Kora gave him a "hurry the hell up and make this make sense" glare. Akaki complied.
"Like I said, the truth goes far beyond what mortal or even divine minds can fully comprehend, but the amount of ki, of 'genki' that makes up nothingness, is far too little to sustain a proton for any more than the time it takes for that very proton to travel its own body length — and unlike we contortionists of ki, subatomic particles all have a universal speed limit to adhere to, so that's saying a lot. It's all too unstable, too dynamic. Yet it's simultaneously at rest, and constant. That breed of primordial energy is beyond use conventionally but, but KNOWING it? THAT ALONE is power. It was taught by my instructor, and it's the 'Way' of Suju-Po; acknowledging the interconnectedness of all things, and the consistent flow of energy across space and time. I've been able to understand so much more thanks to today, no longer thinking in terms of descending 'god particles' but as waves that change form and existential tendencies, in a constant dance of flux… Creation and annihilation, a chaotic harmony ever ongoing…"
"But I thought you knew everything," Kora sassed. "Seems like something you could've found by reading something from Son Gohan."
"I'm not inclined to read any slop from Earth – least of all from Son of all authors, the unorganized blabbermouth – but that's beside the point… Looking back at myself, I always saw some reason in a lot of his, my instructor's, ramblings, I mean I could recognize a few things from school books and theses from top Tuffle scientists, but among all the crap that sounded like crazy talk, there was always… one chief thing that I could never add up."
Kora folded her arms. "Actually, can this-"
"And THAT was,"
She playfully rolled her eyes. There wasn't a single 'false' Akaki that'd pull something so unmindful.
"Breaking from The Flow. Now, this instructor of mine, he'd always insist that everything was part of this cosmic movement, energies moving from one point to another from the beginning until the end of time. Not entirely on the mark, but that's what Suju-Po is based around, moving and mending with these 'forces', how I so-idiotically regarded them as a kid. But near the end of it all, and to ME OF ALL, PERSONALLY, he'd drone about… how the…" the tuffle began fidgeting with his hands, trying to visualize his statement before explaining in words. "Can you read anything up there, actually? It's easier to explain mathematically."
The saiyaness glanced at the holographic scribbles for a few seconds. "... can you lateral 7000 tons?"
Akaki pressed his temple. "Dammit, of course not…!"
Kora's pride was staked more than it was nourished.
"Whatever, I'll do my best." He lifted a wavy hand and suddenly, with it, formed a fist. "It's the same way an electron spontaneously takes particle form, after a certain amount of energy is gathered. Though again, I'm talking in terms of math models like the ones above you, not any true waves. So anyway, we'd use this principle and others to describe the use of Ki; intaking the flow of energy and momentarily becoming these… particles, these nature-bending beings. Adhering to The Flow, yet momentarily overcoming it, like a fish quickening its pace and proficiently moving through the current. But no matter how long-lived, we 'fall back in'; we still die, and if not, we'll just continue to wander until either vice eats us alive or we lose our minds. But to BREAK from The Flow is to subvert and transcend it altogether. Becoming a true, separate form. One with Sky. Enlightened."
"... what's that take?"
"Knowing The Flow, with all your heart, and then leaving it. Looking upon it with greater eyes, taking in the true nature of the cosmos, and then re-entering." Akaki's hand slowly rose over his mouth. "... he said that, word for word. It never added up until today. Everything just… collided."
Kora impatiently tapped her foot. "... soooo… Ki? Spirit Bomb? Space?"
"Yeah, yeah. Genki needs time to stabilize. 'That of the Void' is short-lived and spontaneous, after all. But if time is relative, then so are we. All one need do to harness that force is to slip from The Flow for as little as a particle's second. We've already seen what someone can do with this, as much as I dismissed it as magic on first viewing."
"The Pre-Age Human."
"... 'The Way'. 'Qi'. 'Buddhahood' and more. Humanity's delicate blend of over-advancing and incessantly clinging to old ways, is, the more I look at it… their strength. So needless to say, if you go out and prove that by losing, with what I'VE provided you, I'm going to end myself."
After kicking Akaki's chair away, Kora pondered. "(It'd take someone extraordinary to pull off something like that. But the one I'm up against doesn't have the brains for whatever deep crap 'Breaking from The Flow' entails, and neither do I. Not empty-headed or wise enough.)" On her way out, she stared up at the bastardized equations polluting the ceiling. "(Whatever. It's not a great idea to fill my head with this bogus right now. I've got a fight to win.)"
Dina stared blankly at the sky.
It yet crackled with fading lightning, a constant rumbling like an engine or applause. The clouds had become a series of splintered rings leading into the heavens, portions of last match's event now visible through the shattered moon and misshapen sun.
"(No singular piece. Everything in totality. Before the beginning and way, way down beyond the end. Each tiny bit living and dying in the same instant, incited by another, inciting another. It's endless…)" She looked high. "(... I'm going to suffer, until the day I die. But there's no need to regret anything that leads me to that point. Only that I could've done more. For myself, for others.)"
The tara sighed. "(Like paleontology.)" Her eyes clamped shut, and reopened. There was a fight to win.
"Heaven and Earth..." Briefly stunned into silence, Mei broke into a small grin. "For however fleeting the moment, she, too, managed to see through their illusions."
"Mh." Konus nodded his head. "In all regards, it far surpassed the state I once faced. How auspicious it must feel, to attain such a level of clarity..."
Selaine's head darted back and forth between the two like a lost child. "COULD EITHER OF YOU TWO PILLOCKS CUT THE CRYPTIC JABBER AND EXPLAIN WHAT IN GOD'S NAME JUST TRANSPIRED!? CLEAR AND CONCISE TERMS, PLEASE AND THANK YOU!"
Mei looked at Konus. Konus looked at Mei.
Both shrugged.
"Dao lies beyond words. How foolish must one be to not grasp something so simple?"
"I had assumed such was common knowledge... what a miserable oddity, this world I now traipse..."
"HOPELESS, YOU AND YOU BOTH!"
All the while, Kaza laughed, ditzy-like. "(For once, I'm glad I didn't ask for an explanation...)"
Dina grasped at her misshapen limb. "Shit." She could still feel something like pins and needles all over, thanks to her body's infinite malice toward her slave-driver of a mind. Left there was a blackened stump bisecting her right bicep — which sucked, because she really, really, really liked her right arm. If a final condition for victory was to sign her name with legible handwriting, screw regrets, she'd quit then and there.
On the bright side, she'd rendered her opponent an asthmatic after spur-of-the-moment enlightenment, however. Maybe she could bounce back if the final condition was singing… whatever Conton City's national anthem was.
"Was that it?" Kora hissed.
The last four that'd done such things had broken the rules of reality itself. All this punk could do was hit her really, really hard. She would laugh if she could, but her bitter chuckle did the job fine. "All that…! And you still lose more than you gain? Is this your idea of 'Enlightenment', you idiot?" She propped herself up, eager to look down upon her again.
"Oh, Kora, dear… don't tell me you can't feel your own energy, because I sure can. You're even with a broad with one less arm. You've already lost."
Like a rabid animal.
Angered, Kora tried to swallow, but coughed up red spittle in the process. "I'M the one who's already lost? Everything in your arsenal plus one, and I'm still here…! WHILE ALL YOU CAN DO IS STAND!"
"And that's all it takes to scare you."
Dina's expression could freeze a flame solid.
"Of course I'm scared…! My opponent won't stop digging her own grave!" lectured Kora, raising a palm at said opponent.
The kiai went straight through her.
"...!"
[ BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano – Shut Up~Go To Hell (1:50) ]
Afterimage. Through her afterimage.
A growl leapt from the warrior as she turned at breakneck speed, launching an elbow into the spot Dina was standing just a microsecond ago. Her tail bristled in frustration, one that grew once it realized who was now standing on it like a board.
Kora turned, eyes inflamed.
"Hi," Dina chirped with pain-strained eyes, making her expression deceptively (?) crazed.
The tail shot back, leaving Dina aerial as Kora charged her.
— every individual interaction that led to the punch being thrown was privy to her. She could admire how sublime the form behind it was, the subtle-then-explosive firing of energy through it. Every muscle twitch that made it possible, sifting through the air before lancing it, nature's laws ever-so-slightly manipulated by the ki now enhancing it so that not even the sound barrier broke, in spite of the blow's otherwise-unfathomable speed. Kora'd been an adult woman for less than a year and yet, in terms of martial skill, she handedly eclipsed masters who'd been practicing before her grandparents' first breath.
Dina fathomed all of it, and then charged away.
It looked like a peerless dodge, as did the next dozen before the half-breed broke away, the saiyaness re-engaging with a bewildered vengeance as she panted up a storm.
Trunks and Pan looked on, equally bewildered. They turned to each other; one shook their head in uncertainty, and the other shared the sentiment.
"ᵢₜ 𝒸ₐₙ'ₜ ᵦₑ," Son lip-spoke.
They turned back to yet another Spaurk Upset™.
Kora's labored, unsynchronized breathing only furthered her growing anxiety, growing ever-present in her eyes. With a strained grunt in-between her jabs, she shot forth a ki blast in reverse-punch form, entrusting that Dina would, at worst, dodge it and be blown right into her next lunge.
Dina threw herself into Kora and slid past her aura, eye contact made the entire time. Having failed its initial assignment, the blast was regathered and empowered by its irate, heaving master before being sent her way as a fiery, beam-led orb. Its target proceeded to bound at and wave it off-course, just as Kora detonated it.
She recognized it. So did her reference point.
"SUJU-PO!?" Akaki exclaimed. "BUT THAT'S A TUFFLE MARTIAL ART! HOW COULD SHE POSSIBLY KNOW HOW TO USE THAT!? (I was right.)"
He screeched in shock in order to blend in. In truth, he was proving a hypothesis.
"(She's altering her every particle's EM field at will. It's a down-scaled version of the other stunt she pulled, and that was beyond any sort of explanation aside from…) Holy crap, that's a girl not even I'd wanna mess with…! H-hang in there, Kora! (She 'broke free from The Flow', for a moment of time beyond any of us, and took a 'truth' away from the trip. Dammit, how? Why? And WHY HER?)"
The Yarg girl then slid onto a collision course with the Vegeta native, and became negative just in time for a leaping punch.
Sparks flew as Spaurk flew, the young woman forming a grimace as her punch fired from its chamber.
Lightning struck.
"—A-HUA…!"
Every individual particle in Dina's body held the energy equivalent of a storm cloud, never mind her body itself. Electrons slammed into Kora's ki at speeds that bent relativism, traces of magic momentarily altering her spiritual field's formerly-neutral charge into one permitting a constant chain of effect, all of it culminating into one red and white-seared crackle.
She'd been struck by her own energy output. The kinetic force rocked her down to the bones as the shock sent her already-panicking mind on the fritz.
A good thing, then, that she got the timing right and emitted a blast. Kora, hands still outstretched, slowly crumpled to the ground in dry heaves, clawing at her chest all the while as she steadied.
In doing that, Dina succeeded in savaging both of her most mortal enemies: Kora and Dina.
"... HH-A-haah…!"
The "high" look washed off of her as her joints seemed to jellify under her own pressure, Dina falling to the ground.
"Wait are you seri-te-10! 9! 8! SE-oh thank chronoa-"
Both slowly rose back up, groaning in pain.
NOT ONE, BUT TWO UPSETS, FROM BOTH FIGHTERS, AND HARDLY A MINUTE APART! AT LONG LAST, WE'RE SEEING THE DEPTHS OF THESE TWIN TITANS' DARE-I-SAY UNMATCHED FORTITUDES COME FULL BLOOM! WHAT ELSE COULD POSSIBLY COME FROM THIS PAIR, BESIDES THE ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM LIMIT OF THEIR… They're… laughing…?
Like a pair of unsealed steampipes, shaky giggles seeped.
"Fackin' smarts! (Idiot… I really just tried yankin' my own strings loose…!)" she poked fun in tears, giving her broken bones form through fun with electromagnetism. "(I'm goin' lucid just usin' the bits'a magic keepin' me toge'er…!)"
Kora watched Dina stand on every bone she'd broken with a smile that begged for release, all the while questioning her own. "Are you… screwing with me… right now…? What's it gonna take… outside of kILLING YOU…!"
"Oh God… I've never been more bitched at in my entire life, an' I was a bloody cop in me last." She took a shaky breath. "Know what, it's funny. I really did lose back there. In any other environment, I would've lost without question. No, died. I've gotta give that to you. But I swear, instead of closing distance and finishin' me off, you just kept dronin' on and on…!" Another giggle escaped her. "Like, are you my mum? Honestly. Be honest."
"What?"
Dina cocked an eyebrow. "What? What, mate? Sorry, have you caught CTE? Or are you somehow so thick in the head that you can't understand what I'm askin' yas?"
The saiyaness groaned. "What the hell are you even saying right now?"
Another giggle. "Oh, so you are that stupid. Lovely." A light heave escaped her as she adjusted to her new weight, the pain behind it. "What is your deal with me?"
Kora continued to steady her breathing. "... what's my deal wi-"
"-My god you tit, you are a Saiyan warrior not a bleedin' parrot, answer the fuckin' question an' not with another question for once in your shite existence." Dina shifted her center of gravity, growing used to her new weight. "I know you are so laughably inept at the simple task of talkin' to other sentient lifeforms that I could find more social engagement chattin' up an amoeba, but you have got to be taking the piss."
Kora unsteadied her breathing. "You knOW WHAT-"
"WHAT, DICKHEAD? ANOTHER LECT-"
"NO! NO, IT ISN'T…!" In the most literal sense, her every breath sounded like her last. "It's just that I…! I…! I DIDN'T HAVE ANY OTHER OPTION!"
"Asphyxiation, carotid artery, hell mate just pin me down like wrestling! I know you're not that stupid, Kora, you immature fuckin' mong, so why don'cha just say it?"
If looks could annihilate.
"OK, fine. I'll take that as an answer." Dina sneered. "If I win, I win. If I lose, you'll have won, by the skin of your teeth, without havin' seen even a flash of golden locks. How does that make you feel, Ms. Vegeta-woman? Hm? You think you'll bore a hole through me skull with a little pouty face, yeah? Is that how they did it back on your block, blud?" Dina sneered. "I think I'd've passed out already from all this pain coursin' through my body, if it didn't feel so damned good makin' you all this bent, after all the SHIT you've talked. All the hardman, big-bad-Saiyan-bitch crud you were spewin' back there, yeah? Where's it now, then? WHERE'S IT FUCKIN' NOWS, 'EN!?" She chuckle-sighed, coming off a high. " 's all fine. I'm just… fueled, solely, off of your seething hatred at the moment. Shit's bangin', may'."
Kora slowly walked off to the side. "I underestimated you."
Dina followed, parallel, concealing her unarmed side. "Mh-hm."
"I think there's a small piece of me that would've felt guilty about breaking every bone in your body, even if it didn't kill you. But thanks to you, that piece is gone."
"Yeah~?"
"Yeah~."
"Oh, you dirty girl, you. Tell me what your plan's for me now."
Kora smiled. "I'm gonna break off and tear down each, and every tendon, you have. Until you lose every coherent thought in that disgusting, depraved little psyche of yours."
"Oh, that's dastardly. See? You're a crude woman when you put your mind to it, inn' ya?"
"Only for you, you perfect little mistake."
[ BGM: A Perfect Circle – Outsider (Apocalypse Remix) ]
Dina grinned. Her true, hateful scowl was present for a moment before the scenario slowly changed.
"... The hell?"
— She was 16.
"You're joking…"
— She was 16.
One was sent to the remnants of Planet Glass, to wipe out a small tribe before they could grow stronger and take revenge on Chilled's wicked lastborn.
The other was after a bored Highbourne after a carnival romp went south.
Neither was of any significance to either. Both passed quickly enough, and nothing was lost or gained.
But both had stopped at some point during. One inconsequential moment in time, when they had looked themselves over in one of many scattered reflections.
A split moment of vanity, when the one staring back was a genuine warrior, a certified badass, at last.
The reflections were now stained with the other girl's image. Both moments had become one in the scenario's fractal oddity, infusing a last-resort cavern with a novelty attraction, separating both girls.
They paid the cracked reflection a glare, and kept walking. Energy signatures started ping-ponging across the bouncing photons, and mirrored images grew distorted, as the two predators slowly adapted to the new stage.
Trunks tensed, glancing at the HP bars.
2%.
2%.
"(What more could they even do to each other, in the states they're in? How the hell are they even MOBILE?)"
What is obsession?
His brows raised as Son followed along, with the same trudging pace.
It's a weakness. A blight on the heart that eats away at its host until nothing's left. It's a sign someone needs to grow up.
Both girls clenched their fists tight enough to whiten knuckles and wetten palms, eyes locking on something far off.
But what, then, is relinquishment, but giving up? But denying oneself catharsis? Allowing a slight to slip away and go unpunished? Whatever this was, it wasn't any penchant for drama he was used to. Is THAT strength?
He felt need to rein her back in. Of course. To relinquish fixation and move forward couldn't be closer to the idea of strength. We've all seen it. And we've also seen just the opposite.
Son's gasp would've been caught by the mic, was she any less locked in.
Obsession so potent, its hunger fans the flames of the heart and undoes the mind's shackles. On reflection, he'd seen and known too much to play sage.
Mirror, mirror, mirror after mirror caught the two's shared sudden sprint forward.
Could we even HOPE to get the feeling harbored between these two!? Is IT why they've pushed this far!? Is it beyond even the drive of going Patroller!? WHATEVER THE ANSWER, THE ONE TRUTH WE HAVE…!
IS THAT THIS OBSESSION HAS FINALLY COME TO A HEAD!
They dashed into one.
RH!
NRH!
BㅤRㅤEㅤAㅤKㅤ.
Countless frames shattered, a chorus of destruction.
Streaks of capillary life essence flew from the two, the ethereal glass shredding lines of skin.
Within the storm, red abyss and black horizon shared unbroken animosity, two fists in collision.
The air between the burning glares exploded; glass disintegrated between and around it.
Repelling herself off the fist, Dina's knee shot into Kora's side, practically folding her. One way or another, her counter landed in that round.
Simultaneously, Kora had already shot a reverse punch that nearly caved Dina's skull in. If only she'd caught that one; her luck was at an end.
Both lurched back, blood streaming from internal bleeding and concussion, respectively.
1.75%.
1.75%.
Each got a good look at their stunned states through flying glass. Eyes darted back up front. There was a fight to win.
Dina sprang into Kora's gut with a straight. Kora grabbed hold and shot her knee into Dina's. Another followed, but the next in-line was stopped by a gathered ball of ki, one that exploded outward and nearly pulled Kora's leg from socket as it plummeted into the ground. Dina almost disconnected head from body with an uppercut, herself going aerial from the force behind it; two hands suddenly slammed into and gripped both her sides then clawed deep, raking her flesh before searing the wounds shut. Without time to let either agony set in, Kora blasted her away, not allowing time for the demi-saiyan to recover as she rushed her tumbling figure with bloodshot eyes.
"UraAA-!"
Dina hit her with a meia lua de compasso across the chin. Tlatla or no Tlatla, she wouldn't let pain stop her this far in. She sprang back up to attack her liver. Kora was wide open, now. She had this, if only she could just-
Kora practically tasted Dina's desperation. It shot her eyes wide open like a drop of heavenly nectar.
She read her punch, and got low. The wrist was caught, and there was no need to duck another. Applying her own for-...
Applying the cosmos' energy, and applying hell to her neck and wrist's joints all the while, she slammed Dina into the glass-ridden ground neck-first, sending all up in reflective glints.
"DO IT…"
Kora's voice had turned into a growl as she choked the life out of her nemesis. Her knee crashed onto the red-eyed girl's chest, using all of her body weight to force out every drop of air as she squeezed tighter.
"BEFORE YOUR NECK SNAPS LIKE A POCKY STICK, DO IT…!"
To her veiled horror, a manic calm began washing over Dina. Despite the hold, what felt like a hand caressed Kora's cheek as it raised up her face, and she smiled.
"IF YOU INSIST…"
One didn't need to breathe in order to use magic.
"kuark…!"
A tiger claw gripped over a section, and red lightning banged one of her eyes.
Fleshly arm free as her nemesis recoiled in pain, one arm smacking into the ground hard enough to break it, Dina shrimped and bashed Kora's liver in with a mystical hook, the fist uprooting glass and stone alike on its ascent upwards. If she could've spared any more ki for the punch, the fight may have ended.
But now, even more was needed to support her dwindling bone structure. Ki blasts were no longer on the table, and offensive reinforcement threatened to have her topple from her own weight.
The saiyaness's whimpers gradually morphed into manic chuckles. "You hit… like a girl…!"
Dina, through agonized hisses, followed suit. " 'n you don', yeah? Always took you for a man, you bag-faced whore…!"
Chuckles turned into deranged laughter toward the other's insipidness, toward their audacity to continue breathing.
It stopped abruptly, cut off by both's deep inhales, taken in-between their grit teeth.
"HRAAAA—"
"NRAAAA—"
They had lost their collective patience.
Dina used her arm and armless shoulder as sword and shield. Kora took in air and fought breathlessly in bursts, as if underwater.
A dodge too snappy. A fist just a bit too slow. Pain causing concentration to wane. Stamina breaking footwork.
The opponent being just good enough, at just the right time.
Dina could breathe better, was more calm. Kora had more skill overall, better balance. Dina's one arm hit harder than Kora's two, and yet Kora had one more.
Every block hurt. Every dodge hurt. Every parry hurt. The ground was further uprooted with their every step.
The saiyaness feinted a high kick, only to slice into the demi-saiyan's thigh. The following stagger sent Kora into a single-minded frenzy, lunging for the kill.
The blow to the head she sought wouldn't land. Dina jumped into it, her shoulder parried, and her elbow spun into Kora.
The shoulder, the collarbone, both fractured.
0.75%.
0.75%.
Both crashed onto the ground. All they could do was breathe.
The count started. Both really wanted to tell them to shut up. They chose the 5-count to start rising.
"(She's right. I could've ended this sooner.)"
Her tail acted as a third leg, staking into the ground. "(If I'd fought the way I am now, back then…)"
— Her doffing of the chassis.
"(I would've won. So why?)"
She watched Dina struggle to pick herself up, the bleeding leg she'd struck shaking like mad and with tears free-flowing without a hint of shame, with what looked like awe.
"(Honor? Was I toying with her?)" Another alternative flashed through her mind, and her eyes clamped shut, annoyed. "(After all of this, can I SERIOUSLY still not let go?)"
There was a standstill.
"(Or is… or is it something else?)"
Neither had a thousand-year composite soul to fall back on, no absurd amount of genki to fuel themselves with. At the moment, they were two exhausted teenage girls that could hardly take a step forward without collapsing.
"(Haven't I done enough to prove myself?)" Dina tugged on her badge amulet. "(Who'd hold it against me if I just pop it now? I can fight someone stronger. I've shown that. But…)" She relinquished her hold. "(But God, that is such a pathetic thing to say…!)"
"That badge…!"
The Yarg girl perked up as quickly as one could in her state.
"What… what does it mean?"
"... you serious right n-nOW?" She scowled. "What… BULLSHIT are you planning?"
"Nothing… I just want to know, why that?"
"Oh… oh just fuck off. We're in a soddin' fight right now you stupid bitch, why would I… tell YOU… an-ANYthing about me? You're mental!"
Dina had on her a look of genuine hatred. For a reason she couldn't put in words then and there, it hurt.
"... do you… really hate me that much?"
She was her enemy, absolutely, and Kora GREATLY disliked her, but…
"Hate you? 'C-course I hate you. You're still in my way, n' you've, done all this shit to me, said, all this shit. Forgive me for not fUC-... not quite fancyin' a talk w' you at this time."
The black-haired girl gnashed her teeth, turning her head as if her enemy wouldn't take the first chance to cave it in. "It was just a stupid question."
Dina felt like a lot of things at the moment. "I just kicked a puppy" was not an emotion she expected to take the forefront. Neither was the single butterfly cocoon wriggling about in the pit of her gut.
"Kh… besides, you're a bloody Saiyan elite or whatever, why pick now to stop-"
"No I'm not." She said it shyly. Almost cutely. "... I'm Kora."
Dina stared.
She and this person had just spent the last few minutes brutally mauling each other. This was where they'd wound up.
"You are… so, s-so very weird…" A sigh escaped her. It sounded vaguely like a chuckle, vaguely like a pain-induced stutter.
Regardless of everything, she was fighting someone alien to her. Kora was doing the same. They shared similar DNA, but in every other way, they were two different species.
She could go fuck herself, like many who shared similar DNA, but still.
"(How Da' ever managed a girl anythin' like this, I'll never know…)"
[ BGM: Hideki Naganuma — Chain (Underwater Mix) ]
She took up her badge again. "... you're familiar with police, yeah?"
"Is that an Earth thing?"
"Patrolmen, yeah?"
"Ah."
"(Unbelievable.) Well, that was me. First as a mascot-slash-attack dog they decided to throw chevrons on as a joke, and then as a rank even lower than a pencil-pusher at the office. I made mistakes. Horrible, costly mistakes, that I could never make up for in a hundred lifetimes. But by the end of my time 'there', I'd proven myself respectable. I could save people, empower people, in spite of everything. This was given to me as a measure of that."
"... when you say 'mistakes'..."
"I killed people that didn't deserve to die. Yeah, nearly everyone in this city already sees me as a psychopath thanks to the long-repressed issues I'd never resolved springin' out'a me on live telly, but I'm quite used to ostracization at this point. So I've got no issue admitting it here. Living, breathing, laughing and smiling and taking things day by day. People. Have lost their lives to me. An' one'a the few that could still look me in the eyes after that, that was always there for me, I sprang at. All because I couldn't tether myself."
She looked over her bleeding, twitching hand. "I wanted to throw it all away. See it as a dream I was in the middle of waking up from, and lose myself in a new world where I was apparently hot shit. Just wasn't. It was cruel of me to even try. Reminded 'a that every day, I was." The hand gripped her amulet once again. "This is my tether to what's made me who I am. And every link holding it up is just…"
Dina shakily turned to the stands, and a certain audience within them, with a dumb little smirk. "Well, I did say 'nearly everyone', didn' I?" Her crimson eyes darted back to her enemy before her head could turn back. "Yeah. That's what it means."
For the first time since the two locked eyes that day, Kora's face softened.
Dina inhaled. "Alright. Whatever plan you were whippin' up durin' that spiel you convinced me to blurb out, I'm ready for it. Glutton for Punishment an' all that. Or were you just havin' a go at dampening my burning anger?"
"I don't have anything."
"... You what?"
"I can't generate enough ki for any massive attack. I've either done every technique I can, or I can't. Not the way I am now."
"... then what did you gain from that?"
Kora stared away.
…
..
.
Every time she spoke, she heard the story of her life.
The same person she'd once dismissed as a pathetic weakling with power she didn't deserve, with a crutch given to her by genetics,
Had, all this time,
Lived as she did.
.
..
…
And yet, she had so much that she didn't.
"... nothing."
If she could say that her pain had made her stronger, if just that, it would be fine. If she could say that all she had was that damned state, it would be fine.
Without it, with just as much pain and guilt waning on her, she was still, right, there.
Why did she get to turn out so different?
[ BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano – Before My Body Is Dry (nZk Instrumental) ]
The hatred that rose within her gut was shameful. She'd never felt it for anyone in her life.
She had seen the man responsible for her brother's backstabbing in the flesh, and she still wasn't nearly as enraged as she was in that moment.
And she wouldn't get anything from it. Not power, not invincibility, nothing.
The story of her life.
She shook her head, bearing fangs with a pained grimace. "I gain nothing."
Not a bond, like any other saiyan. No respect between rivals, like any other warrior. Only hatred.
Because she wasn't a saiyan. She wasn't a warrior. She was Kora.
So with her unsteadied breathing and a tired rage, she dashed at her enemy.
"(Here she comes…!)"
Dina stanced up.
"(I CAN SEE IT…!)"
She started to maneuver.
"(SO DAMMIT, MO-)"
0.70%.
But that, alone, was beyond painful.
0.40%.
Her head bounced backward. The attack rocked her like a gunshot.
…
..
.
It wasn't enough.
In spite of everything she'd undergone since their first encounter, it wasn't enough.
She really would never catch up to her. Not without that damned form.
It was fair. The fact burned her soul.
Someone like her would need to compromise, put themselves through an even greater Hell just to keep up. Whereas she didn't need to. Super Saiyan was a curse that could be made into a blessing, regardless of her history with it. She'd seen it from others, from herself. In a battle without it, what bullshit would it be, if someone like her couldn't trounce her?
… but she'd tried so hard. So much progress, so many lessons, and it still wasn't enough.
It wasn't like her previous brushes with defeat. It wasn't an unconquerable obstacle or an indomitable difference. This one was too natural.
Despite everything, she was ok with this outcome.
.
..
…
And she couldn't accept it.
"eURAAAA-"
0.25%.
Kora's heel shot into her chest like a cannon. Dina fell to the ground, ruby-red spittle streaming from her lips.
Just the dash and two hits took everything out of her. Kora stumbled backward.
10! 9-
Son rushed in.
"(IT'S OK NOW…!)" She slid next to her, eyes strained. "(YOU DID YOUR BEST, OK!? YOU CAN LET GO, NOW!)" 10987654-
In defiance, she slammed her head into the concrete and screamed herself upright.
"DINA!" Pan yelled in agony.
Through shaky breaths, Kora watched her fight against her own tire and anguish, and scowled so deep it was as if she'd tear through her own face. Even with what she'd been through, she was so good with people that she'd managed to get someone as high up, as elusive as Pan on her side.
"(It's not fair…)"
How could she match that?
She had to fight for a single breath. Like sealing punctured tubing, pulling it in, ensuring it reached her lungs, was a labor.
Kora gave a war cry in the form of a weary groan and dashed again, as Dina dug her fingers into the shifting tiles and tensed. Springing forward, she grinded past the spear-like fist, blood like sparks as she cross-countered with everything she had.
0.30%.
Kora fell.
She couldn't hit that hard. Not in this match. Never again, it felt like.
0.25%.
The side-knee on her way down confirmed it. But she fell to the ground, regardless.
Once again, the plucky underdog beat the odds and defeated her would-be better. Right?
10! 9! 8-
"NO!"
Through teary, bloodshot eyes, Dina watched her force her closing lungs open with the tenacity of a dying lion, and her eyes filled to the brim with fear. Even with what she'd been through, she'd made it this far almost completely alone, with nearly everyone against her.
How could she match that?
"(God…?)" She couldn't believe what she was doing. "(I've never been very close to you, I know, but… please…! Make this end…!)" She shook her head as she dragged herself upward. "(Please, just let me-)"
"GIVE…!" She coughed blood, desperately wheezing. An inhale allowed her to finish her demand.
"GIVE ME HER COUNT!"
…
THE FINAL INSULT.
"I DESERVE…!" Kora stood to her feet. "HER COUNT…! TOO!" She raised her teary, grimacing head, reddened bangs levitating as her enraged eyes scorched the air.
Dina's eyes were laden with vermillion veins. Her lips crawled upward in small, jerking motions, slowly baring her fangs. Her amulet began to smoke and flutter along her neck.
The two faced each other, and the scenario went mad.
The more she dwelled upon her existence, the more her heart swelled with hatred.
It was mockery. Her every breath was mockery.
All she ever did was hurt those around her. She could connect with others, so easily.
She still had two fucking arms. It took giving up one just to close the gap.
She'd lost so much just to get here.
She'd changed so much just to stand at her level.
"(WHAT MAKES YOU SO DIFFERENT?)"
"(WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT FROM ME?)"
"WHAT ELSE
DO I NEED TO GIVE UP
…
..
.
TO BEAT YOU!?"
[ Pay Money To My Pain –
Weight of My Pride ]
Every vow to change, then and there, forsaken.
Every swear to set things right, then and there, thrown to the wayside.
Nothing else mattered.
She wanted to destroy her.
"KORAAAAAA—!"
"DINAAAAAA—!"
That was all.
They charged. Self-preservation, and the pain with it, was abandoned.
She had to fall. She would make her fall.
They socked each other in the face, hard enough to shatter teeth. The punches didn't stop — they recovered instantly, in a failed attempt to beat the other there, and kept throwing their weight. All elegance was lost in the mutual savaging, the two's breathing replaced by primal, furious snarls.
The one with one more arm won out. Kora punched her in the jaw, then dragged her by the hair toward her and kicked her in the nose. Her next kick was countered by Dina's headbutt, and her knee splintered. Dina grabbed at Kora's leg and dragged her to the ground, mounting before pummeling her senseless.
Kora thrusted her nukite'd hand into Dina's ribs and twisted. A feral scream escaped her, before she grabbed the hand in-between her arm and began to bend, hard enough to split bone. Kora now yowled in pain, before Dina slammed her head down into hers. Both were concussed; before Dina could do anything critical, Kora shot her other hand up onto her face and clawed, sending Dina off her with a useless eye and a face that burned at the wind's touch.
Kora tried to lunge at her and keep it going, but a host of factors made her stumble.
Dina began to pull herself onto her feet, the new pain inciting handfuls of ground being scraped into a fist.
She hadn't noticed the rain.
She hadn't noticed the cracked blacktop.
Struggling to get back up, she peered into the forsaken ground, and within it, her reflection.
… IT WAS HER FAULT.
HER FAULT THIS WOULD AMOUNT TO NOTHING.
She screamed herself back onto her feet, the burning air around her rapidly glinting gold, and charged blindly into her enemy.
They slammed into each other, auras growing more and more visible, desperate to overpower their enemy. Once again, two arms were better than one, regardless of strength, and Kora began to push Dina down.
Dina suddenly let go, lunged into Kora, and bit into her ear. After another feral scream shook the grounds, Kora's hands wrapped around Dina's throat once again, prying her mouth open as her nails dug in. Kora took on a rabid dog's eyes as she squeezed the life out of her, only to be stalled by Dina raking her fingers into her thigh. The faltering grip led to a kidney punch, and then a backfist. Dina darted around her and yanked her frazzled tail into a rabbit punch, before grabbing it again for another, nails digging into it to the point of bleeding. The sole piece of Kora tethering her to her and her species' atrocities, and to her family, to her master and lover, being desecrated, Kora retaliated with a vengeance, returning from her fall with a reverse punch laden with a chunk of blacktop and sending it onto Dina's skull. Kora yanked Dina's chain forward and started hammering her with punches, enough to start breaking it. The sole piece of Dina tying her to the wrongs she could never fix, and the life she could never return to,
Dina gripped it with a right hand of energy, and laid into her temple with an elbow of it.
Kora didn't care. She only saw Dina breathing. It was enough.
Both flew into a blind rage, punch after punch against each other as the scenario flashed in a constant flux. Blood flew from them as their legs grew heavier and heavier, their fists flying at a pace they shouldn't have been able to sustain, growing slower and growing stronger. As long as she was up, she had to keep swinging.
"... Trunks, I'm gonna call it…"
"Wait."
"Trunks…!"
Pan turned, crying. "They're gonna kill each other…!"
"... They won't. I've seen it. Just trust me, alright?"
Their heads collided, and remained in inertia. Dina caught Kora's slow punch. Kora caught Dina's slow punch. Both's knees buckled before they blasted each other away, tumbling across the split terrain.
0.1%.
One end, a bloody hallway.
Another, a chasmic desert.
Sense returned to her.
A sob escaped her, in a moment of respite she shared with her enemy.
The oath she'd taken to change had been spat upon.
And she'd done that to her.
She'd once more become a monster.
All because of her-...
Because of her.
She mourned herself.
And as it all careened into her at once,
Roared in despair.
Her eyes went vacant once more. Her skin, bronze. Hair, dark-red.
The arena erupted. In surges of gold, she attacked.
All she could do was move past her. This was all she could do to move past her.
Apologies were worthless. She hated herself just as she hated herself.
And she was still standing. After everything. In spite of it all, she could not accept it.
Every agonizingly-slow hit taken was a miniature death, but in spite of it, she maintained. Every agonizingly-slow hit landed was a slight ray of hope, but to her dismay, she maintained. All that held her together was the need to move past her. As desperate as when her fight began, to prove her trials, her gains and losses, more meaningful.
She pleaded with herself to win, to continue planting her foot, against the soul just as tortured, just as tout as she.
She always had been. She'd seen it, over, and over.
It was why she'd pushed herself as hard as she had.
"(All I can do…!)"
"(To move on is…!)"
The act of admission tore through her chest.
Every lesson. Every success. Every failure. Every change. From everyone.
Worthless.
Because no matter what, the chain always led back to her.
"(Is…!)"
"(Is…!)"
To a petty, wounded sense of self.
"(IS…!)"
"(IS…!)"
Once again praying on a breaking fist, crying out for strength to place within it, to be more worthy than her to prevail,
Kora struck at-
Dina struck at-
Atoms split.
Nucleons refused.
It chained.
0.
…
..
.
"So why me?"
Trunks stared down at the young saiyaness. "Why else? Because you're one of them."
Her tail cinched tight around her waist. Her every muscle tensed, enough to ensure explosiveness, yet were loose enough to promote flexibility. Her hostile, intelligent eyes felt as if they were singeing his skin. She was already working to see through any lie, spot any sign of weakness, secure some avenue of momentary retreat. They were more than just the eyes of a Saiyan.
"Even though I'm nowhere near as strong as you?"
And considering her style of armor, one common of Frieza's forces yet with its own proud flare to it, she was of Bardock's era. Not an escapee, but a denizen of Planet Vegeta. Her being here, like those before her, meant she was even more of an anomaly.
"Not many are. You're here because you have the potential to shoot even higher. And you just gave me the chance to see it, whole-sail."
The saiyaness's cautious glare didn't waiver. The lilac swordsman understood completely, and showed her his back. "I get you'll need some time getting used to it. Take a stroll around the city."
No longer in his line of sight – and feeling the threat of death imposed by trying to take him down – she peered into her hands, holding her unsure glare.
"(... am I dreaming?)"
Her air of hostile caution never dropped, no matter where she went. She left for higher ground the moment her feet touched it, avoided all crowded areas, and lowered her energy signature to a level beneath an average cook's — a product of her father's clandestine training, and habits ingrained by the roles she'd been forced into.
Her steps grew heavier and heavier, however, as the details of her new reality continued to compound. Come night, she'd stopped altogether. Gazing by her lonesome at the full moon without so much as a tingle, she laid down.
"(Was that bastard even important?)"
She remembered her mother, her last stand against one whom she could label as 'some guy' and face no ridicule over — just a green pretty-boy bastard, ultimately less replaceable than herself by a hair's margin.
"(Was… anything I did, important…?)"
A minute was all it took for her to begin obsessing over her life's triviality.
Her race was no closer to discovering Super Saiyan. All secrets and measures of progress died with her line, that of which she failed to maintain or advance. All but one life's demise witnessed first-hand by her, unable to defend it by virtue of weakness, with he sole unknown being a result of her enraged disregard for it.
— Nothing, that anyone had endured, served any greater gain. With her death, it was like none of it had ever happened. Even her final act of revenge would be rendered useless in no time.
"No… I already know the answer."
The revelation forced her into a ball, tightening a fist that silent tears drained into. The feeling of futility that had sat within her head since she'd taken her first life finally seeped forth, devouring her soul.
"I've always known."
Soon, her fist uncurled, and her eyes deadened, ducts emptied. She remained in emotional stasis, content on staying that way until death finished its half-assed job.
Blocks away, watching over the distraught cub from atop a spire, a small figure in Sadalan armor crossed her arms.
"... kh." She suddenly leapt from her perch.
"ARISE, O' SAIYAN!"
Kora's eyes shot wide open.
The next she knew-
.
..
…
Pan witnessed the supervolcano-like plume, and sank to her knees, mic sliding from her deadened hand.
Her head shook on its own.
"I should've…"
"..."
"... is this what you wanted?"
"Me?" Trunks asked, before Pan lunged at his collar.
"You can't tell me you're THIS JADED, YOU BASTARD! I TOLD YOU THEY'D KILL EACH OTHER AND YOU TOLD ME WHAT!? WAIT!?" she screamed as she shook him. "IT'S ALWAYS 'WAIT' WITH YOU, ISN'T IT!? WELL GUESS WHAT!? THEY'RE GONE NOW! SHE'S GONE NOW! I-..." Her eyes shut closed, and she slowly backed up, biting at herself. "I should've…! I could've…!"
"... in the third round of the quarterfinals, you chose to let Dina face Kazikum, despite it being your obligation to end both his life and the match."
Son's eyes popped back open, in disbelief.
"In the fourth round, you allowed Archi's interference, even though that interference was, by all accounts, illegal."
Her pupils gleamed teal. "Are you pinning this all on me, right now?"
Trunks smiled. "Of course I am." He pointed behind himself. "This is all your fault."
And as if on cue,
[ BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano – Wild War Dance ]
Two golden rockets shot from the mushroom plume.
"(They're still…?)"
The same brick-red flashing hair, the same berserk-whitened eyes, the same planet-shaking roars, clashing against each other as their blazing souls incinerated the air around them, their minds drifting the line of consciousness and taking a backseat to the soul.
"See, the HP system that determines a fighter's 'health bar' is based on condition of mind and body. Spirit plays a negligible role outside of output readings." Trunks folded his arms, amazement forming across his face as the two stars collided over and over. "Which leads to the question… what's holding those two together right now?"
Pan kept observing. A single, dry chuckle escaped her.
Dina literally scraped across the sky, fingernails digging into air friction before yanking herself off the minute matter causing it. She weaved her way within, and ultimately kicked aside, a massive volley of energy before Kora shot into them, and the two compared themselves in an explosive exchange of punches. The two suddenly faded into bursting rays of light, collisions bursting across the surreal, eclipsed landscape.
"(WHAT WAS I THINKING…!)"
"('COURSE IT TAKES THIS SODDIN' MUCH TO TEAR A BASTARD LIKE YOU DOWN…!)"
Glints of red lined the sky like streamers in a parade, the two missing each other by less than hairs in their lucid, high-octane dance. And all the while…
Both announcers stared in awe as the past made itself known within the flashing scenario. However, the scenery was by no means foreign.
"You're kidding…!" Pan laughed in befuddled awe. "You're kidding!"
Dina howled, slamming her palms into thin air before an eruption of blue electricity leapt forward — she couldn't use magic in the state she was in, but at the moment, she didn't even want it.
Kora darted between it, forming a literal slip-barrier that opposed the force entirely before landing a devastating tornado kick to Dina's guard; said guard did a slip of its own, setting her up for the counter she'd worked tirelessly to create. That, too, missed, the force behind it swathing through the air, the saiyaness diving beneath and the demi-saiyan readying herself to respond. Kora's overhead axe and Dina's uppercut crashed into each other, raw power behind it obliterating the ground and splintering the moon.
"(I'VE LITERALLY SEEN YOU TEAR YOURSELF, AND THEN THE BLOKE YOU'D JUST THRASHED, OUTTA BLACK MAGIC, AND STILL WIN!)"
"(YOU'VE LITERALLY DIED OVER AND OVER, AND STILL GOT UP TO FIGHT, JUST BECAUSE YOU BELIEVED IN SOMEONE!)"
Bursting out of the colossal gathering of energy, they pressed each other's growing defense, ramping up in all regards despite what should've been the absolute end of their own reserves.
"(AND I CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE HOW YOU FIGURED OUT THAT EARTH WITCH'S BARRIER! HOW DOES ANYONE COME UP WITH A HUG TO BEAT SOMEONE!?)"
"(AND COME ON, TIMESTREAMS!? SLOWING THE CONCEPT DOWN COMPLETELY!? AN' THEN YOU GO ALL PENGUIN ON THE BUGGER 'FORE YOU BITCHSMACK 'IM WITH YOUR TAIL!? WHO DOES THAT!?)"
Kora's lungs forced air into themselves.
Dina's phantom pain materialized into ki.
The two broke off, beam struggle after beam struggle sending them rocketing across Conton City's ever-fluctuating skies over the past year, causing even more energy to proliferate the area.
"(ALL THIS TIME… THIS HAS BEEN THE MACHINE I'VE BEEN AT WAR WITH!?)"
"(HOW FAR HAVE I HAD TO PUSH MYSELF, JUST TO GET THE CHANCE TO BATTLE A WACKJOB LIKE THIS…!?)"
Their heart rates skyrocketed. Their eyes went teal.
The weakened links of the demi-saiyan's chain began to shatter, emotion within her melting away at it.
— The girl who'd pushed Spaurk Dina back onto the path she'd sought, long ago.
A bench. A classroom. A game cabinet.
— The girl who'd convinced Kora, a Saiyan, to look deeper within, and find her own path.
A bench. A classroom. A game cabinet.
Dina and Kora approached, on a fist-laden collision course.
"(Someone this…!)"
"(Someone this…!)"
A fountain.
The superemotion manifested itself into a color, emboldening their hair and singeing their spirit.
"(You're so…!)"
"(You're so…!)"
Gold.
"(AWESOOOOME!)"
The two exploded. From then on, they lost form. Only their immense laughter rang out.
Each and every shared strike let off enough energy to create, for seconds at a time, a star. And then another, and another, and another, and another, and another, before thousands cluttered the stadium.
Every attack sought to push Kora past her limit. Every assault needed to see how much further Spaurk Dina could go.
Duty, ties, guilt, everything was released in the chaos, and the two were free, embracing the immeasurable pride they had in being able to call the warrior contesting them,
Rival.
Climbing higher and higher, one final burst of aura, one ending with two crossed punches cascaded in light, ignited each and every star into supernova, obliterating the Earth, the Sun and the Moon above and beneath them.
…
..
.
For as long as it took the fractal dimension to regenerate.
— She remembered being weightless.
An intense heat burned all around her before then, and even now it still lingered.
But now, she felt the ground. Her knees, her hands, her face.
It wasn't right. She needed to get back up. But she couldn't.
… and yet, the voices around her seemed to disagree. From them, a different warmth. Pleasant memories, emboldening memories, of those few cherished. The ones who'd given her something to be proud of, at long last.
She began to push herself upward without thought. The intense weight placed on her muscles, she entrusted them to bear. Just like that, the pain seemed more… interesting than daunting. She yearned to see how much more they could move before an ultimate failure.
Her legs became sturdy, able to walk. So she did, if not just to kill as much time as possible.
The faint numbers in the background, she couldn't make out. So she continued to walk forward. Further and further. Because she could.
But she'd already pierced her limits. Her legs could only carry so much. Finally, she fell.
9…! 10!
[ BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano – THE pOINT Of A sword → E-moll (2:34) ]
Right into Spaurk Dina, moments from standing again.
The shock of contact snapped her back to reality. She stumbled over, tripping on the body.
"Huh?"
She picked herself up to a point and glanced around in confusion, pulling herself onto her knees before pain's clutches could grab hold of her, in the form of torn muscle.
"Wooo—w…"
Her attention was pulled down. She faced her rival.
"Just look at you now… you're gorgeous…"
"What…?"
She looked into Dina's misty, reflective eyes, and covered her mouth with a startle. Before she could say or do anything else…
"Wish I could be happier for you, but…" Tears fell down Dina's shaking face. "It just… dammit, I just… I lost…!"
She smiled a big, dumb smile. In perfect control, naturally gifted in reining in emotion… except for that one time. Shaking her head,
"No, dumbass… we both lost…!"
She couldn't defeat a Super Saiyan without accessing the state. The feat was now forever stripped from her.
"Tha' doe'n't make i' be'er!" Dina sobbed, half agonized, half overjoyed.
"I can try, can't I…?" Cry-laughed Kora, a Super Saiyan. She cradled her beloved rival and shared the moment, as loud as they felt need be.
Trunks exhaled for the first time in ages, it felt, a hand consoling the sniffling Pan. And the winner of this match, and the one to face Zinco in the Finals of the RESET-MET, is… He smiled, and inhaled.
KOOOOORAAAAA!
He secretly wanted her to win. He was just much better at concealing his biases than his protégé.
"Hey, crybaby."
Dina looked over her torso with a sniffle.
"Need a hand?"
By all accounts, she shouldn't've been able to move. Tlatla was weird like that.
"Stuff it, prick…!" she moped, reluctantly taking his hand.
[ ED: Pay Money To My Pain – This Life ]
Neo pulled Dina into a hug. "... good shit, man…!" he choke-yelled, folding his lip. "Had me goin' there for a sec…!"
The Yarg girl felt some more coming on. "Had to repay the favor, yeah?" she giggled. "Who's'a crybaby now, hm?"
The violet-eyed boy's face buried into her shoulder. "Bite me, shitlord…!"
Dina suddenly felt a rush of feel-good ripple across her body. She looked over and, sure enough, her favorite frenemy.
"You mefoing psychos are really making me work today, huh?" Wabi laughed, half-annoyed.
She smiled at him, as she and Neo broke it up.
"You're gonna pay that motherfucker after this, right?"
"Did you, dickhead?"
"DINA!"
Neoru stepped back all coy-like as Dina got ganked by a gajillion others.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM SHIT-FOR-BRAINS!? YOU COULD'VE DIED YOU-
"UTTER TROLLOP, I KNEW YOU HAD SCREWS LOOSE, SPAURK, BUT THAT WAS JUST ABSURD YOU-"
"IIIII~IE OH MY GAWDS SIS, THAT WAS LIKE THE CRAZIEST MOST PERFECT SHIT EVER! LIKE FOR REALS, YOU'VE TOTES GOTTA FIGHT ME LIKE THAT I WOULD KIIIILL FOR-"
"GOOD GOLLY, SPAURK, I KNOW FOR A FACT I TAUGHT YA BETTER THAN THROWING YOUR WEIGHT WILLY NILLY LIKE A SACK'A POTATOES, I COULD GIVE A HOOT ABOUT THE DARN-GOOD SHOW, DAG NABBIT, I OUGHTA-"
"STUPID ASSHOLE, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO TAKE THIS HOME! I MEAN IT'S NOT THE WORST THING I GUESS BUT Y-YOU REALLY MADE ME LOSE IT OUT THERE, DIPSHIT! I SWEAR I'M GONNA-"
Baubi and Euu knew for a fact they couldn't outdo a single one of them, so they joyously joined the group strangling and left it at that.
Just outside the crowd, Ayeva, still cleaning up coolant with a hankie, resigned herself to a proud stare.
"Not gonna join in?" asked Kaset, his own eyes red.
The android shook her head. "I called her my 'spottee' at one point. She's become… so much more, in what feels like no time at all. Seeing the end result of all that… it's enough for me."
"... uh huh."
Kaset wound back and threw her into the crowd, Ayeva-first.
"... heh… H-hi, mum."
Now the closest, Ayeva stopped resisting herself, sighed, and hugged her tight. "I'm… so… proud of you…!"
Wabi having finished up with her, Kora could only stare at what she longed to possess.
"Congratulations are in order, Kora."
She looked over to the Time Patrol's chief. "Thank you, sir."
Trunks folded his arms. "It must've been awful, the journey to this point."
"... it wasn't all bad. Besides, others have had it just as bad, if not worse."
He raised an eyebrow. "It's good to be mature about that sort of subject… but don't discredit your own hardships. After all, they're what earned you that." He directed her eyes with a pointed finger.
"... Hh…?"
Kora beheld a mob coming after. Front and center:
"KORAAAAAA!" screamed Tarubei and Archi simultaneously, tackling her into the air.
"SEE! SEE, ALL YE WITH EYES!" her master wailed uncontrollably. "WITNESS MY PROUD CUB, A WARRIOR BEYOND LEGEND, AT LONG LAST! WITNESS HER SPLENDOR AS SHE REIGNS VICTORIOUS!"
"YOU DID IT! YOU DID IT ALL, KORA! JUST LOOK AT YA! YOU'RE A…! YOU!"
It wasn't just her compatriots that roared in joy, celebrating her hard-fought victory.
"'NOT A SAIYAN ELITE' MY TAIL! THAT WAS EVERYTHING A SAIYAN OUGHTA BE!"
"THAT WAS YOU, KORA!? AWESOME!"
"REMEMBER THAT TENDON LINE!? THAT WAS SO SICK!"
"I'M LIFTING FOR YOU FROM NOW ON!"
"THAT'S ONE MORE FOR PLANET VEGETA, BABY!"
"HER WHOLE DAMN SOLAR PLEXUS EXPLODED AN' SHE KEPT FIGHTING!"
"HOW THE HELL DID KORA HIT SUPER SAIYAN BEFORE ME!?"
"THAT'S A SAIYAN WARRIOR, DAMMIT! THAT RIGHT THERE'S HOW A SAIYAN WARRIOR FIGHTS!"
Her composure cracked.
"Hmn…!"
Her eyes filled with the radiance around her, and grew misty in its beauty before she grew A bigger, dumber smile overtook her face, a forearm over her eyes as she cried. "Thanks…"
Trunks gained distance. Just far back enough to see both competitors.
The semi-finalist was thrown into the air, over and over; his protégé waited in flight to smack her hand, every time she reached max height.
"(At dawn, a god came to my doorstep. He saw the home I'd built, and destroyed it all with a finger.)"
The finalist, before disappearing into the jubilant crowd, raised a victorious peace sign to a distant figure. He hesitated, before raising one of his own.
"(Laughing, he raised a question. 'Why bother with another?')"
A jerky smile of his own began to form.
"(I answered the same as always. 'Because you haven't stopped me yet'.)"
The lavender swordsman strolled away. "(Conton needs fighters who embody that sort of spirit. Not those who can't break, but those who have, and have come back from the edge stronger.)"
Closing his eyes, he returned to the memory of a friend who reached that very edge.
Whom he wasn't strong enough to pull him back from.
"(And those who can save each other from falling.)" His eyes reopened, alight and determined. "(So we'll keep building toward that future.)"
"Hey,"
Son suddenly ran up to his side, joining his walk. "You're not melancholically reminiscing on past events while waxing poetic about the future, are you?"
"W-WHA-Of course not! I'm just collecting my thoughts regarding the Final Match, that's all. How do you even come up with that crap!?"
Pan sneered. "Don't overthink it, old man. It's just because I know you. I'm 'in your head'. It's a 'product' of my 'trip' to the 'edge', like they say!"
"No one says that you..."
It took him a second.
"You...!"
Pan took off running.
"WHAT THE HELL'D I TELL YOU ABOUT READING MY MIND, YOU LITTLE SHIT!?" Trunks roared, giving chase. "WHY CAN'T YOU GO TWO SECONDS WITHOUT PISSING ME OFF!?"
"BECAUSE YOU HAVEN'T STOPPED ME YET!" Pan yelled back over-shoulder.
All the while, jealous of the splendor on display before their birth, the stars marked the twilight-blue sky, as the rotating tear in the heavens divided the setting sun and rising moon.
Arriving, Dusk.
10/4/2024 PATCH NOTES: Tightened up choreography.
... I did it?
I did it.
I DID IT!
HOLY SHIT, I ACTUALLY PULLED IT OFF IN MY LIFETIME! AIN'T NO WAY!
FFFFFFFRICK YEAH, I actually managed it! This is (pretty much) the end of the RESET-MET arc! And it only took me 5 years!
Hey man, don't forget it took 11 for all of Dragon Ball's manga to finish up! I ain't shit compared to what it took for that!
Like, damn though. I had whole arcs in my life that this story was around for. Great times and terrible times and all the points in between. OK I shouldn't get excited just yet, shit. Story's not over just yet, these were just the two biggest points of payoff for all those times I wanted to kick off the tournament only to go "JK HOE MORE DEVELOPMENT TIME" and then keep myself busy for another damn year.
So here's the part where I talk about stupid shit that I had going on while doin' the chap.
VOIDSTAR album dropped and I finally listened to all of it. Shit's peak. LONGLEGS helped me design Dina vs Kora.
JJK ended. That's honestly all I got regarding it. It sure did end.
Shikanoko Nokoko Koshitan Ta (no ref, that's off the dome, fuck you) ended. That's honestly all I got regarding it. It sure was a thing.
I'm pretty sure The Fable's anime finally ended. FUCK MAN THAT SHIT WAS KINO, HELL AM I GONNA WATCH EVERY WEEKEND NOW!?
Rewatched Shootfighter Tekken, and that shit is also peak. I'm also getting better at taking away from depictions of grappling in fiction (maybe because I've started doing it more and more IRL.)
THUNDERBOLT FANTASY S4'S ON THE WAY LES GOOOOOOOO!
Ooooh, Equilibrium. I finally got around to watching it legit. Shit was nice. Also, it's funny watching it nowadays considering Christian Bale's "internet presence" (can't think of a better description), when it's a man breaking from a world of stoicism and reclaiming human emotion. It's a cheesy watch, but it's that gouda shit. Gunkata is still cool. Need to do more Gunkata.
Yakuza's doing Pirates now. Huh.
This one thing, Nightmare Mode by Koyon, is pretty solid. God Tier as far that specific genre of story is concerned, but yeah, check it out, it's fun. I'm actually not that involved with the community, so it feels weird to do shit like this, but I like it. Will do more whenever. Also, because it's a story on this site, and I do stories on this site, I can do kooky shit like this:
"Stop whining," Celia said calmly, causing Raditz to glare even harder as his face twisted with irritation, "We both know you're just saying that so it doesn't look like I'm ordering you around. We can say that these are suggestions, Captain."
Celia made air quotes as she stressed the word, "My ability will make the interrogations much easier, and you don't want to do that boring stuff anyway. There might be more enemies in the buildings. You'd rather fight them than talk with a bunch of Earthlings, right?"
"You're lucky you're right, brat," Raditz scoffed, turning away as he walked toward the crowd of Saiyans, before Celia drop-kicked the metric shit out of him.
"AIIIIIIIE-"
"Haaah?" Celia raised a a cupped hand to her ear. "AIIIE ain't my name, kyodaaai." She kicked him 'round the planet before choke slamming him into the sacred holly jolly hills, as the other standing Saiyans shivered in their silver Sketchers. "Like Beckham though, riiiight?"
B-BECKHAM!? What hoodlum hoopla is this? Damn you Saiyan L, you're ruining my marvelous machinations MOST methodically! I'M the one who will extreme-diff Raditz and become God of the New World!
"Oooi Gray-chaaan, you think kinda loud for a broke-ass bitch with not a swivel of motion."
GREAT GOOGOLY MOOGOLY! I had no idea Based Celia was The Truth! Fuck you Saiyan L, you're lucky Koyon gave you not a single modicum of competition beside Asia from that one show Honored 2GS (Peace Be Upon Thy Name) made an abridgement on! W-what was her name again? Africa? Australia? Antarctica? Dammit, it was one of them!
Raditz tried standing, quaking in his books. "Wait... p-please... have mercy-"
"Silence, mediocre Potential Villain. A Purooo is talking," Celia responded before pimp-smacking him into the hills of the Giga Yeti.
Just goofy shit like that. Hope someone does somethin like that with the stuff I made, one day. But there's one more talking point I wanted to go over, and it pertains to the chapter:
Predetermination for characters in stories. Yes this DOES sound stupid. Lemme operate.
So like, it centers around character agency and its effect on the author. And like, spontaneous thoughts the author may get as they go along.
What I'm trying to say is, no, the fates of fictional characters are seldom set in stone. If an author writes them in a certain way, and they have enough care for their story, then THE CHARACTER THEMSELVES can arguably alter the course of the story. In that, the character influences the author as the author influences the character. Something something Duality = Harmony, or something. It's a thing I've noticed over and over as I wrote the story.
So if a fictional character can have some control over the course of their teeny tiny lives in words held within a piece of paper, imagine what YOU can do for yourself in this infinitely-massive universe. I dunno, do things. Is that the point I was making. IDK, I may have just been yapping. Eh.
My point is, find your Dao. Be happy with something. That's all I want for you guys.
RIP to all those who died throughout the course of this dream. Another RIP to K, by the way. GUN DOG and Pay Money to My Pain are/were sick.
That's about it. We'll see what comes next after this final flashback chapter.
See ya then.