"Eh?"

Dina awoke in sweats on a bed. One different than usual. Both less comfortable and… somehow more.

"Mother of… what WAS that?"

"... wait…"

She felt fine, despite… all of that.

The room was all red, but nothing like the hostile tint of the gravity chamber. Dim, dark-blue light shined through a draped window right beside her, and birds chirped outside.

She slowly got to her feet, which touched down upon blue carpeting. A dresser as tall as her stood to her right, adorned with a lamp, miscellaneous supplies, and a saber-toothed tiger plushie she hadn't touched in years.

For a moment, she stood there.

Then, she spoke.

"I'm home."

At Last, The Tiger Uncaged! At Peace with its Past and Racing Toward the Future!

Dina slowly made her way down the wooden stairs, on edge. In the living room, near a large, box-like television set tuned down to nigh-mute and set to a morning cartoon, head obscured with a newspaper, was her father.

" 'Mornin', lil' love," he greeted in his gruff voice while reading.

"...'Mornin'..." she replied, endlessly suspicious and questioning whether or not the man existed.

"? What's got you down?" Her dad slowly lowered his paper.

"Nothing." She was too unsure to say it.

Her father gave a light, warm chuckle from his throat. "You're as see-through as a ghost and about half as subtle, Dina. Is it school?"

"... no."

"... Something outside it?" he asked, his brow furrowing.

"No, not at all," she assured, the brows retracting in response. "It's… it's this dream I had, is all."

Her dad scooted over.

"Well, let's talk before we set off."

Dina stood there, before giving in with a sigh.

"It started with Luna going berserk."

"Luna from school? Not'n a thousand years! Sure you're well, girl?"

"Honestly? Dunno. I went gold and then she got me, too."

"Fu-Bloody hell, you two get into a fight behind my back or what?"

She remembered: they did, not very far back. A dispute over the use of newfound powers.

"No, 'course not. But that's not where the dream ended. After that, I wound up in another world. Put Caelum Civitatus to shame. And I met this boy with a sword, and this bloke with a tail, and I learned I was half Monkey-Person, and whatnot. And then I… I met this robot woman. She took me in and helped me get by. Was nice, for a while."

Her father's mood notably fell.

"This about mum?"

"Just a dream, da', nothing more!" She'd previously thought of asking about her, but the sudden question and its crestfallen manner of asking killed the idea.

"Well, as long as you're well," he sighed. "In any case, sounds like you've been watching too many eastern cartoons, yeah?"

" 'Anime' and I wouldn't be caught dead viewing that perverted rubbish!" Dina retorted, flushed in embarrassment.

"Rather speedy rebuttal for such a negative perspective."

"Tch! Whatever!" she spat as she bolted upward, strutting off outside the humble housing.

"'Oy! If you leave this early, you'll miss breakfast!"

"I'M NOT HUNGRY!"

As the door slammed, the gruff man slowly lowered his newspaper. Brick-red eyes were wide in surprise. Before he could go any further, however…

The door slowly creaked back open.

"Unrelated but… what were you making?"

Coy eyes rolled and relaxed. "Bacon, eggs, hotcakes."

"... hm."

Dina's aura of suspicion hadn't dropped in the slightest, don't let the 3 plates of ravaged food fool you.

"The phenomena isn't exactly new, tons of folks have reported this kind of thing, living entire lives in the span of a few hours through sleep… but this?" she contemplated as she tortured her final piece of scrambled egg with a fork.

"How do I know for certain that THIS isn't the dream? Then again… all the nonsensical events of that place, mixed with suddenly waking up after who-knows what crushes me… Nrgh, what a bother…!"

In her peripherals, her father hastily put on a navy-blue trench coat and grabbed a shiny, embellished piece of metal.

"What's the rush?"

"Something's come up at the station, gotta book it down there ASAP!"

"Let me come along!"

Hardly-concealed sadness enveloped the man's face.

"We'll be fine, Dina. You'd best focus on school at the moment, anyway, with exams and whatnot!" he laughed assuredly.

"I'd much rather protect 'n serve than bear through an hour of some twat twiddlin' their thumbs in place of doing their job, but sure, whatever. Just stay safe, da'!" she yelled out to him, the man replying with a simple thumbs up and a "LANGUAGE!" as he dashed out the door.

"I swear…"

"Maybe if it'd been a sappy, over-glorified version of my flat, I'd be on to something…" she self-discussed outside. Dina looked upward: past their livable-at-best apartment, lording above and casting shadows upon the ragtag neighborhood, pompously hovered the shitty floating city that big-wigs and moneybags sat around.

"But none of this seems too good to be true," she frowned.

"Just normal…"

She made her way down the monochrome cement streets where people and occasional cars whirred by with greetings ranging from casually friendly to brimming with enthusiasm, and passed a luscious green field, where wind played tunes that compelled the tall grass to hypnotically dance. She was absorbed into a daze as she stopped to watch, the dream rapidly flashing by her.

"WAIT UP!" a meek voice shouted from her flank, snapping her out of the thought-induced stupor.

"That voice…"

Dina turned to see a scrawny kid in baggy pants and a grey polo shirt a size too big, practically wheezing and leaning on his knees.

"Uh… hey, Chesta."

"You were all spaced out… I could barely keep up!"

"was walkin', mate."

"WALKIN' LIKE A BLOODY BULLET TRAIN, YOU WERE!" He retorted, losing more breath than he'd managed to catch.

She giggled at the exclamation. "Sorry about that. I've just been having trouble readjusting to reality, lately. Had a FANTASTICAL dream."

"You're experiencing that, at last, eh?"

Dina nodded. "It's at the point where I remember its events better than those of the here-now. Less a dream and more a past life, it feels like…"

"Never thought someone like you would ever need to dream, never mind so intensely!" Chesta joked, to Dina's agitation.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

The boy stumbled back on his words. "I-I mean, like… living life with super speed, and super strength, and flight, and being drop-dead g… yeah, you get it, right?"

Dina gave a look. "Right."

The boy swapped the subject out with another. "So, yeah. How are things with you and Luna?"

She remembered the dream woman.

"(… what if all that was my way of telling myself to…) No idea. I'll just have to confront her and squash what's between us."

Chesta smiled. "Finally, no more acting as a human-relay!" he whispered.

"What?"

"What?"

"... (still odd as ever…) Well, no more standing about. In the meantime, I'll try my utmost hardest to keep to your pace, you absolute speed demon you," she smugly jested.

Chesta blushed away from her grin. "Not very nice to make fun of a condition, but sure. Appreciated."

The two passed a murky pond on the way. If her memory served correctly, there was usually something bizarre that'd float on by there; a boot the size of a car did so once, as did a library's worth of denied C.C. application sheets. A bird had briefly made it it's nest. She gave it a looksee, as per usual.

Her reflection was nothing like how she'd last seen herself; she even had on her Yarg Police Department volunteer shirt, unscathed whatsoever.

Speaking of which, the question Chesta'd been debating with himself about asking finally surfaced.

"So the shirt's still on."

"What, you prefer if I took it off? You've gotten bold, Chesta!" she quipped, jokingly reaching for her shirt to his immense fluster.

"OF COURSE NOT!" Chesta screamed. "Y'know, I'm just surprised you'd still want anything to do with the force after everything."

"What are you…"

The events resurfaced.

Botched hostage situation. Arrogance and underestimation. Last-second unknowns. Overwhelming guilt. 2nd instance of the golden state.

"..."

"... Things happen. Not everything can go right, not everyone can be saved. Apparently, not even I'm enough to stop that."

She stopped in her tracks.

"Any case, that fact isn't enough to push me away. If anything, I'm MORE motivated to stick around, no matter what my dad says!"

Chesta nodded. "That's the spirit! I'll pass that entrance exam one day and stand right beside you, keeping the peace with a badge in-hand!"

The two made it to the school. Its name had been vandalized long ago ‒ to the point where no one cared to repair the letters or paint any on ‒ and its steps were all chipped.

"Welp. Here goes nothing." She pushed the door open and…

"Huh…"

"Hm? What's up?"

If there was any place where reality would crumble and the illusion would unravel, she suspected with full earnest that it'd be here.

But it didn't.

"I'm convinced now," Dina smiled. "That's all."

Students roamed and loitered the halls; most human, some animal-humans, and due to some interstellar complications involving a certain destroyed planet, some especially-green students that weren't even native earthlings.

"That this place is a looney bin with a different coat of paint?" Chesta joked. "Took you long enough." He stuck around to hear her laugh, before going on his way. "I've got Namekian II right about now, will be seeing you!"

"Do try not to go mad in the process yeah?"

With that, she took a reassuring breath of air which she was now confident was real.

"Well, while we're instated, I'm gonna go find my best inmate."

"Yello? Luna?" Dina cried into the 4th classroom at this point, to no success as she casually dodged a ruler.

"Luna? You in today?" she called into the ladies' room, interrupting an intimate moment between a girl and her dealer.

"Luuuuunaaaaaa?" she whisper-yelled as she ran through a school library, before someone yelled at the top of their lungs for her to shut her obligatory obscenity, resulting in a brief, violence-fueled detour.

She looked at a gym door for 5 seconds before scoffing. " 'Course not."

She hopped onto a cafeteria table and proceeded to carry out a 200-dB speech.

"OY! LOONIE! IF YOU'RE' HIDIN' FROM ME IN HERE, IT'S USELESS! I'LL FLIP EVERY TABLE I SEE UNTIL I FIND YOU! I DON'T CARE IF YOU DESPISE ME, YOU'RE MY FRIEND AND I LOVE YOU UNCONDITIONALLY! DO YOU HEAR ME!?"

"We ALL hear you, jeez!" A raccoon-headed boy yelled, he and a turtle fellow covering their ears as a large hippo lad grieved over his shoe-ridden food.

"... hehe, sozz."

Dina placed an uneasy hand upon the rooftop's door.

"Last shot. Unless she suddenly got into fitness."

The door was pushed aside. Amber light flooded through, overpowering the dim, buzzing light over here.

A girl, adorned in a pine hoodie and black skirt, sat along the school's edge, long black hair hanging just-barely above the ground. After the door's opening, her head turned back with indigo eyes and fair, almost-pale skin.

"... hey," said Dina.

"... hey," said Luna.

Dina swallowed, scratching her head. "So, uh… holdin' up alright?"

"As well as ever."

"I-is that good or bad?"

Luna light-heartedly sighed. "I'm alright."

"Great. Awesome, fantastic…"

"Is there something you need, Dina?"

"YES, yes there is, something I need to do, precisely that."

She joined her friend on the rooftop's edge.

"Mind if?"

"Looks like you've made up your mind already."

"Oh, bloody… bad habit of mine, I guess, sorry." She straightened up. "About that argument. I'm sorry, the way I shouted at you."

"Forgiven."

Dina almost fell. "WHA-REALLY!?"

Luna smiled gently. "You're emotional. You've been that way since we were children."

"Oh man, why don't I just do this crap earlier? It's so darn simple!"

"Overthinker."

"Of course, of course!" Dina giggled in a fit of sweet release.

Once she stopped...

"I had a dream, last night."

"Did the dinosaur finally ride the ball?"

"not that one." Dina recovered. "It was a ton, a lot made no sense whatsoever, but I guess… by the end, it all led back to you and me. How I needed to make sure we didn't lose our bond." She lightly chuckled. "But my word, you leapt straight off the deep-end around its starting point!"

"What's that about?"

"Don't worry about it. I'm just glad you're still sane."

The two continued overlooking the morning scenery.

"... I was at fault, too, y'know. They sprouted from nowhere, but I could've tried to stop them. I was just so angry, and the way it felt to see the bastard squirm… I just let them. I'm sorry."

"I'm there so rarely for you, these days."

Luna looked to the side in confusion.

"What?"

Dina recalled the day where black, translucent tendrils throttled one of Luna's many bullies, their eyes bulging as her reserved friend glared down with animalistic rage.

"Someone like you should never feel the need to lash out so violently. A decently-forceful shove out of nowhere and into a wall oughta send someone dripping from the pants and running the opposite direction well enough."

"I'm still unable to temper this power very well… if at all. Hardly enough to draw it at wi-"

Her hand was suddenly grabbed.

"You don't need to worry about it, then!" Dina yelled, cupping Luna's hand with her pair. "No matter what, I'll be right there! You'll never have to feel such a dreadful thing again!"

"Dina…" she smiled. "That's impossible, you dolt."

The hot-headed tomboy scoffed. "As if! I don't care how dumb it sounds, I'll make it work!"

"That's not what I mean."

"Huh? Then wha-"

"It's far too late for that."

The scenery began distorting.

"If you feel this way..."

Luna slowly stood to her feet, the same ethereal appendages swarming around her.

"Then why did you attack me?"

"W-wha…"

Everything around them went black. And the scene changed.

They were in the hall.

"No… that-th-that was just a-"

Her sense of reality had broken once more, her thoughts spiraling into a crashing chaos as she was reduced to a stuttering, whimpering mess.

"LUNA, YOU…"

"Hmm? No answer?"

Dina's stupor was interrupted by a force flinging her into a wall, the pain unbearable to the point of screaming as her back ripped and vision blurred.

"Then die."

Her side was lanced through. The pain she felt had reached a nigh-maddening crescendo, and she faded into unconsciousness to the chorus of that same twisted, strangled laughter and sadistic smile.

She awoke.

Not to her father. Not to Ayeva. Not even to yet yet another world.

The ungodly pain felt in her side remained; no, it'd even begun to dull.

And the laughter was still there. But as her sight returned, she saw it.

It wasn't laughter.

It was sobbing.

Luna's face had contorted into a madness-driven smile, her eyes ridden with fear and despair.

"Why… am I seeing this?"

She fell to her knees, dropping Dina in the process.

"They just sprang forth! I couldn't stop them!" babbled the cackling mess.

"And now you, too! WELL ARE YOU HAPPY NOW, YOU STUPID BITCH!?" Luna screamed to no one in particular.

She crumpled to the floor, still laughing maniacally as tears flowed.

All the while, Dina watched.

"(Super Saiyan… that was the name. I turned into that… the moment I saw all this.)"

She slowly stood, sight fixed upon the howling mess as the astral limbs frantically danced around her, tearing the building apart.

"If I hadn't lost it… if I hadn't lunged at you… I could've stopped you from doing this, couldn't I?"

It was clear that Luna couldn't hear her; she wasn't even there.

"No. If I'd just been there…"

"If I were just better..."

She looked at her wound, and began recollecting the last real thing she did. What felt the most real, anyway.

She ran into a room and was crushed.

"I can't change this, now. It's too late. But…"

She balled her fist. Everything around her began fading, left with a gradient void.

"Don't let me be dead… I finally know what I want..."

Everything vanished into white.

"If nothing else… I just…"

She looked upward, and desperately screamed.

"IT'S ME, ALRIGHT!? IT'S ALWAYS BEEN ME! I HAVE TO CHANGE!"

Her mind finally corroded.

"Please... don't let me... I need this..."

"...mount of trauma at once is…

...iracle if…

...oma at best…"

[ BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano ‒ Point of a Sword (2:33) ]

She felt.

Like hell, sure, but she felt.

This was a real pain. Unmistakable from that of a dream's, even a potent one's.

One of the first things she saw as her eyelids slowly opened was Ayeva's hovering face, more emotion riddled across it than she'd ever seen on any before.

Dina was awake now.

She was positive.

Though every breath felt compressed, she was sure tha-

"A-a-ah-a-ah…"

Ayeva began shaking, coolant streaming down from her eyes upon her pupil.

A hand reached up, and wiped a few off.

"I… I think I've seen enough crying for a lifetime, mum," Dina struggled to get out. "Please, no more tears right now."

Ayeva felt the hand upon her face.

And slowly grabbed it.

And completely ignored Dina's request.

"Ah, come on…" Dina smiled, as Ayeva broke down.

2 figures busted into the ER dock.

"SHIT, WHAT HAPPENED!?" Kaset yelled.

"WHAT'S WRONG!? WHAT WENT WRONG!?" Stroga exclaimed.

The two saw the source of the ruckus and, heavy burdens on their souls finally shoved off, breathed sighs of relief.

"Welp… there's our happy ending."

Dina stared at the ceiling.

"... a week has passed."

"Yes."

It'd been an hour and, now awake, Dina was beginning to recover.

"... shoot."

"No need for concern. I'll personally have you up-to-date on schoolwork in no time."

"... that also sucks but, I've fallen behind physically, too. Kora's likely smoked me by now… ah, oh well. Just gotta hop back on the saddle, double-time. First, though…"

She turned to Ayeva.

"With everything I have, I'm sorry for everything I've said and done."

The cyber-patroller smiled. "Apology accepted. In turn, with absolute earnestness, I'm sorry for lying to you for so long."

The halfling-rookie smiled. "Apology accepted. That leaves me one more loose end. Have around 30 minutes?"

Ayeva put things together, and telekinetically shut the door.

"Of course."

Dina told Ayeva everything. Her past, the dream, every relevant detail. Nothing was left secret, and even better, not once did… not twice did Dina ever break off into incoherent ramblings.

"Yeah. That's the gist of Dina Spaurk."

"... I understand now."

"Hold on, I didn't lose you anywhere, did-"

"Except for that closed incident, not at all. You were sound."

With that, Dina had the greatest sigh of her life. "SO MUCH off my back, now." She attempted to get up; as initially wobbly as it was, she managed an above-decent balance.

"Alright, and I'm not doing horribly in the health department, either!" she chirped, pumping her fists.

"There's one more concern of mine."

Dina faced Ayeva. "Shoot."

"From here… what'll be your drive?"

Dina spared 2 seconds of thought.

Her face hardened.

"I want to better myself. In every regard that matters."

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

She grinned.

As did Ayeva.

They said what came next in unison.

"Therefore."

( 6/3/2023 PATCH NOTES: Upped Dina's "ravaged plates" from 2 to 8; Big Girls need Big Food. Changed Luna's skirt from pine to black; no, the Fashion Police are NOT holding a gun to my head right now. )

( 9/17/2023 PATCH NOTES: Reduced Dina's "ravaged plates" from 8 to 3; Bitch you're from the trenches, you don't have Big Girl money. Reworded Dina's vow to change. )

Yo! OP here!

It's done. Dina's now where I want her to be as a character.

Yeah, this chapter seems wonky as hell, sorry, but I really felt the need to make it. Also, this may seem weird to say but... a lot of the shit Dina feels, I've felt lately. That's true with a lot of my characters, in fact; I'm a pretty good reference point when it comes to flaws and mental woes (I've got 'bout a few, if I do say so myself), and uh, yeah, translates pretty well to paper. Screen. Same difference.

May not seem like it at times, but Dina's like Top-2 favorite characters IMO, mostly because of how personal her journey was. Her arc may've been a bitch-and-a-half to write, but man, it feels good now that it's over. And MY arc's still in its infancy, so, who knows what's next for me. In any case, Dina's gonna be fun again after this.

Fun Fact: According to DB Online, after Mira blew up New Namek in the mid-800s, the Namekians migrated to Earth. Mostly remote areas, and there weren't like MILLIONS of Namekians to begin with, but still. I can use that. Also, quick spoiliops, but Dina's definitely gonna have some sort of connection to the events that Towa and Mira put in place; wacky occult shit involving Luna's mom and wacky time shit involving Dina's mom, indirectly brought about by those two, is what I got planned right now. Will likely be stupid, but hopefully, I can make it cool enough for that to not matter.

Next chapter will probably be either Neoru, Zinco, or both.

Before I piss off, Jujutsu Kaisen's finna be a straight bop. RE: Zero better watch its head; not like Dorohedoro and Great Pretender didn't already hold the crowns this year, just sayin', but still. GOH was rushed to hell, but hey, it looked cool.

But yeah, this has been fun thus far. Tournament's peeking its head, wills will clash and build each other, and shit's finna be gud. Stay tuned.

That's about it. See ya.