[ SPECIAL: Kora, A Saiyan… ]
She couldn't bring herself to stare back.
Her father's partially-blind gaze drifted through her and past the horizon.
"... they told me he died honorably. Ginyu and his men."
Neither needed to say or hear more.
The taller saiyan walked away, tail becoming looser around his waist. "First Kiniki, and now…" He walked straight past the aforementioned boy, battered and curled into a ball as he rested.
"Father, I…" A crease inched its way up the corner of Kora's sullen mouth, as if trying to lock it shut. It was to no avail.
"FATHER, I CAN AVENGE HIM!"
[ BGM: Kenji Kawai – Pride of the King of Knights ]
He didn't stop.
"THEY SAW HOW STRONG GANBO REALLY WAS, AND IT SCARED THEM! AND I'M ALMOST AT HIS LEVEL! IF YOU… IF YOU JUST TRAIN ME IN THE SAME WAY, I CAN GO EVEN HIGHER! I'LL EVEN-"
"Kora." His voice was like thunder, stopping her in her tracks. "You are our final option, and you're too valuable to have wasting your life on something so futile. I've told you this."
Her mouth shook open, and her mind failed her.
"Your mother raised you well. You should have no problem finding a strong mate. If you're so desperate to avenge your brother, then hurry on with it."
Her gaze tipped and spilled across the ground, lifeless. "Yes, father."
The burn-scarred saiyan's fist erupted in tremors as he marched away, back into their small hut on the desolate, desert end of the planet.
Kora's blank gaze continued to blanket the dirt. Just as it began to blur, her knees buckled to join it.
"Mh… mmgh… p-ph…"
She hated everyone around her.
In varying flavors, everyone was some sort of egotistic jackass with a bizarre measure of self-importance and entitlement, demanding respect and attention by slinging whatever power they were lucky enough to be born with — from boastful, barbaric, blatant morons to pretentious, spoon-fed fogies.
Tribalistic asses that saw any and every remotely-strong mate as a trophy to be fought tooth-and-nail over, with an immediate response to crush any weaker, so-much-as potential competition with a fervor that rivaled and riled suitors all the same; and that was if they had the restraint not to take what they liked on the spot.
Maybe she'd find people better than that, if she looked hard enough. It was a possibility. She seldom had the desire to seek them out.
Every saiyan's life, including her own, already belonged to Frieza. She wanted what little agency she could get.
If they were weaker, Kora wouldn't take them or their shit. Of the many on Planet Vegeta, only her father and elder brother remained above her, courtesy of the training she partook in; ironically, under the argument that she had to be as strong as possible to find a strong suitor, to bear a child strong enough to become a Super Saiyan should her brother fall. Such was the loophole she'd weaved through for sixteen years.
Today, her brother fell.
She hated him, as he hated her. But he was still her family. He'd died solely to defend her. One of the few people she'd ever respected, loved, was now gone.
And all she, a Saiyan warrior, could do about it was become someone's mate.
"Finally came around, huh, Kor~a?"
"I hate you."
The burly man's expression dropped. "Huh?"
Kora finally left her stupor and raised her head, looking down at the other saiyan. "You're an idiot and a prideless coward. For all of your trash talk, you should be strong enough to do whatever you want, yet you still play kiss-ass with anyone close to royalty. Middle-class fits you like a glove, with how mediocre everything about you is, even ignoring your pathetic power level. You reek so badly, I wanna vomit just being around you. If I could, I'd rip it off and do it myself." She sighed in defeat as he grew irate. "But I don't care. Just take me wherever, already. Let's get it over with."
With a wicked smirk, the man gripped her shoulder, enough to hurt in her suppressed state. "As you wish, bitch...! Remember what you brought on yourself if I break you!" He pulled her along to one of many spire-shaped buildings, Kora hardly caring enough to resist.
Just then, a black orb shot from ground level into the sky.
The city's residents paused as the capitol building it carved a hole through fell.
"Tch! Doesn't matter, I've still gotta get some actio-"
He was rooted in place.
It didn't register immediately; Kora denied the energy's instant familiarity so quickly, it took another moment just for it to click.
"... dad."
THe orb came back around, careening for the ground from once it came. Just as it did…
"RYAAAA—!"
Kora's father leapt into it, the black orb swallowing him whole.
"DAD!" Kora sprinted toward the event, her would-be suitor's arm yanked clean out of socket. She made it halfway before the scream of an Oozaru rattled the area.
A giant, furred primate shattered the orb as if it were glass.
"IS THAT A SAIYAN!?"
"Nah… Nah, no way in 'ell! It CAN'T BE, THERE CAN'T BE! SAIYANS DON'T GET THAT POWERFUL!"
"SHUT THE HELL UP, ALL OF YOU! COORDINATE AND MOVE, OR IT'LL KILL US ALL!
Amidst the Oozaru's enraged yowls, tears streamed down its face. The word "BASTARDS" became audible through its stringed roars, as it obliterated the droves of Frieza's forces occupying the capitol, Ginyu's corps coordinating a strategy to sever tail from body. More words continued to compound as his rampage intensified, until a sentence flew from his fanged maw.
"I'LL CRUSH ALL OF YOU FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE! ALL OF YOU!"
Kora's legs made the choice that her mind wouldn't.
"(HE… HE WAS THIS STRONG, ALL THIS TIME AND…! I-IF I HELP HIM NOW, IF I JUST HELP HIM NOW, THEN…!)"
Her father noticed her, and his colossal vats of red turned her way. His mouth filled with ki, and after that…
She woke up to a different voice shaking the planet.
"ʰᶦˢ ⁿᵃᵐᵉˀ ⱽᵉʳʸ ʷᵉˡˡ. ᴷᴼHL, has seen fit to slip into the same bout of insanity that the, other, ne'er-do-well – his name slipped my mind –"
Picking herself up from and stumbling her way out of the rubble, she saw her father suspended in the air, above herself and a gathered mass of saiyans,
And below Frieza.
— her father was going to suffer the same fate as Bardock.
And she could do nothing but watch.
"-My only wish is to see my pleasant troop happy and flourishing, of course! But for naughty deeds such as insurrection, there is only so much mercy I can afford to-"
Her breathing turned into dry heaves, her face contorting in horror. Every word was phased out, beholding her colossal father reduced to a broken, stump-tailed ruin.
In a childish display, in spite of everything, she pointlessly reached out to him. As if he felt it, both his eyes – one eye dying, one long-since dead – turned to his daughter.
Something like a smile appeared on his anguished guise. As long as she was-
"Au…! A-AAAAU-"
Her father erupted from the inside-out, without so much as a last word. Nothing remained, nothing fell to the ground, as if he never existed.
"Mh-hm. That will be all, everyone. Ah, onto the next announcement. Planet Aria's remains should be visible from this very spot some time this week-"
Kora watched.
The despair that writhed within her eyes soon settled. Apathy followed.
Her arm fell limply to the side. "... ah."
She'd always been right.
Anger was useless. Struggling was useless. This was all it amounted to.
She walked away, on the long, desolate road home.
Not even a full day had passed before she announced one family member's death. Now there she was again, this time before her ailing mother, bearing more bad news.
"He ignored me." The sigh that left her mother spoke of an exhaustion beyond her dwindling stamina. "Of course he did. That fool."
Her daughter shared her same thoroughly-tired eyes as she went on. "He was still needed here, in the land of the living…! And one dead child shatters his resolve to such a degree…! The feckless oaf…!"
Kora knelt down to physically console her. "Mother, please…"
"... tell me. Are your feelings for a mate still the same?"
The girl's expression shifted for a moment. "I found someone of decent-enough strength, but he was killed in the crossfire. Besides, someone needs to care for you and Kiniki more than ev-"
"You don't need to lie to me. I know." A brief, pained moan. "All that's kept me alive is petty sentiment. And your father saw clearly. A lost cause that can't even fly?"
Kora tried to look away, but a frail grasp clutched at her arm.
"A Super Saiyan is without mercy. Not for itself, not for its family, not even for its own kind. Much less its enemies… that is what it will take to free us, Kora. End this game your father insisted on playing. End us and grow stronger."
Her daughter softly removed the grip, setting it down on the sickly mother's chest. "... get some sleep, Mother. You're saying things." Kora walked toward her brother, a curling fist in her hand.
An apprehensive breath left her.
"NRGH!"
The boy flailed across the desert chasm, bruises reopening. "Sister…!" he pleaded.
"SHUT. UP." Kora approached him with worlds of rage, fangs on display. "IF IT WEREN'T FOR YOUR OWN WEAKNESS, FATHER WOULD STILL BE HERE!"
"But Sister, I'm-"
"Be quiet aND FIGHT, DAMMIT!" With a side-kick, her brother was once more sent flying. "Maybe if you actually devoted yourself the way Ganbo did, the way I DO, you wouldn't be such a POWERLESS LEECH!"
"I DO DEVOTE MYSELF!" Kiniki suddenly jumped back, avoiding an axe kick by the skin of his bleeding forehead. "I'M ALWAYS DEVOTING MYSELF!"
Kora's growing anger kept her from noticing, continuing to strike at the boy. "YOU CAN'T EVEN FLY YET, AND YOU'D DARE SAY THAT TO ME!? YOU CAN'T PERFORM EVEN ONE OF FATHER'S TECHNIQUES WELL, AND YOU CALL THAT DEVOTION!? WELL NOW HE'S DEAD! IF YOU STAY LIKE THIS, YOU'LL DIE, TOO! WE'LL ALL DIE!"
A lunging strike finally caught him, and he flailed over to the edge of the chasm.
Kora landed next to him, a cruel glare piercing him like that of the sun's off of frigid snow. "... father and mother may have given up on you, but I won't." She picked Kiniki up by the head. "If you're so sure of yourself, then prove it."
"Wait… Sister-"
"But even I have a limit to my patience." It felt like what her father would say. "You have one full day to prove to me you have what it takes. Climb or die. I don't care which."
"SISTER-"
Kora released, sending her brother down into the crack in the plane. Her cold glare followed him all the way down.
"(... this is what dad would do.)" She continued to stare.
The twin suns rose and fell.
Kora returned to that very spot.
The twin suns shifted positions.
Kora returned to that very spot.
Night fell.
"Nh…"
Kora returned to that very spot.
"N-no, he couldn't've…!"
She lost all feeling of his energy. She'd grown uncertain of which spot she'd dropped him. She even scoured the crevice itself, tearing it apart in bursts of hysteria. The echo of his name still resonated throughout its dark depths.
All futile.
Kora had killed her own brother.
The melancholy emptiness of taking a life wasn't there. She'd taken from her own blood. An absolute failure on her part.
And…
"... Kiniki…!"
Her poor baby brother didn't deserve it. He'd already struggled so much, being born into her miserable world. He never had anything, and then she condemned him to death.
"(No. This would've happened, anyway.)"
She shook the tears from her face. A fist cleaned up survivors.
"... this is goodbye," she said, sending a cold stare into the abyss.
Weaklings died in her world.
The rare rains outside began to pitter-patter along the small home's roof.
The mane-haired young woman finished the fire, prepared a stew, and readied her mother's bed before placing her upon it.
Once finished, her mother began to mutter to herself in song.
"Looo~ne atop the moonlit sky, he hooo~wls to greet the endless fight…"
Kora knew this one well, liked it the most of her memorized poems.
"Glooo~rious and peerless he, victooo~rious and rightfu~lly…"
The two of them harmonized. Kora's tail flowed freely to the tune.
"Who~mever may trek, thy~ fiery wake, sha~ll lo' upon worlds of warriors slain,"
"O' Burning One, may you conquer even Deee~ath."
"Bravo! Bravo!"
Kora turned on a dime, tail tightening around her waist.
Approaching as he clapped, a green-skinned man in gaunt, armored attire. "I didn't think monkeys were capable of such voices, never mind anything resembling poetry."
Kora kneeled, to her mother's silent chagrin. "Lord Zarbon."
"Now now, there's no need for that."
She rose accordingly, as Zarbon passively scoped out the area. "You should know, you're a wanted woman at the moment."
Her heart rate spiked for a moment. "... I can't imagine why."
"Oh, and I don't mean in the criminal sense." He eyed the fire. "We've simply missed you. For a woman of such humble standing and battle power, you've consistently outperformed a great deal of elites... only for you to disappear off the map for days on end. Though, with how 'out of the way' your abode stands, it's no longer of any mystery, is it?"
"My father chose this place, due to the game available. I've had to step up in his stead, due to his recent lapse in sanity. He was always a bit… crazy, for lack of better words."
Whatever would keep Mom out of harm's way.
Zarbon feigned surprise. "That was YOUR father, was it? Condolences, it must've been hard to put up with an ever-more rabid monkey for so long. Speaking of, he used a rather peculiar technique to transform. The black orb he used to trap blutz waves from celestial bodies, yes. Did you happen to catch it?"
"Yes. I never knew such a thing was possible." Her thinly-veiled scowl confirmed no lie had been told. "I'd never be able to do something like that."
"Oh, such a pain, I'm sure. But we all hold secrets from those we love, don't we?" The look Zarbon gave the girl put her even further on edge.
She couldn't afford to be hasty. So she kept silent.
"But moving on, the reason I'm here." He gently clutched Kora's chin. "Lord Frieza has sought you out, personally. How would you like to join his elite?"
The exact same proposition Ginyu had given Ganbo before the mission.
At best, Frieza wanted her at arm's reach. But she knew what it really meant.
So she had to do what she could. "I'm… flattered beyond words, Lord Zarbon. But I have to tend to my mother. To join such an esteemed position would mean distancing myself from her, and as it stands, she needs me."
"Hhn." His hand raised to her cheek, and mockingly tapped it. "Is that so?" He put strength into letting her go, swinging her face around as he took his time approaching her mother.
"Wh… Lord Zarbon, what are you…!"
With a devilish smirk, he replied in kind. "I've surmised this sickly wretch is what holds you back."
Her calm, cool, collected face disappeared in an instant. The obvious outcome was beginning to play out.
But she'd gone for too long, just accepting such things. She was tired of it.
"WAIT! I'VE CHANGED MY MIND! I-ILL JOIN YOU! I'LL JOIN FRIEZA'S ELITE! OK!? I'LL DO IT!" Her composure collapsed in real time beneath the darkened sky. "SHE'LL DIE ANYWAYS, OK!? YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS!"
Zarbon continued to advance on the bedside, the saiyan's agonized pleas placing a pep in his step. "Oh, don't say such ridiculous things. Even having her on your mind means you're not truly dedicating your all to Lord Frieza."
She gave up on reason, and crashed onto her knees in tears. "PLEASE! SHE'S ALL I… SHE'S ALL I HAVE LEFT!"
Zarbon sneered, jubilant. "Exactly. If you're that preoccupied caring for this worthless sow, then I'll simply lift your burden!"
Feet suddenly hit the ground.
"... oh?"
Taking a wobbly battle stance, eyes burning more fierce than her body could keep pace with, Rosel stood.
"I'd have to agree with you. I'm only weighing her down. And just like the empire to which you so quickly come to heel, I've been on borrowed time from the very beginning. Now, dog. Come."
"... Mom?"
That was her mother.
There she was, on the ground, sobbing and begging on her behalf, and yet the half-dead woman without her mate or offspring was ready to fight Frieza's right hand.
"Of… all the nERVE…!"
Zarbon lifted his hand like a blade, as Rosel let out a battle cry unbecoming of a corpse.
"... wait…"
Kora's body moved, in a desperate attempt to stop it.
"WAIT, DON'T DO THIS, PLEASE I-"
The rain fell.
A great fatigue fell upon the girl. As if, all at once, she lived out her entire life in the span of a second. Every waking moment training, reciting, fighting amongst her family and others, slaughtering and slaying, all without ever asking why. Even if she'd ask now, there would be no answer.
If there was a Super Saiyan out there, somewhere, then the day he returns will be one day too late.
Kora screamed.
Tears were inseparable from rain. Her lungs burned within her chest. Her throat stung and dried. Anguish devoured her spirit.
It was like music to his ears. He strolled over to the heartbroken saiyan, whose inconsolable yowling nulled whatever he could say, and laid a palm atop her head. "That's right. Let it all out. Don't keep us waiting for too long, now."
Kora's sunken, immolating coal eyes rose shakily upward.
Her brother fought. Her father fought. Her mother fought.
"Ah…!"
They didn't kneel. She would not dishonor that tradition.
"A-AAAA—!"
Kora's tidaling energy blew back Zarbon— for a brief moment, it flashed a splendorous gold, before returning to an azure flame. Her rage focused at a point.
There was no Super Saiyan to save them.
She eliminated everything in her head and fought like mad. Her true strength and then some burst to the surface. Her every strike broke something. Zarbon's strikes were weaved and parried and shattered against harder bones.
Blasts obliterated the home that once solemnly stood amid the wastes. Clashes divided the clouds that bled upon the grounds and washed away the red that dotted the ground.
A cackle suddenly rattled the lands, as Zarbon's face contorted and stretched. With an effort and a burst of speed, he pierced her chest with a clawed hand, his true form unveiled.
"All those secrets…! And where did they land you?" choked Zarbon, his mouth rife with his own life essence as Kora's pooled from out her throat.
Tears still streaming, sense returning to her pain-staked eyes, she raised her hand, seemingly pleading for a moment of mercy.
With a sadistic glee, the reptilian monster tore his hand from her. Her hand still stood firm, ki pooling within it. Eager to prove her every effort futile, Zarbon held out his arms to receive it.
A coin-sized blast pierced his neck, before detonating. He stammered backward, gripping it in a vain attempt to stop the wound; both arteries had been blasted clean through, just as his windpipe had been destroyed.
The saiyaness staggered back. The pain of her own injury set in, and after three steps, she fell, curling upon herself.
She'd fought to the end. Just like her brother, her parents. But she'd left someone out.
Waiting for death, she clawed at the soil beneath her, hoping beyond hope, not for a Super Saiyan, but…
"(I'm sorry, Kiniki…! Sister's sorry…!)" The heat in her body began to leave her, and she fell cold.
"(Please… please be ok…)"
The dark took her. At long last, she lost all feeling.
…
..
.
"Is that singing?"
Beneath the crescent moon marking the otherwise pitch-black sky, Archi crawled up the fractal mountain ridge to investigate the ethereal voice.
"-rious and rightfully…"
His eyes grew as wide as spotlights.
"Whooomever may trek thy fiiiery wake, shaaall lo' upon wooorlds of waaarriors slain,"
Kora traipsed along a narrow path no more than a foot's width, one deviated step away from a fall with no visible bottom. And yet, tail dancing freely in the air, her very presence emanated peace.
"O' Burning One, may you… con… quer…"
Misty eyes that gleamed and glittered in the halved moonlight turned his way. He was too stunned to move before they set upon him.
"..."
"..."
"... if you ever mention this, I'll skin you."
"Really!?" he woofed.
Kora gave him a look. "Oh my gods, just GET LOST ALREADY!"
"YES MA'AM!"
She sighed through her teeth, in a red, embarrassed hue.
"... how the hell does someone wind up like that?" she half-smirked.
... yo who the fuck hurt me-
I mean, uh, Yo! OP Here!
This is definitely one of those chapters that makes me dread the reread cus I'm gonna make myself depressed as all hell. Again. Y'know, I was NOT kidding when I said this was """around""" 3 schmucks (give or take like 9) packing major dark backstories.
In any case, 99th chapter. I may or may not do something special for this next one, it depends. I'm usually most excited to do kooky shit when I've spent some time away from the story/do more reading of it. I'm gonna go about that, see what it is that I want, because I'm gonna have to make a big-ass, fleshed out Dina death before the ACTUAL next chapter even starts. I'm, like, REALLY unmotivated to write dark shit after this chapter. On that thought, yeah, Ch.100 probably will be me doing kooky shit. Just to celebrate having written 100 chapters of fanfiction.
I got promoted by the way. Yeah, I've got a decent harmony in my life, I can move up AND be a colossal loser at the same time.
So yeah, S5 of Scissor Seven came out, that'll be neat. Dandadan dropped its first episode, proving in one go that it's the hottest out this season fr fr, shoutout to my GOATs. And a big thing, I watched Hard Boiled from John Woo, that shit is Cinema. John Woo's the Gun-Fu maestro, and H-B is one of his greatest works, for damn good reason. Check out all three!
Oh yeah, right. Both Daima and Zero Sparking drop pretty soon, too! See! See how much good there is in the world? What you so damn sad for?
"My family is dead!"
So!? Just run rounds with Zarbon bitchass over it in Sparking! It's not rocket science!
"I hate you!"
I HATE YOU TOO, YOU LIL' UGLY BASTARD!
... Also I was listening to Unfinished from the Black Myth Wukong OST during the end portion. Maximum "Trapped in Samsara" vibes from that one, so it helped me depression-max the scene.
Alright, I spent all day on this one, so I'll cut here. That IS, in fact, about it.
I, will see you, later.