[OP: Granrodeo ‒ Remember Your Passion]
Fists That Can Bay a Dragon, Fists That Can Crush a Kirin! Neoru and Zinco Swear Victory!
This noon in Conton City began like many others.
[BGM: Hidenori Shoji ‒ An Outlaw's Lullaby]
BAM!
A dog beastman skidded across the ground by his back, leaving a fragmented trail across the pavement.
The cat beastman responsible was sent tumbling with a sucker punch.
The dog-like beastman behind the attack, a bit more human-like than the others, was nearly tackled in response by another feline foe, only for his assailant to turn from a sudden shoulder grab and receive a fierce headbutt from one of his 4-tailed canine companions. After the two grabbed and punched him away, they were blindsided by two other cat demihumans with baseball bats, and the perpetrators were immediately swarmed, and the swarmers were immediately swarmed, and things continued to escalate.
Around 20 beast people and various animal-like races on each side viciously threw down in the school courtyard that day. Each side of the scuffle wore a distinct pendant: one side's was silver and rigid with a few spirals in the center, the other's, gold and soft with thorny designs around the edges. Various snarls, hisses, barks, and miscellaneous insults were vigorously flung alongside fists, kicks, claws, and blunt objects like mad.
Not teeth, though. That's just low.
The peace within the academy suffered from the uproar.
"Of course this crap happens on my last week here…" Krillin ground his teeth, barely able to finish his chi lecture.
" 'scuse me, Mr. Krillin! Can I go to the bathroom?"
The teacher saw the saiyan tail and scowled. "Oh, no! You're out of your mind, body, AND spirit if you think I'm dumb enough to fall for…"
The dance the boy in the oversized hoodie put on couldn't be fabricated.
"... Uh… just hurry back."
"MHM!" The blonde boy jumped from his high-row seat and to the door, shifting through the air to maintain stability. His feet touched the ground, and he was gone.
All the while…
"I swear someone's calling my name…" Kora muttered to herself, eyes on the window as she munched her pen.
"YOU WANNA DIE THAT BADLY, THEN BRING IT, ASSHOLE!" a coyote-like beastman howled, thuggish tone coating his dialect as he charged with a fist.
"YA PIECE'A SHIT, DON'T FUCK WITH ME!" hissed back a caracal-like beastman, following suit.
But suddenly, as if frozen, they stopped. In fact, everyone did.
Mutterings of "Boss…!" and "Big Bro…" drifted through the field, as two figures approached from opposite sides.
[BGM: Hidenori Shoji ‒ Receive You (The Prototype)]
"Well well, look what the cat dragged in…" growled a sunglasses-donning woman in all denim with wolf ears and a tail, toting a giant, alien support beam across her shoulders.
"I'll be doggone…" growled a headband-donning boy in all leather with a leopard's ears and tail, cracking his fortified obsidian-encrusted knuckles.
The two entered a meter's vicinity and stood still, facing off.
"Yo."
{BOKAMIDAN}
{LEADER OF CANIS CRUSHERS}
"You're awful formal today."
{HYOKU}
{LEADER OF PAIN PANTHERA}
"So then. Ya wanna tell me what's giving these mutts of yours enough balls to attack my boys?" Hyoku asked with an unhinged tone. Bokamidan chuckled in response.
"See, a little birdie caught wind of one'a your strays pushin' around my pack and came tweetin'. Trashin' our art, muckin' up our territory. Honestly, I don't blame 'em for tearin' into ya the way they did."
"She's bullshitting, Hyo-bro!" screamed one of his subordinates. "Not one of us was around their turf! They're the ones who picked the fight!"
"Cut the crap, fuzzballs!" one of Bokamidan's underlings barked back. "We've got the pendants to prove it! You two-bit fleabags are just too chicken-shit to own up! "
A brief exchange between the two sides was quickly ended by respective glares from their leads. Meek whines and submissive mews ensued.
"That means…" the boy's spotted cat ears folded back like daggers. "One of us…"
"Is a liar…" the tip of the girl's grey tail swayed like a boat just before a storm. "So what's your take, 'Hyo-bro?' "
"Making up crap just to start a fight? Acting like you're retaliating after a stunt like this?" Hyoku gave a toothy, malice-infused grin, rocky gloves gleaming as he neared the wolf girl.
"I WOULDN' EXPECT ANYTHIN' LESS FROM A BUNCHA SORRY STRAYS LED BY A BITCH LIKE YOU!"
Bokamidan snarled in response, winding back her giant makeshift weapon in the process.
"GOOD TA SEE YOU AN' YER LITTER-HUFFIN' KITTENS'RE DROPPIN' THE ACT, YA GUTLESS PUSSY!"
Preceded by rabid war cries from their respective gangs, the two vicious thugs let loose their power as they hurled their attack at each other. But despite the ensuing shockwave…
Neither blow would meet its mark.
There, sandwich'd between both of their strikes…
"H'llo. Pl'se st'p f't'ng."
{ZINCO}
{JUST HAPPY TO BE HERE.}
The two gave baffled glances before jumping back, releasing the surreally unfazed Zinco, hands dripping with faucet water.
"What the…"
"The hell!?"
The blonde saiyan cleared his throat.
"Hi, my name is Zinco!"
"..."
"... ok?"
Zinco prepared to plea for an end, but stopped himself. After a few seconds of foot-tapping, his squeezed-shut eyelids burst open.
"You guys are really loud, and I don't really get why you're all fighting. Can you tell me?"
After a confused moment of silence, Bokamidan spoke up. "Look, monkey boy," she stated, use of 'monkey' in a more formal, endearing sense than insulting, "This don't got anything ta do with ya. Scram."
"Why not spill it for him, you dog?" Hyoku sneered. "Show him how pea-brained you and your mutts really are."
"ALRIGHT, FUZZBALL, FINE!" The wolf girl pointed her makeshift staff at her antagonist, who dodged it with a lean of the neck. "THAT ASSHOLE OVER THERE HAD HIS GOONS TRASH OUR DEN! HE'S BEEN PICKIN' ON US FOR WEEKS NOW!"
Hyoku smacked away the slab of extraterrestrial steel. "HOW MANY TIMES ARE YOU GONNA THROW THAT AROUND 'FORE IT GETS OLD!? ADMIT IT, YOU GOT BORED AN' WANTED BLOOD!"
"Why not clean it up together?"
Both gave Zinco crazed glances before they could go at it again.
"AAH?"
"HUH?"
Zinco turned to Hyoku.
"If you didn't do anything wrong, why not help them rebuild their stuff instead of fighting them?"
Zinco turned to Bokamidan.
"And why hurt people if they say they didn't hurt you? Are you sure you're doing the right thing?"
He turned to the others around them. "And… why let others get hurt if you're not sure about anything? You care about them, right?"
The two demihuman delinquents had a pause, eyes enveloped in shade all the while. Zinco began wondering if he'd said anything wrong.
"... Oh! I know!"
He extended a pinky, smiling.
"If you know you're telling the truth, pinky swear on it!"
"..."
"..."
Bokamidan and Hyoku finally shared a statement.
"... Sic this rosy-cheeked goober."
"EH-"
Before anything else could be said, a tiger beastman lunged at Zinco with a steel pipe.
"I AIN'T LETTIN' YOU GET AWAY WITH DOUBTIN' MY BRO, SHITHEAD!" he roared before Zinco ducked under the swing.
[BGM: Mitsuharu Fukuyama ‒ Collision of Our Souls]
After bounding away from the next attack, Zinco put on a game face.
His final thought was "I'm still missing something," before getting attacked.
At that point, he entered Zen.
"YOU THINK YOU'RE WALKING AWAY IN ONE PIECE AFTER SPEAKIN' TO BOSS LIKE THAT, PUNK!?" a mouse demihuman shouted, backed up by 3 of his comrades.
He broke out to meet every incoming limb with his own. In one breath, he set each off balance, stumbling back before more delinquents zoned in on him. Simultaneously moving and countering each move made toward him, he kept a steady pace against his numerous and erratic aggressors, ensuring he only took on a handful at once.
The thugs paused their advance as Zinco spent time to deal with an opponent faster and flashier than most of the other lot, unleashing a series of bicycle kicks upon the boy, who countered with wheel-like palm slaps as he rapidly stepped back. Right as the rabbit beastman jumped back, a kangaroo demihuman attempted to catch him off guard with a roundhouse kick from the side, only to be spun around by that leg and taken to the ground, Zinco fiercely stomping near where his head would be right before he hit the pavement below.
The beastman flinched as his ally… no, his rival punk's eyes widened in horror, only to find that he was levitating a few inches off the concrete, Zinco's foot a few centimeters from him.
"You seein' this shit?" Bokamidan growled, Hyoku nodding in response.
"Not a soul's caught so much as a scratch since this kid's gotten started…"
Now a tad more invested in the odd kid in the stupid hoodie than they were at each other's throats, each selective posse began spacing out, as Zinco found himself dealing with a new attack every half-second. Despite what very-well should've been an overwhelming disadvantage, he continued parrying each attack with pristine split-second accuracy within the confines of the circle he'd made for himself; high punches, low kicks, flying elbows and knees, even the occasional tackle attempt that he transitioned into quick spin-hugs and gentle releases.
"That's another thing…" the leopard leader noted, the thought finished by his wolf-like rival.
"His ki keeps fluctuatin'… From here, he's matchin' the speed and power of every blow with who he's clashin' with's… Sonova bitch is cancellin' my sons'a bitches' moves out!"
In time, he began maneuvering through the crowd by softly pulling others behind him into his circles via their own force, all the while constantly on the move, backstepping as if he had 4 eyes on the back of his head. A hare demihuman eventually decided that she'd had it, jumping from the crowd and shooting toward Zinco like a bat out of hell.
"TRY THIS ONE, YA COCKY BRAT!"
"(If only I had a third arm behind me…)"
And then he remembered.
With a jiffy's timeframe to spare, he used his tail to pull forward the puncher's thrown fist while leaning to avoid the kick, pulling a suave pose all the while.
"TCH…!" The pugnacious demihuman snarled before turning on a dime for a punch.
"WHY YOU…!" The figure behind him, a fruit bat-esque humanoid fellow, curled his fist again and dove back in.
In response, Zinco sought the right timing and lightly bumped both fists, killing their momentum before disappearing. The end result was the two attackers somewhat-uncomfortably face to face. They then noticed Zinco escaping from under them; before they could act, the two baseball bat-wielding cat girls from earlier were on his case. Zinco was on the backfoot, dodging as his back neared a wall to the feline demihumans' subtle satisfaction. However, he didn't stop at the wall; no, he simply kept moving backward, moving up the surface before kicking himself off and landing behind the pair. From there, he took advantage of their brief shock, spun into the air, and double-kicked away their weapons, one foot for each bat. He landed back on his feet and held his stance, only for the two girls to wave tiny white flags in response. Zinco would take that with a peace sign, before a Rhinoman put him on the backfoot once again.
Far less participants of the 1v40 matchup had enough stamina to keep fighting. Even more, the few who continued were down to help each other, no matter who they were, to punt Zinco. The latter had somehow become even faster, all the while maintaining his dead-focus wide-eyed expression as he vaulted over fists and forelegs with legs the weight of paper. Yet even still, even as the Rhino humanoid from a warrior planet charged him, while a small raccoon demihuman girl went for his shins, he maintained the sturdiness of a mountain and took the hits. Once Zinco outmatched and-yet pushed himself off the massive man, both he and the raccoon demihuman threw one more, full force punch at him. He stood his ground and hardened his muscles under the hoodie, taking the full force at once. Both fell from exhaustion, Zinco catching both before they could hit the ground.
A few extra-dexterous combatants prepared to charge at him, when-
"KNOCK IT OFF, MORONS!"
They instantly dropped what fighting spirit they had left in the tank.
"I have to hand it to you… You're one crafty brat."
"Shame that you've gone n' made my pack look like chumps."
Zinco, drenched in sweat (by contributions from viewers like his stupid hoodie) perked up. "But they were all really strong! I had to give it everything I had to keep up!"
"See, ya say that, but…" her extraterrestrial steel joist slammed into the ground. "You just left every last one'a 'em without so much as a scratch, n' front of a crowd, too."
The saiyan boy had only noticed the giant crowd that'd formed some ways outside the school courtyard thanks to the heads-up, and began blushing madly.
"But… I didn't hurt anyone you cared about! Doesn't that make you happy?"
It was Bokamidan's turn to blush. "TH-THEY'RE THE ONES WHO SIGNED UP FOR THIS KINDA LIVIN'! THEY OUGHTA EXPECT A FEW BRUISES!"
"I take everything back," Hyoku mew-sed, "You're a horrible liar."
"SHUT IT, HAIRBALL HACKER!"
The spot-tailed young man took on a dire expression. "Still, Tail Chaser has a point. A fighter's scars are what make them fighters, and you took that away from them today." He cracked his volcanic knuckles, yellow eyes lighting up. "AN' I'M WILLIN'A TAKE ONE ALL FOR 'EM IF IT MEANS CRUSHIN' YOU."
The wolf-eared young woman cackled at the sentiment. "YEAH, THAT'S MORE LIKE IT, YA BUM! FOR DRAGGIN' THE CANIS CRUSHER NAME THROUGH THE MUD, YOU AIN'T WALKIN' OUTTA THIS ONE WITHOUT A FEW BONES LOOSE, KID!"
Zinco looked around frantically, as if the answer for how to make sense of such a thing was hidden in the scenery, before throwing down his arms in defeat with a sigh.
He then inhaled deeply.
"KAH!"
With that, his aura sprang from within, sending a shockwave toward the two with a kiai that replenished a great deal of the little stamina he'd lost the fight prior. The two flinched a bit at the burst of power but, as pack leaders, regained their wits quickly.
"Kekeke… one weird sonava bitch, you are!"
"All the better prey to tear apart!"
The two unveiled their own vast auras, gave bestial war cries, and engaged.
[BGM: Rob Dougan ‒ Chateau]
Bokamidan threw her colossal joist into the air and joined Hyoku in simultaneously hand-to-hand attacking Zinco, who cycled back and forth between the two, cancelling their force with his own as he pushed his speed higher and higher, though found that he had no need to adjust his ki to each leader' with the two's already similar levels; both were making it clear why they led their respective groups. Detriment, boon, none of it mattered as he constantly shifted to meet their attacks, which also climbed higher in power and speed. The wolf suddenly pulled out of the tense encounter for quite literally a second, leaving Hyoku to brawl with Zinco, the two engaging in an even faster exchange of fists. All the while, Zinco's comically oversized hoodie began to rip, unable to handle the g-forces at work as pieces of the sleeves tore off. He dodged an elbow slash and the ensuing face-high push kick with a backwards bend, only for Hyoku to suddenly sink to ground in a split. In a driven state of resolve and instinct, he immediately pieced together the source.
"SO~RA~!"
10 meters of reinforced nokinanium swung toward his center mass at a mach speed in the high-end of quintuple digits.
The resulting gust sent grass and the fountain's water fluttering through the air.
Bokamidan grinned, contact being made as evident of verdant cloth sent flying across the courtyard.
Like asteroids.
"... son of a- THAT WAS WEIGHTED!" Hyoku's feline eyes darted to the top of the weapon.
"ABOVE YOU, IDIOT!"
Zinco had caught a ride atop the staff. With his means of making himself look as unthreatening as possible now scattered to the wind, he was now down to his white t-shirt, revealing scarred arms that looked to be made up of nothing but muscle.
And his instinct-driven silence was finally broken.
"THAT'S DANGEROUS! PLEASE DON'T SWING SOMETHING THIS BIG!"
"WORRY ABOUT YOURSELF!" Hyoku snarled, now on the same footing as Zinco as the two clashed fists, rapidly stepping and sliding down the massive weapon. Zinco's hand began stinging something fierce, a byproduct of his opponent's extraterrestrial gauntlets.
With a roar, Bokamidan swung it again and forced Zinco over the clouds.
"YOU ARE CRAZY!" Hyoku, who'd hopped off a bit prior, snarled. The wolf girl shrugged.
"Ya got the memo in time, Hairball. What's the problem?"
He growled, before directing his gaze to his side, and spotting a sizable tree.
Next thing he knew, Zinco was on the wrong end of a bark-based missile. His eyes widened in fear, before narrowing in resolve.
Shifting his body to intercept, he turned in the tree's direction, grabbed it mid-air, and spun like a top, throwing a concentration of ki to further hasten his descent. Bokamidan attempted to smack him out of the air with her steel beam once he entered range, which Zinco seemed to take extreme offense to.
"TAE-YA!" With a fierce bolley kick, he sent it spinning out of her hand, with the end result of it being lodged into the ground.
"S-SHIT! Whatever!"
He bounded off Hyoku's subsequent mid-air attack, pushing himself toward the place where the tree had been uprooted. Stabilizing himself pre-landing, he jammed it from the spot from where it once stood and thrusted his hand into the dirt just in front of it.
"HaaaAAAH!"
Zinco channeled his own life energy into the roots to ensure the tree would outlive the fight. He turned just in time to receive a punch coated in otherworldly obsidian, knocking him back into the tree. The assault didn't stop there as Bokamidan joined in, Zinco too scared of his guarded foliage being desecrated to dodge. This changed once he saw leaves falling, for he unleashed a kiai forceful enough to push the pair a meter away from the tree. From there, though fully expecting them both to dodge and meet his blows with their own, Zinco was the one to attack first. He began growing relentless, shooting attacks at a rate which both punks began struggling to keep pace with. He continued his assault and, once an opening was presented, shot a snap kick at Hyoku's throa-
"!"
Zinco froze, his foot 2 or 3 centimeters away from Hyoku's neck. Any further and he would've hit him. Both the leopard-like leader and the wolf-esque brawler momentarily paused shocked from the sudden shift.
"Where'd that speed…"
"... Why'd ya stop? That right there's hOW YA FIGHT!" Bokamidan howled, grabbing the blonde by the shin and nailing him with a vicious straight.
"No... THIS IS HOW I FIGHT!" Zinco hissed, recapturing his bearings and returning to cancelling attacks with even more vigor and precision. After a rapid series of flying fists and blocks, Zinco caught Hyoku's arms under his armpits, resulting in the latter grabbing hold as well and spinning them both 'round, roaring all the while as he and Zinco struggled for dominance in the hold. It ended with Hyoku sending Zinco skidding across the courtyard, his back against the giant beam stuck in the ground. Bokamidan charged at him, her stamina beginning to wane as she forced him up the mammoth weapon with a stream of hits. Unbeknownst to him ‒ at least they hoped ‒ Hyoku had jumped above it and behind the blonde, as they prepared to knock him out with a sledgehammer.
Zinco, however, saw it coming.
Using one of Bokamidan's hands as leverage and pushing her off in the process, he backflipped over Hyoku mid-sledgehammer, resulting in him hitting not his target but the joist. A tremendous metallic BANG resounded across Conton, as the weapon was buried even further into the ground. Still in shock, Hyoku's gauntlets proceeded to break before him, the nokinanium collision being the straw that broke the camel's back.
"Bastard… he planned that out, didn't he..." Bokamidan growled, hitting her limit as she sulked over her weapon's loss.
Hyoku fell to the ground, also panting heavily as he threw off his wounded gauntlets. "Damn…"
Both utterly pooped, they stood on wobbly legs to face Zinco. Slowly, they raised their hands above their heads.
Zinco's face lit up.
They promptly dragged them back down in new stances.
Zinco's face dimmed.
"Yer one crafty monkey, Zinco, but yer on your last legs, too."
"So all that's left is one last push, an' we'll've taken yer ass down."
In that instance, the monkey-tailed boy took note of the way Hyoku had said that: "We."
Things slowly began piecing together in Zinco's mind.
The halfling took an open stance that invited attack, and sucked in air to set his muscles.
"I'M READY!"
An insane, sharp-toothed grin grew across Bokamidan's face.
The same breed of smile infected Hyoku before he charged.
They shot toward him.
{RED PAWS REVERB!}
{FERAL WOLF FANG FIST!}
"DYAAAAA!"
The force of each's finishing move shot through his body and rippled across the courtyard.
Zinco proceeded to take, head on, hundreds of thousands of hits.
Which turned to thousands
Which turned to hundreds.
Into dozens.
Until finally, both leaders struck him once more, before falling back.
Zinco stomped his foot again, and both levitated before softly hitting the ground.
"Gave it all we had… and ya still ain't so much as fallen over…"
There was that word again.
"Say… you two don't hate each other as much anymore, do you?"
"Heh?"
"Everyone fought really good together, but you guys fought really, really, REALLY good together!" The blonde grinned. "It didn't seem like you hated each other at all!"
Bokamidan gave Hyoku a side glare. Hyoku did vice versa.
"... I'll say it one more time. My guys never touched anything of yours. 'Specially not in your turf."
"... so a false flagger?"
The young leopard man, taken aback by his wolf rival's sudden sense of reason, nodded. In fact, his own pugnaciousness was gone, too. "Must've been. But who…"
"And they took the bait?" the Frieza soldier asked.
"Hook, line, and sinker!" replied the short, sentient cuckoo bird, cackling alongside the dubious grunt.
"Oh Chronoa, I love instigating!"
"Not as much as me, ya sly bastard! Man, I love it here!"
"Oh well. Either of us ever find out, and they're gonna wind up chew toys. Or… scratching posts, I dunno."
The wolf girl pushed herself up. "Another thing…"
"..."
"Nice fighting."
"... you weren't so bad yourself."
"for a cat"
"What?"
"Wha?"
Hyoku gave her a look before hobbling upward. "Expect to see us around your turf later. You'll owe us, but we're still cleaning up John Doe's mess."
"Shur'. (I NEVER ASKED FOR THAT, SOFTIE!)"
They both turned to Zinco. His shirt had been ripped by the last clash, and blood clearly glistened off him. Most apparent was his tense shaking.
"Hey, kid-"
"I DID IT!"
"... EH?"
Through the pain and exhaustion, Zinco roared in victory. He turned to the crowd he once feared ecstatically.
"IT IS DOABLE! I CAN WIN WITHOUT HURTING ANYONE!" shouted Zinco, infecting most of the crowd with his excitement and garnering applause.
He bounced around the trashed courtyard, the other delinquents looking on in bewilderment.
"YES! ALL MY TRAININING PAIDED OFF!" he screamed, so excited that he began jumbling words. He proceeded to run back into the school.
He then ran back out and bowed, his joy replaced with guilt.
"I'm very sorry for messing up the outside. I'll clean it up right away."
"Don't bother." Zinco looked back up in confusion.
Bokamidan proudly pointed to herself. "WE'RE the ones who mucked up the place, moron. You ain't takin' the credit for that." She turned to her slowly-standing crew. "Y'KNOW WHAT MEANS, AH, YA SONS'A BITCHES!?"
"DAMN RIGHT!"
"NO SWEAT, BOSS!"
She then pointed to Hyoku with a grin. "BOTH US, AND THOSE PAIN PANTHERA DWEEBS, ARE GONNA TIDY UP THIS PEN!"
"What!? When did I agree to this?"
"Hmph. Typical lazy cat, expectin' others to clean up their messes."
"... Alright, YOU HEARD THE MUTT! MAKE THESE CANIS CHUMPS LOOK LIKE ANTIQUES OUT HERE! THE SHADE'S GONNA SHINE BY THE TIME WE'RE DONE!"
Zinco stared in amazement at the shift. With a giggle, satisfied with the outcome, he left the now-construction site and fell down, teetering on unconsciousness.
"I did iiiiiit…"
"Woah there, buddy, you almost fellacio'd the pavement!"
Zinco suddenly found himself over someone's shoulder.
"That can't be good for you, especially in your condition!"
[BGM: skankfunk ‒ Blind 2 See]
The stranger was a teen going off tone and despite his smaller 160cm stature, with slicked, dark blue hair ending in a foxtail wrap, and a stylish, futuristic-esque jacket topped off with a popped collar. He also wore a tinted visor akin to long, one-piece sunglasses, though they seemed to float over than rest upon his face.
"Probably not…" Zinco chuckled a bit. "Thank you."
"No problem, hero!"
That word caught Zinco's attention, for some reason. "Hero?"
"Of course, hero! It's one thing to take out an entire gang on your own, but without hurting a soul!? Safe to say, as of now, I'm your #1 fan!"
The boy was fun to hear talk. "R-Really!? That's great!"
"It's only as great as you are, Zinco! Now then…"
He set the saiyan on his feet. "You're strong enough to walk, right? I bet you are!"
"Mn!" The eccentric stranger's encouragement gave him the boost he needed.
"There ya go! Now hold on just a sec!" He looked around the area and set his eyes on someone at, seemingly, random.
"Hey, Faa'ji, baby!" He yelled toward a group. "Got a second to kill?"
The Majin swiveled her head and, once contact was made, gleefully made it over.
"Hi, Akaki!"
"See," he went on, "My new friend here just pulled one of the craziest stunts in recent memory, and, er, needless to say… you catch my drift?"
"Oh, I saw that! That was you, huh? Poor baby…" With a touch and a few moments of light, Zinco was back at nearly full health. "I'm not the best with healing stuff, sorry."
Akaki shook his head, shrugging. "Who needs to be the best at every little thing? Faa'ji, you're here making it look like an art form, and you're getting the job done while you're at it! Don't sweat the small stuff, you are something else!" Zinco nodded happily in agreement.
Faa'ji made a flustered noise, pushing the boy before moving on. "Oh, stahp it, you!"
"Hey, make sure to check in on Meio and Jerry for me, uh huh?"
While Akaki received his confirmation, and her friends waved at him all the while, Zinco stared at him as if a superhero.
"(The way he's able to talk to people…)" He smiled. "(I… I wanna do that, too!)"
"Now that you're all fixed up, I really wanna get to know you, Zink! Can I call you Zink?" His inquiry was responded to with a frantic nod, before Zinco jumped into his face.
"I wanna learn more about you, too! How can you talk like that!?"
"Wo-hoah, bud, take it down a bit!" Akaki laughed. "I'm just as excited as you are, but let's keep some personal space."
"Oh… Yeah, sorry…"
"And…"
Akaki slung his arm around Zinco in a rather stylish, sleek manner. "I can't reveal my secret around this many people," he stealthily stated.
"ooooooooooooh!"
"Yep. Tell you what, let's take this to higher ground, and EVERYTHING'll be unraveled. How about it, pal?"
Before he could agree, Zinco remembered school. "Oh. Actually, I can't right now. If I do, I'll miss something important in class."
"Easy fix!"
Akaki pulled up his wrist. "Hey, Souni. Bad time?"
Mutters.
"Great to hear, man. But yeah, there's this uber cool dude who I wanna chat with. Only for today, but uh, got a place in your schedule for one more?"
Mutters.
"Wait, really?"
Mutters.
Akaki stood back for a second, looking to Zinco as if to share his astonishment.
"There is 'something else', and then there is… you, Souni. Alright, man, I won't hold you much longer. Keep being amazing."
A mutter passed, and he hung up. "Guess who just got a day to himself?"
The pacifist briefly pondered the morality of the situation.
But then again, if only this once, it couldn't hurt, right?
With a grin, and an excited wagging of his tail, he agreed. "OK!"
Akaki gave the tail a look, promptly pulled his eyes away from it.
"Glad to hear! Let's shoot that breeze, hero."
"This doesn't add up."
"That's because you're not focused."
Neoru creaked his head to the side.
"The reason you're not able to stabilize your ki and align with your arm pacer right now."
"... you piECE'A-"
Neoru's violet aura suddenly erupted, dwarfing nigh-all his classmen. A feminine, just-audible "oh fuck off, will you!" followed.
"... I MEAN THAT'S STILL WRONG, BUT..."
Neoru calmed his chi, pacer going from a blinking red to green. "Yeah yeah, shut up. That's not what's buggin' me, regardless."
"Hmmm…"
"Cut that shit ou-"
"Oh, I understand. It's because Zinco's not back yet, isn't it?"
Neoru's face shifted from annoyance, to shock, then to annoyance again. "Shit when ya put it like… Yes."
"I have to admit, that's weirding me out, too."
"Uh-huh… yeah that's another thing, WHO ARE YOU?"
The rock lifeform looked genuinely offended. "I've literally been sitting a seat away from you for 7 months."
"So? Ya don't talk to me none."
"Zinco's always talking with me!"
"Oh, I always thought he was talkin' to himself. So, like, do ya know him at all?"
"I'm the first friend he ever made, yes. He knows me more than you!"
"Yeah no damn wonder, not the one clingin' onto him while he ain't even here."
The rock-y student made a face. Neoru didn't care.
"... this is too fuckin' stupid, screw this."
Forgetting about the armband, Neoru stomped toward the door.
"Huh? What are you doing now?"
"That dumbass probably tripped over himself or some shit, now he's missing shit he shouldn't be, that pisses me off, so I'm gonna drag him back here. You in?"
"Ah-"
"Got it."
With that, much to the current instructor's behest, he walked out the large, padded, ki-training room.
The instructor gave the rock man a "Fuck Around and Find Out" sort of glance.
But what sort of friend would he be if he didn't rush out as well, fearing for his life all the way?
[BGM: Takafumi Wada ‒ Xiao Kuang Juan]
The thick bamboo brush cast passing shadows upon Zinco and his new buddy as they made their way.
"(If I can learn this kind of aura…)"
He mentally conjured images of stopping things from minor disputes to full-blown wars with nothing but words. And everyone frolicking soon after, for reasons. The boy knew how silly they were, but their now-tangibility put a stupid grin across his face.
"(Yeeeeah…)"
"Yep, here should do it. No one around to listen in to our deep, dark secrets. Remember, we're keeping this to ourselves!"
Akaki looked to Zinco with a smile, and Zinco reciprocated.
"Let's shake on it!" he said, holding out his hand.
"Yeah!"
Zinco carefully made sure he wouldn't break his new friend's hand and, firmly enough, took it.
And a mountain came down upon him.
"Huh? What's wrong, buddy?" Akaki blankly stated, his own hand slowly descending as Zinco slowly sunk to the ground.
"Your hand…" Zinco tried to laugh, through the pain in his wrist. "It's a bit... too heavy…"
Akaki innocently laughed. "Whaaaaat? That's not my hand, you stupid piece of shit! That's YOURS! You aren't saying a Saiyan can't handle their own power, right?"
The blonde looked back up, his hurt emerald eyes looking back into an empty, apathetic visor.
"Oh I know! Just treat it as a game! Saiyans are great at that, right?"
"What are you… doing!?"
He'd masked every ounce of bloodthirst until this point. And now, it was hitting Zinco like a monsoon.
"C'mon, Saiyan, fight. Break past those limits and fight. That's all you bastards live for. Right?"
He'd been lied to.
Intense, burning rage began welling up within Zinco.
He could feel it.
And thus, without a moment of hesitation, he killed it.
"Why?"
The saiyan looked back up toward his aggressor without an ounce of rage or fear.
"Why are you mad at me?"
Akaki's smile briefly enveloped his face. Then, it fell. Hard.
"It's because you don't know your place."
Zinco suddenly flipped like a ragdoll, before being slammed into the ground head-first.
"You think you can get your battle-rocks off by playing the role of defenseless pacifist."
"But that's not what-"
His sentence was cut off by a boot to the face.
"BULLSHIT. You have all the means to end things then and there, but you hold back, and why?"
He stomped Zinco.
"For a cheap…"
He stomped Zinco.
"Thrill…"
He stomped Zinco.
"But I DO need-"
He stomped Zinco.
"You have no idea what it means to NEED something like that. Yet there you go, parading it like the CIRCUS MONKEY you are, even though you could blow every one of those idiots away with a sneeze! You just WASTE everyone's time for your own amusement!"
He kicked him aside.
"But constantly living in fear of something bigger than you are, all weapons and tech useless against them, NEVER MIND brute force…"
Zinco slowly stood back up, only to be grabbed by the neck.
"This beatdown is gonna force this through your empty skull." He scowled, all of Zinco's force and ki pooling toward his throat. "YOU HAVE THE CHOICE, YOU BASTARD. STOP PLAYING THE PART OF SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T."
"Gh… gh…"
As he went blue in the face, the blonde's eyes began to glint.
"No… I can't… I won't stop…"
And then, he kicked into the air, freeing himself.
"WHA-"
Tired, his arm teetering on broken, and his breathing sent haywire, he stood upright with all the effort he could muster.
"I'll never... hurt anyone… AGAIN."
"... You scum-sucking monkey brat."
Akaki darted toward him, arms behind like the sheathed blades of an iaidoka.
"I'LL MAKE SURE YOU REGRET EVER LEAVING YOUR STOLEN SHITHOLE."
"OH JUST SHUT THE-"
A punch from his blindside cut off his advance.
[ BGM: Yusuke Honma ‒ Yurusenee! (Anime Ver.) ]
"-FUCK UP ALREADY!"
Catching himself upon his third bounce off the ground, he laid eyes on a (literally) amber-skinned, white haired fellow checking on Zinco. And in front of him…
"It's like you petty sacks'a shit grow outta the damn ground!" Neoru scowled, face contorted in annoyance.
"Calvary's here!" Zinco's other friend cheered as he held the young idealist up.
"Hi, Liputon..."
Akaki stood back up. "I have no idea who you are, or why you took the time to track this idiot down, but I'm in the middle of something right now, so if you'd kindly stop bothering yourself and move on, that'd be peachy."
Neoru sinisterly chuckled. "See, if you were just muggin' a guy, sure. But I dunno, some crybaby bitch boy takin' out his frustration on a kid who can barely tie his own shoe laces… Wouldn't sleep great if I didn't kick someone's ass after seeing some shit like that."
"I CAN TIE MY SHOELACES!" Zinco yelled. "AND… YOU DON'T NEED TO BE HERE! I HAVE THIS UNDER-"
"YOU SHUT UP, TOO!" he shouted back. "HOLY SHIT, WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?"
At the genuine concoction of anger and disappointment in his voice, Zinco shrank back.
"HELL'S IT GONNA TAKE BEFORE YOU WAKE UP AND STOP LETTING THIS SHIT HAPPEN? WHATEVER IT IS YOU'RE TRYING, IT AIN'T WORKING!"
He, without turning his back, dodged a hook from Akaki.
"Nice move…"
"One dirty sonova bitch, huh?" he mocked with hostility, jumping back before he could be grabbed.
Powerless, yet again, to stop a conflict he'd started, Zinco attempted to get up again.
"NO, STOP IT!"
Liputon caught him again before he could make it to the ground. "Zinco, calm down!"
"NO! THIS IS... THIS…"
All the rage from before suddenly resurfaced. Only this time, he was too tired to axe it off.
"STOP THIS RIGHT NOW, YOU DUMBASSES!"
A tremendous force violently rippled through the area, shattering a great deal of the bamboo present, knocking away Liputon, and threatening to topple both contenders.
The outburst sapped Zinco of what little energy he had left, and he fell to the ground.
Neoru looked back in abject shock; the force of the boy's shout not quite being the reason.
"And everything that monkey does just pisses me off further…"
Eyes now aflame with anger, he turned back to the foe at hand, cracking his knuckles.
"Really freakin' sucks. As long as pieces'a shit with power and a grudge never let go, there's always gonna be a fight somewhere. Really wanted to save my energy for after school, but that ain't happenin'."
"... Human, right?"
"What, you're not?"
"Thought so. Butting your defenseless heads where they don't belong, oh-so forgiving when it's convenient for you. And never too far from a Saiyan. Your species isn't worth much in the grand scheme of things, is it?"
"Oh, buddy, you've got no idea."
Akaki smirked. "I know all I need to from Earth's history. You're not as squishy as most, from that punch earlier, but you're definitely as naive and stupid."
Neoru smirked. "All you do is talk. Mind games are all that chatty limp-dicked cowards like you are good for."
The dark blue-haired eccentric pushed back his visor, revealing strained, grey voids beneath them.
"... And no sense of self-preservation. Some of you just throw yourselves off cliffs."
[ BGM: Hidenori Shoji ‒ Bloodstained Philosophy ]
He disappeared.
"Never caring about your bones until they're broken."
"!"
Neoru ducked his upper body under the swipe. Grabbing the stump of bamboo he almost impaled himself on, he threw himself around and shot both legs into Akaki's gut, a hit that was blocked by a crossarm yet carried enough power behind it to throw the latter across the serrated remnants of forest.
The human threw himself upward, landing on the broken shoot. Akaki did likewise, his position slightly elevated.
"The force behind that wasn't too shabby." Akaki gave a dry chuckle. "(Too bad for you, I can work with that.)"
Leaping from his position, Neoru dashed in.
"(That's it. Give this punch your all.)"
But his prediction would not come to pass. Instead, he narrowly evaded a jab that sped past him and was quickly preceded by another.
"You're gonna make this annoying, aren't you?"
Neoru retorted with more high-speed punches, each one pulled back as quickly as it was thrown. Soon, Akaki stopped dodging.
"(10tothe5th/10tothe5th/10tothe5th/10tothe5th… each punch has the same speed.)"
A hand briefly touched Neo's wrist, and suddenly, he flew and crashed into a palm strike. With another open-handed strike to the gut and a casual flick of his own wrist, he was suddenly sent spiraling through the air. Rectifying himself, he landed along the side of a taller shoot and lunged back in with a kick. Instead of his target, he was lazily slung by the leg and slammed back down to the ground, hard.
"K~ACK!"
He narrowly rolled away from a spike-like drop that bore a hole through the cloud of dust.
"You know," he began to lazily goad, jumping back atop the bamboo, "Humans have their own quirky version of this style. Isn't that a fun coincidence?"
The purple-irised lad eyed the stalk which supported his antagonizer. Not long after, he bolted forward with a jackknife kick planned.
Only for Akaki to suddenly appear in his face.
"Sure it's incompetent to the point where it's funny, but hey, what DON'T you idiots make that isn't half-baked?" he jested, throwing Neoru's mid-kick leg completely off course, while simultaneously elbowing him nose-first, sending him spiraling away in an out-of-control heap while he reobtained his vantage point. After sliding across a field of jagged vegetation (none of it could notably pierce him, but it stung like hell), Neoru bounded to his feet.
"I mean, with a species as behind and defenseless as yours, I'm not surprised you cling onto Saiyans like no tomorrow. Without them, you'd all be long gone."
Neo gave a pissed expression, before calming down. He looked at his hands curiously, and then back at Akaki.
"(He can't use ki blasts or anything in Conton,)" the visor-donning schemer contemplated. "(Even then, I could just bend and redirect whatever he threw at me.)"
Akaki took on another false smile. "Are you finally deciding this isn't worth your time, pal? That's a-ok with me, I'm not holding anything agai-"
Neoru dashed at him again.
"(I'm not off-guard, dumbass.)"
The human prepared a fist, this time visibly imbuing it with ki before winding back for a hook.
Akaki held up his hands. "(Sure, go ahead, let's see how that works out for you.)"
In his face, the punch whiffed through the air.
"(... Huh?)"
With the same "missed" punch, Neoru violently back-hand smacked Akaki, to the point of falling off his green pedestal.
Now Neoru was the one atop it.
"Y'know, your style's one pain in the ass to fight. It's one thing to use the power of the guy you're fighting every once in a while, but basing a whole damn martial art off it? Not to mention you're messing with their ki, too. Jeez." He sighed, and crouched. "Must've meant you had to work with whatcha had against something bigger n' nastier than you were, huh? I mean it can't be that hard for anything to be bigger than you, I mean, look at you, but hey. I'm starting to get it..."
Akaki's pride was… somewhat damaged by the prior attack, as was his visor. "You're getting ahead of yourself, you backwater space hick."
"The style also needs its user to be calm, and his enemy angry n' stupid, for it to work at it's best, too, right? Hm…"
Neoru jumped from the bamboo shoot, bashing it in with a kick on his descent. He and a majority of the greenery hit the ground at the same time. His jacket slowly followed.
"What happens when the role's reversed? How good is it then?"
The visorhead turned up his face, pushing back his broken equipment.
[ BGM: Earthside ‒ The Ungrounding ]
"Alright, you're not in my way now."
He brought himself back down, his strained, bleach-white eyes briefly visible underneath the lowered visor.
"You're my target."
Neo grinned, and shrugged.
The next thing he knew, Akaki had closed the distance.
"Link Set: 22!"
From the fraction of upward movement the shrug exuded, he was able to grab and chuck Neoru across the forest.
"Well that was dumb…" Neoru smacked his teeth, landing on a small bamboo stump before Akaki had once more closed the distance, taking a step forward before stomping down on the mullet-haired boy's toes and inhibiting a backward leap, knocking him off balance as the stump below his foot was broken through. Akaki dashed to his side before he could so much as move, Neoru's wrist was taken aback, and the world suddenly turned upside down before he smacked the ground. Pain seared his right arm, as titanic pressure on his wrist and elbow threatened to break it as easily as a twig. However, he'd been in a situation close to this one before; doing now what he couldn't then, he limpened and flipped, using his shoulder as the pivot point as he went from his stomach to his back, kicking Akaki off him from ground position. His right arm felt like hell, and it was Herculean to channel even a bit of ki through it, so he immediately took up another method of attack.
"(DAMN IT! MY VISOR…!)"
His vision had been impaired, leaving the world a blobby mess. He fell back on reading ki.
"You piece of shit human… This was never your problem!"
He caught a pin on a purple blob making what he desperately guessed were kicks and sweeps at his lower body.
"Because I'm not some random schmuck that fits your vague-ass description!? Why the hell can't you see the issue there?"
He dodged the first sequence of them by a hair's distance, apart from one which connected and nearly threw him off as they both navigated the borderline hazard zone of jagged stumps.
"Link Set: 55!"
With a stagger, Akaki rectified himself, only to bare witness to the dragon vest-donning human's roundhouse kick.
Despite the almost certain-to-hit distance, Neo was grabbed by the ankle before the attack could land and, with a painful mid-air twist, slammed into the ground stomach-first. With a foreign strength, Akaki lifted Neoru's captive ankle and, intent to break it, quickly twist-
"(GGH-!)"
Akaki's grip loosened for a moment, one that Neo used to jerk his foot to the side and out of the hold, swinging his lower body like a maniac and scratching Akaki's face as he forced him back.
"(Damn…! Still can only manage up to 55…!)" He hissed in pain; if not for this tech's strain, the human would likely be down a leg. Neoru flipped back up, laying eyes upon five tall, particle-based constructs akin to tails fading behind his foe.
"(Shit... did my energy just get cut in half? What the hell was that?)"
Akaki, after a fit of staggering, uprighted himself without a stance.
"EVERY ATROCITY THEY COMMIT, EVERY DECENT ACT THEY DO AND DON'T, IT'S ALL FOR THE SAKE OF THEIR OWN SATISFACTION! AND HUMANS LIKE YOU JUST SIT BACK AND LET THEM!" He sneered. "BUT HEY, WHAT ELSE CAN YOU EXPECT FROM THEIR FAVORITE RACE OF CONCUBINES!?"
Notably more ticked off than before, Neoru's head shot up. His mouth began smoking, he let out a roar, his violet ki growing brighter as it more closely resembled a flame. Still around his arm, the pacer from class flashed red and beeped rapidly before giving in and exploding, releasing ethereal particles into the air.
"This power…!"
Akaki shook his head, discarding the impossibility of this being a human's strength.
"(It's just what I need. Link Set: 22!)"
"RYAAAAAH!" Neoru charged full-strength, Akaki in anticipation.
"(Every ounce of your power…!)"
The punch was intercepted by an open palm, Akaki's movements in a perfect melody of soft and hard motion as he struck with the other hand's open palm, force freely flowing from one arm to the other.
"(IS GOING RIGHT BACK TO YOU!)"
And exactly as he said…
Neoru's power, along with Akaki's, was redirected into his own abdomen.
There was a brief flash, and then silence.
"... you know…"
Neoru coughed a bit of spittle.
"That wasn't half bad…"
"... what?"
"But it probably would've hurt a bit more…"
Neoru neared Akaki's ear.
"If I knew what concubine meant."
Moments before impact…
Neoru had completely dispelled his ki, his ouput reduced to nothing. A tactic he'd long since refined from his earlier living, useful for playing dead.
From the moment Akaki had opened his mouth, he knew he'd planned on goading on an attack, and how to use that anticipation to his advantage.
Neoru grabbed Akaki's exposed arms amid the latter's confusion, quickly folding them before flipping him over his shoulder. From there, he released one and, tight grip on the other, fell onto his back, locking it into a hold.
"On Earth, when a human catches a thief, it doesn't matter what it is, or why he's stealing it."
With that he twisted and pulled.
"The thief's losin' an arm."
CR~CK!
And the fight was over.
"That's for being an absolute cunt."
The reality of what he'd just said slowly sunk in. He made a small retch, before refocusing, going down on a knee to his downed enemy.
"... Look at that, just gave ya more of a reason to hate me than that guy over there." He scratched his cheek. "Now then, what did HE do, not a guy with the same kinda tail as him?"
Through the pain, Akaki hissed his answer. "The idea of a Saiyan mocking a pacifist for kicks… it's gross to even think about."
"How'd ya figure he was faking?"
"He's a Saiyan. All they live for is fighting. That's their place in reality. At whoever's expense... doesn't matter."
"... I've got no clue what you've been through to wind up like this…" Neoru stood up, almost melancholic. "But it's made you one sad sack'a shit."
Akaki didn't retort.
"Your style's neat. But it falls apart once you try using it for offense. Too heavy on prediction. If you wanna start fights, learn something else." With that, he walked away.
"..."
"Get… away from me…"
"I'm already gone, asshole, just take your nap alrea-"
"You Saiyan bastard…!"
"!? Zin-"
He turned around to see Zinco hovering over him, fist raised with a disappointed look in his eye.
"ZINCO, HOLD IT-"
He brought it down, to Neoru's shock and horror.
[ BGM: Hidenori Shoji ‒ For Face ]
"... the pain…"
"You'll stop hurting for a while now," The blonde boy softly spoke. "I'm sorry for making you angry."
Akaki continued glaring up. "Why?"
He stood. "Because of me, you three got hurt."
"Wait, three?"
A distant "I'm ok!" from Liputon was heard.
"He's ok, but he's far away now."
Zinco sulked, lifting his head to Neoru. "I'm just not strong enough yet."
"Shut up," the dark-brunette demanded.
"No."
"CUT THAT OUT."
"NO."
Zinco stepped forward. "It's possible. I KNOW it is."
Neoru stepped forward. "... For fu… As long as people like this exist, as long as people who MAKE people like this exist, hell as long as people keep bein' people', there's always gonna be someone who wants SOMEONE dead, never mind with a few damn scratches! I've seen it, I've lived it, I've DONE it."
"Then I'll be strong enough to stop AND change it."
His fists clenched. "And I'll be strong enough to take everything that anyone throws at me! And I'll be strong enough to avoid hurting them, even a little!"
Neoru's anger subsided; he simply couldn't muster the care to be angry anymore. He responded with a mournful look, as if the other boy were a lost cause, shook his head, and walked off.
That look, for lack of better words, pissed Zinco all the way off.
"WHY!?" he yelled. "WHY DON'T YOU WANT TO BELIEVE IN ME!?"
Neoru kept walking.
"DON"T YOU WANT THAT, TOO!? A WORLD WHERE NO ONE HAS TO HURT EACH OTHER!? WHAT'S SO WRONG WITH THAT!?"
Neoru kept walking. Though now, his pocketed fist began to quiver.
Zinco began to tear up, genuinely angry.
And then a thought sprouted up.
"... The tournament!"
Neoru stopped. He cocked back his head at an odd angle, implying a "go on."
"There, people are gonna fight. Hard. But... but I'll make sure that no one there wins."
"... how's that, dumbass? Asking nicely? Beggin' hand's n' knees while they pummel you?"
"No!"
Zinco shot a fist toward Neoru, his hair and solitary long bang levitating. "I'M GONNA FIGHT, TOO! AND I'LL WIN, WITH EVERYTHING I HAVE, WITHOUT HURTING A SINGLE PERSON!"
Neoru turned to Zinco, who looked him dead in the eyes.
"Even if I... ESPECIALLY when I fight you."
Neo shut his eyes, sighing.
"... Well that's just great. I was planning on showing up, anyway." He walked off. "If we do meet, I'll just push your shit in so badly, you won't have a choice but to wake up."
Zinco's fists shook at the statement. He'd never been so riled up by words in his life; the violet-eyed boy talked of crushing his dream like it was a chore to take care of.
And yet, he'd stoked another burning feeling. One the half-saiyan hadn't felt in years.
"One more thing." Neoru briefly halted.
Zinco braced for more nay-saying.
" 'Dumbass.' "
"Mh-"
"I say it a lot, sure, but… it's somethin' someone like you shouldn't really be saying." Neoru turned around, his face taking on a type of stern that looked alien on him. "It's bad. Kaza wouldn't like it. Don't say it."
Zinco blinked. "... Yeah. Sorry."
"Tch." Neoru shot his hands into his pockets and stomped off. "Don't be sorry, dumbass, be better."
That said and done, the half-blood refocused attention to the man currently hobbling away.
"(Bullshit…)"
"But aren't they bad? Why would they wanna talk to us?"
"Truth be told, my boy… I'm willing to bet that we're all tired of this fighting. Even if it's merely a temporary truce, I'll take it. Saiyan, Tsufruian, we're simply beings with motives to survive at our cores." The older man spoke, hours before the deaths of he and all others at the failed rally.
"(It's all... bullshit…)"
"Tell you what, old man," the tailed behemoth laughed beside the bodies of both his defeated comrades and other slain students, holding up one last twilight blue-haired disciple. "Beat me in a fight, and I'll let this last one live!"
"This is all pointless!" the tired geezer retorted. "Haven't you taken enough!?"
"So that's a 'no?' " He put his fingers in the left of the student's face, and slowly dragged.
"Too bad… Here, how's THIS for some motivation!"
"(A damn Saiyan… talking like that… what a load of-)"
He fell, his legs giving in on him.
But the tsufruian suddenly found himself over someone's shoulder.
"It'll be faster," Zinco stoically stated, "If I take you to the hospital."
"You…"
The tsufruian's tired eyes filled with vitriol.
"YOU SHITTY LITTLE TWERP!"
As Zinco moved forward, to his apathy, Akaki thrashed with every ounce of the tiny energy pool he had left.
"GET YOUR STINKING PAWS OFF ME YOU DAMN, DIRTY MONKEY!"
"No!"
"I SAID HANDS OFF, YOU EMPTY-HEADED CLOWN!"
"Not gonna!"
"PETE'S SAKE, I'M YOUR ENEMY!"
"I don't mind!"
"I KNEW YOU WERE STUPID, BUT THIS IS NEXT-LEVEL ASININE!"
"I might be stupid, but I'm not 9!"
Akaki continued his one-sided bickering contest until they entered public eye, when he switched to appreciative thanking of Zinco for supporting him after his tragic tumble off a flight of stairs. It still amazed Zinco to no end.
[BGM: Ayumi Miyazaki ‒ Unification of the Land (Piano Version)]
Once far enough from the masses, Akaki switched again.
"... did you mean it?"
Zinco took a sec to get what he was talking about.
"... Yes."
"Why?"
"... Because I've seen people hurt people. And people were hurt because of me."
The saiyan paid his fist a somber expression.
"And I've… I've hurt people. Badly."
The two made it to the door.
"People hate pain. And pain scares people. That's why they get angry. That's where hate comes from."
His emerald eyes held a convicted, unyielding honesty as he spoke.
"So I'll get so strong that I can't hurt anyone. And then, I'll be able to make a world where no one needs to hurt anyone."
The tsufruian scoffed. "That's foolish."
"Then I'll make it unfullish. "
"..."
"Foolish. Unfoolish. Yeeeah…"
"Just let me go, numbskull. I'm fine from here."
"Ok!" Zinco happily replied.
The multi-faced tsufruian, as he pushed forth the door, turned toward the bizarre saiyan heading back to the school.
"(Is that what you meant, Dad?)"
Shrugging, he closed the door behind him.
"Honestly, where do you get off ruining equipment like that?" Dina groaned. "Even a caveman like you oughta be able to tell by looks alone how expensive the things are!"
Neoru's knees were firmly on the island soil as he bowed. "Yeah. Need money. Please help."
The ruby-eyed girl rubbed her forehead. "Well, this IS the first time you've ever shown me proper respect, and you ARE my chew toy for the time being... besides, I can't exactly afford having you busy with paying this off. Alright, fine, but you owe me for this!"
"Fine. That shitty technique you're tryin'a make work. Fought someone who did somethin' kinda like it. I'll show ya while we train, how's that sound?" He looked up to Dina's sparkly eyes.
"Why'nt you just lead with that, moron!? Up then, lemme see!" she exclaimed.
[ Self-Contained ED: Hidenori Shoji ‒ Four Face ]
Neoru complied. Then, he took a stance, bouncing to each ball of his feet. His aura began to emit bloodthirst.
"Oh yeah, that's another thing. From now on, I'm gonna come at ya like I want you dead. You'd better do the same."
Dina stared, half confused, half curious, before taking her own stance. "Huh. That's a turn. Figured this was the perfect day for me to finally kill you, yeah?"
The Human smirked. "I've just REEEALLY gotta make sure I can kick this one guy's ass, that's all."
"H-HOW MANY CLONES!?" Kaza screeched.
"100's a lot, isn't it?" Zinco innocently replied, within the frigid mountainous region. "I want a lot."
"(C-calm down Kaza, he isn't stupid, he knows what he can do!)" she muttered. Using the boy's energy, with effort, she spread forth her arms; from it sprung 100 Spirit Zincos.
The real one among the bunch took a deep breath, and then a solid stance.
"Zinco, before we start, why so many all of a sudden? You were only at 50 yesterday!"
The Saiyan sharpened his eyes. "I just really... REALLY wanna prove something to someone."
With that, Neoru lunged at Dina.
With that, Zinco bounded into the fray.
Yo! OP Here! Again!
This chapter feels SO much better now that the last one exists. Gave Zinco some more breathing room. (DYK? "ZInco" is probably one of the most frequent errors I find while proofreading. It's weird.) If it ended kind of abruptly, sorry, but I couldn't really think of anything better.
I had some fun making the Zinco v. Gang scene. Just kinda let my imagination run wild with it, and with the chapter before this, it also establishes Zinco's progress instead of reintroducing him haphazardly. Name context for the two gang leaders: "Boryokudan" (JP name for no-good gangs), "Okami" (JP for wolf)", and "Hyou" (JP for panther).
I'm not a furry, I swear.
Anyway, fuck Akaki, bro. (His pun is based off Kaki Persimmons, cold-weather fruits in Japan.) I didn't really like Mei while she was getting introduced, but MAN, fuck Akaki. He has reasons, I guess, but this dude made me sick while I was getting the draft done, I hate two-facers more than I thought I did. Glad Neo kicked his ass. Speaking of...
The rivalry between he and Best Boi Zinco has finally kicked off. That's cool, and it also means these two can finally take a back seat for the other characters to shine: Next up on my list is Mei vs Kazikum, Kaza making some tough choices between friends before going "Choices are dum lol I love both", Mei finding an old, Mystic Chinese-type martial artist (Who she's technically older than) with a hair fetish to train under and teach her more essentials to her techniques, Dina, Kazikum, and Wabi having a close moment, Archi hating on martial artists and why he does (maybe he and BITCHkaki fight), the end of Roshi's Dragon/Tiger training, and...
And...
Hopefully, you know, that. I'll probably have finished my first College year post-this, if I'm still alive by then, of course. I don't have anything bad, don't worry, I just know that tomorrow doesn't exist until it does. If I don't make it to see that tomorrow, then whatever, the effort was cool. Dark? Not really, life's fleetingness contributes to it and the aspirations of the living's radiance. It's something we can take pride in as mortals. Live life, it's pretty alright.
Existential shit aside, fun powerscaling fact: Voshyo pimpsmacks both Neo and Akaki at this point in the story. Fight wouldn't drag out long enough for Neo's fighting spirit shit to start surging, and he's too smart and overwhelming for Akaki to use his Definitely-Not Aiki on.
Another DYK: Apparently, the Tiger and Kirin both take up the role of "King of Furred Beasts" across oriental myth. I don't really know what that means, I just think it's a cool fact.
Happy Double Upload Day, lads. Hope you're all still fighting through life alright. Oh, and Son Gaton? Nice story man, can't wait to see where it heads. Maybe Rich Homie Sawabi can stop by sometime and beat the shit outta Akaki, MY WORD I HATE AKAKI SO DAMN MUCH AIIIIIIE-
Yeah. Thanks for sticking with me, guys.
That's about it. See ya.