Yo! OP Here!

Why is this at the TOP of the new chapter, this time around?

Well, there are two answers. First off, see that small box at the top right of this page? Noticing how that's the page scroll? Wondering why it's so darn small?

It's because this chapter is over 15,000 words. I'm sorry. Just, uh, read bits when you're bored. It covers or references every character so, yeah. Find what interests you and read through. Sucks that I left you guys with that mid April Fools chapter for two months but hopefully, this is how I can atone.

Second off, this'll be my last chapter for 12-13 weeks. Gonna start boot camp early, so I've got a bit of summer to come back to. Again, sorry. I guess I'll put more stuff at the bottom, just so I'm not spoiling the stuff here. So uh, see you down there, and see you at the end of August!

Enjoy this novelette, b0ss!

[ BGM: Yoshihisa Hirano – Ikkiuchi! ]

"SKRAAA—!"

Kaset and Stroga braced against the roar of the mammoth beast, its very presence slowing time for the rest of the sieged timeline as it ate at the surrounding spacetime.

"HOW THE HELL'D ACE STAND SHIT LIKE THIS NON-STOP!?" the human mused, sweating profusely.

"NOTHING SHORT OF AN UNBRIDLED PASSION FOR THE WORK, I'M SURE!?"

"I KNOW BETTER THAN ANYONE YOU GOTTA LOVE THE GAME, BUT… FUCK!" Kaset screamed, releasing a kiai that led into a surge of aura. "ON MY THREE, GOT IT?"

"UNDERSTOOD!"

Red-hot flames seared across Kaset's skin.

"THREE!" he roared with his chest, before zooming at the beast. It gathered energy into its black hole of a maw, but its ensuing blast was veered off-course by a sharp blast to its neck. The blast swept through the highest tips of mountain-tall skyscrapers; said tips were reduced to rusted, decrepit remnants soon after being hit. The kaiju took a blow to its center mass, unable to move its neck due to the giant spirit-needle embedded within it, as Kaset laid into it with enough force to lift it skyward.

"IT'S TOUGH! PUNCHES AREN'T DOING MUCH DOWN HERE!"

"ON IT!" With an arm that extended over a hundred meters, Stroga swung around a building toward the beast's face, two blasts aimed at its four eyes. As such, he took a low, dragged breath, four lights shining around his body. Launching them at literal-ludicrous speed, the beast's skull was blasted into. Immediately after, one giant explosion blew out its head, Stroga landing through the hole and onto a UFO-pad. His relieved smirk dissipated as the surrounding time now slowed to a freeze, the creature beginning to regenerate by eating time's flow.

"KASET! IT DOESN'T NEED ITS HEAD! GET AWAY FROM THERE!"

Its claws swung down at Kaset, who narrowly dodged, only to be dragged back to his spot, the creature having cut through space with its initial swing – and another was coming down overhead.

"... Kaiotorii. Tenth World."

The brilliant crimson flames of the world-king washed over him, for just a heartbeat.

The first, single thump passed.

"Hhhn…"

The second murmur. He'd time it just right. Too early, too late, his body would be ripped apart from the inside-out. Nothing would remain. And then, it happened.

"... SQUARED."

Kaset burst through the beast before its head could return, shattering whatever was keeping it alive in one violent red beam, disintegrating it completely. In the span of one full heartbeat, he'd twice multiplied his power, by the same factor.

"JUST LIKE THAT!" Stroga yelled. The timeline's flow of… time… returned to normal, its civilians stunned by a flurry of questions as to what had happened in the span of a literal blink of an eye. One in over-extravagant pajamas desperately clung to a bit of rusting rebar, near the top of the skyscraper where the monster's blast had scraped.

Now falling amidst the sea of clouds with no bottom in sight, Kaset lit a cigarette as Stroga checked his wrist gauntlet.

"Feel like I could take that even further, if I ever need to," said the human in the combat bomber-jacket.

"I don't doubt you," replied the namekian in the long, flared duster. "However, keep THAT up, and you're bound to miscalculate one of these days. And then, boom."

Kaset smirked haphazardly, blowing smoke from puckered lips. "We'll see." He pulled up his gauntlet. "Wushername- Tarubei should be close to working stuff out with those anti-Cold robots, so covering that, are we even close to-"

A small, raven-like drone popped up between the two. "Relic thieves, Planet Shilnaak, Age 704."

Kaset blew smoke from grit teeth. "Alright~. Come on~. Let's go~."

The drone opened its mouth and loaded coordinates, then shot out a gate. In the meantime, Kaset turned to Stroga. "Say, uh… how many patrollers you think are still at Conton?"

Stroga paused. "We'll be putting ourselves at risk if we dwell on such a topic. Any sparse worries in the thick of things will cost us focus."

Kaset crushed his cigarette. "I guess."

The drone added input. "Besides, Conton City is protected from outer threats. It's off the dimensional radar, and even then, nothing short of a Demon God could breach its core fields."

"... what about threats from the inside?"

Stroga stared.

The drone stared.

Kaset stared back.

"... They can handle things," Stroga assured. "I'm sure."

[ OP: B'z – Into Free ~Dangan~ ]

A Chaotic Interlude! You've Only Stoked These Blazing Hearts!

Conton City.

It usually fuckin' sucks.

But right now?

It really, REALLY fuckin' sucks.

"C'mon, babe! It's dangerous out here for a little lady like you!" said a tall, leather-jacket brenchling amongst his varied cronies, as they orbited a human girl in a colorful combat robe. "We'll be your knights in shining armor for's long as you need it! All I need's a kiss!"

The young woman groaned. "I'm running out of languages to tell you to 'beat it' in, creeps!"

"Hey, c'mon! Being stubborn won't help you when someone dangerous shows up!" His hand reached for her shoulder, only to be broken not a moment afterward; he'd found himself on the ground, his shoulder in just-as-bad shape as his wrist.

"G-GEUGH!?"

As his posse staggered back in fear, the girl dusted her gloved hands, as if ridding them of muck. "I think I'm more than capable of handling myself. Are you convinced yet, boys?"

"Hmm… ALMOST convinced!"

She snapped toward the foreign, malice-infested voice to find massive, ogre-ish soldier in Frieza-Force armor.

"Although, there's something missing…" The tusked soldier pretended to ponder, only to snap her fingers. "THAT'S RIGHT! You didn't finish them off!"

The robe-clad human leapt back and tensed, taking a stance before charging at one of Frieza's many dogs. "Who are you to say such a-" A clothesline cut her off, sending her back into the now-panicking group of boys.

"(Frieza grunts… this strong? How!?)"

"Gn-gn-gn… don't push your luck, tiny!" the orgess yowled, other soldiers surrounding the next unfortunate test group of the tried-and-true "Natural Selection" Frieza Force conscription method. "You should be honored! You're one of the first of this miserable dump to be chosen to serve Lord Frieza! All that's left to complete your 'enlistment,' and walk away from this alive, is prove you've got what it takes to kill! Now, do it! Kill those vermin behind you, or you're all bonemeal!"

Due to Towa's attack, the vast majority of able patrollers were on constant missions, desperately patching the holes left by the three strongest elites of the Time Patrol. In this hectic time, the humiliated and ever-plotting Frieza spotted an opening in Conton's defenses and, having secretly trained his own private task force, made his move in one sudden surge. For the first time in years, Conton had entered an era of turbulence.

The human looked back at the cowering others and, for a moment, began to turn full-body toward them.

"Gh… you…!" She stumbled back around. "I don't care how I feel about them, I'm not going to kill innocent people! Go to hell!"

"Geh-ha-hah! That's my line, twerp! Kill them!" One of the stronger soldiers sneered, readying a blast.

And then something poked his back.

[ BGM: Nozomi Aoki – Hokuto No Ken ]

"Eh?"

He turned. A small young woman had tapped a spot on his back, as if asking for something; though it felt more like a bug bite, with her sharp fingers.

"Huh? The hell do you want, runt?"

"To join your ranks, I need only to prove my willingness to kill, correct?"

"Hmm? Yeah, that's right. Not for someone like you, though, you're far too scrawny." He turned to her, giving a clear path to the captives. "But since you're volunteering, then go on, prove your worth."

The girl in a combat-focused hanfu walked toward them. The robed girl took an uneasy stance all the while. They both eyed each other and…

The girl in the hanfu turned her back to the students. "It is done."

The grunt spat. "So you ARE just screwing around! Alright then, moron, where's the body, huh!?"

Xiao Mei pointed forward.

"W-WHAT!? WHAT THE H—ELL DID—-!?" Ki burst across his body, and he fell to the ground. A handful of others followed suit.

Mei turned to the head honcho. "So when do I start?" she asked, with a poorly-concealed smirk. The troops were too scared to move, to their leader's immense, ever-growing chagrin.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU IDIOTS! GET HER!"

They looked at the ogress in a daze, as if she were speaking a different language. Then one by one, they slowly fell to the ground.

"WHAT!? GHN…" She spun around, focused ki in hand. "DON'T SCREW WITH ME!"

Mei smirked at the attempt, disappearing before the blast could hit her.

"... ANOTHER SHITTY BRAT!?"

She reappeared, standing atop Zinco's head. The blast had faded to nothingness in that time, without even a puff of smoke.

"Everyone's trying their best right now," said the boy in a stern voice. "Please stop making things harder."

One looked up, the other looked down. Neither seemed pleased with who they'd discovered. Even so, she leapt to the ground; with glares focused on the real enemy, they stood back to back.

The remaining soldiers' fealty to Frieza won out over their rational fear, and they advanced.

[ BGM: Nozomi Aoki – Kurayami No Tsuiseki (0:12) ]

"Please don't kill them!" pleaded Zinco, honing in on the soldiers.

"No," Mei replied, dashing toward the walking cadavers.

The two proceeded to get rid of the threat. Those in Zinco's path were trapped in a thoughtless haze, before falling down gently. Those in Mei's path fell in either pieces or ribbons. Amidst the swirling fists, both received a close-up of the other's graceful breed of fighting;

The boy's martial art exuded absolute, unstoppable power behind each blow. Each punch and, especially, each kick seemed to hold the strength to shatter a mountain, and yet, despite making direct contact each time, all that seemed to be obliterated was the recipient's resolve to even ball their fists. No longer did he focus on evading, blocking, and taking attacks head-on until the vexation was too tired to continue; he'd somehow evolved a fist that could fight the fighting spirit itself. His taps onto the necks of his opponents, and their ensuing slumbers, showing knowledge of vital areas. Like a horse's hooves covered by a thick cloud, his style was an absolute power stripped of brutality.

The girl's martial art seemed gentle in intervals, almost like a slow dance. Its true, terrifying nature was revealed in bursts invisible to the naked eye, her fingers ripping through the air and jabbing through armor with much the same ease, with each hand geared toward one of two tasks. She'd lost her reliance on blind spots and speed; she held a dominance over her enemies the likes of which only a master could demonstrate, with each jab and stick of her left hand leading into a cruel swipe of her right. Her utilization of pressure points extended toward using one's pain to guide their movements, leading one victim into another's attack before cutting both in two. Like flies in the web of an arachnid, any caught by her were dead moments afterward.

Each spectator was enraptured in the two's martial display, stuck to their spots as if moving would paint them as the next target. For one, however, it wouldn't matter whether or not they moved.

Mei looked back. Every soldier whom she'd struck a point with fatal pressure within, Zinco had reversed with a gentle strike in the same spot.

"Tch."

Zinco looked back. The bloodless halves on the floor were irreversible.

"Gh…!"

Both looked forward to the leader. She took a step back, and they took one forward.

"W-wait… let's not jump to anything… I've hardly even hurt anyone!"

"Villain that would send others to their graves and absolve their own guilt," Mei hissed. "Hell is a luxury for scum like you."

"I-I-I CAN CHANGE! I'LL BE A FORCE OF JUSTICE FOR NOW ON! HOW'S THAT, HUH? YOU'LL SPARE MY LIFE THEN, HUH?"

"Force of justice?"

"Y-YEAH!"

"Hyooo—..." The anti-assassin raised her phalanx-edged fist, to the lackey's horror. "Your putrid tongue strips that word of all meaning. Now join your own 'force' beneath the court of Enma."

"H-HIII—!"

But the death blow wouldn't be dealt; Zinco's hand stopped it mid-fight. Meanwhile, the lackey fell to the ground in a petrified heap, passed out.

Mei's bloodlusted gaze slowly swayed to Zinco.

"YOU DON'T…" the half-breed began. "She doesn't need to die. THEY didn't need to die."

Sheer murderous intent intensified, crashing into him like a rising current.

And it stopped.

"You seem so confident," she mocked, dislocating her wrist to scare him off her. Relocating it afterward, Mei walked over to a grunt of whom Zinco hadn't knocked out. He looked catatonic.

"WAIT, DON'T-"

"Shut up."

She knelt to the man, and raised a hand clad in cutting, endlessly-spinning ki. The grunt showed no sign of fear, or hostility, or anything.

"Don't hurt him!"

In a single sharp gesture, Mei's hand whirred across the grunt's face. In place of a misplaced head, he'd received a long, light cut. It took a moment for him to notice, alarmed only by a wet sensation.

Zinco took Mei's startled look as a sign of victory. "I beat up the fight inside him. Now, he won't hurt anyone out of feelings he can't control! He can-"

"This man is dead."

[ BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano – thunderbolt-arr2 ]

She was blatantly wrong. He could move, he was breathing, he was thinking. That deemed the icicle that'd dug into Zinco's spine inexplicable.

"You have crushed his resolve. There is nothing left to rebuild. Should he recover, he will persist as a slave to the whims of others, until his body withers, and his mind corrodes."

"... You don't know th-"

Mei grabbed the man's jaw, directing his void-esque eyes toward Zinco.

"Can you see your 'Heaven' in these eyes?"

Zinco stepped back in shock.

"'Helping each other, and teaching each other, and just hearing each other out?' How simple that will be, when your clients, and your students, and your flock are devoid of their own wills."

"... but…" Zinco was growing visibly frustrated, trying with all his might to hide it in his voice. "But that 'will' you're talking about is why people get hurt! Being scared, being angry, hating people all comes from that! The only way to bring everyone together is to get rid of it!"

"TO RID ONE OF THAT IS TO RID ONE OF LIFE."

Mei's eyes darkened. She pressed a soft spot on the grunt's temple, and he fell to the ground.

"To live in this world is to fight. Whether just or unjust, that is absolute. And for one to enact change, the warring flames of the hearts of the many must be swayed, not extinguished. To take that will, that 'fight' you are so quick to call it, is an act worse than murder."

"Or just knock them out?"

Both turned. The girl in the combat robe had stood there the entire time.

"This feels like two extremes, just… just knock the villains out and be done with it, is it that hard?"

"Once they wake up,-"

-"they will continue their atrocities."

-"they'll keep being bad."

One in confusion, the other in annoyance, the two stared at each other.

"... you breathe because she loves you. If you insist on this path, then she will insist with you. And if that is what it takes to stop it, I would gladly give my life to take yours." She stood up.

"Kaza will be your next opponent," Mei said as she walked behind him, "and you will win. Once you reach me, should you still hold your dream, I will kill you. What happens next, I accept."

Before either could say more, the blood red-headed girl vanished.

Zinco's balled fists now bled. His scrunched face spoke of rage and grief, but neither curse nor tears could leave it. And then a hand dropped onto his shoulder.

"The girl with the pre-age fashion sense up-and-ran before I could thank her, so uh… thanks."

The small tremors across Zinco subsided. Though it took a moment to bring his expression to neutral, he turned to the person he'd helped save.

"Just so you know," she continued, "If you're out to do what it sounds like, then I'm rooting for you. Sure, nothing short of a wish could pull it off, but… with the stuff you're able to pull, who knows?"

Zinco swayed toward the grunt who'd been made an example of. He possessed a ki signature, as weak as it was, and his heartbeat was there. And it was pathetically quiet.

"HEY, CHEER UP, BOSS!"

"Hm?" Zinco chirped in confusion as a band of varied cronies flocked around him. The robed girl cringed a bit and made off, silently wondering how the Brench boy had recovered so fast, before spotting a namekian young man glistening with sweat speeding off.

"YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT! SOMEONE STRONG'S YOU CAN DO ANYTHIN' HE WANTS TA!"

He stared blankly as the delinquents of various species threw compliments at the built saiyan that could take people's souls with fancy martial arts. As he did, ideas began swirling inside the boy's mind. Unsavory ideas. Ones on swaying the flames of the heart.

"... please take care of whoever's still alive. Take them to the hospital."

"ON IT, BOSS!"

The strong one asked, and the weak ones did. The swirling of ideas began to settle and clear. It showed on his face as a growing disgust. The robed girl was the only one who seemed to notice.

Zinco turned around. "And also…"

"Huh?" One of the delinquents looked up. There was a faint, golden aura around Zinco, like a colored heat haze.

It pierced the clouds.

"Please don't follow me," he ordered.

"Y… you got it."

With that, Zinco moved forward.

[ BGM: Kenji Fujisawa – Determined ]

"(Has the best thing I've done been…)"

The image of him placing a bottle into a bin popped into his head, as if to mock him.

"(And the only reason those people helped me was…)"

His dull-eyed victim's face materialized into his head, like a revenant.

"(Power. Or fear. It doesn't matter… it was wrong.)"

His feet ground to a halt. His bare-minimum victory in his match, and the absolute destruction of his closest friend that followed, taunted him.

"(Even when I AM strong enough, there's always something else I'm no…! I just-)"

The image of a blue-haired woman's malignant stare, above a pack of lifeless mechanized dolls' glowing eyes, stopped him. And right after, the last smile he ever saw from his old friend, and a band of several others after her; one, a treacherous façade. And last, the smiles of the ones he trusted, those in the now.

"(... SO WHAT!?)"

Zinco pulled up one foot, then the other, in a march that turned into a sprint.

"(If I stop now, because of ONE mistake, then nothing will EVER change! And this is the closest thing I have to the power I've always needed! So I can't let this go yet! I'm the ONLY ONE who can use it!)"

He advanced into the ever-turbulent city, eyes alight.

"(This is the only way that I can make up for everything… and I've come too far to throw it away now.)"

Alone in the replica of his frigid homeworld, the mammoth musai analyzed the sky. A hole had opened in the sky's thick clouds, revealing a dozen planets… rather, their floating, shattered remains… and a star. Though the planets inhabiting the sky were smooth, blank spheres closer to marbles than celestial bodies, their visual appearances mere products of holograms, they still harbored the mass of their originals.

He released a smokey, raspy, tired breath. "One percent."

He pointed a finger to the sky, toward the star. "This bolt will use one percent of my power. Nothing more or less."

Less a proclamation, more a hapless dream.

With that, he launched his attack, his feet breaking trails through the ice from recoil. Light-years were covered in seconds. The desired result? A small blip at worst, and at best, absolutely nothing notable.

The result?

Ceushius watched the small light in space expand, and expand, and expand, until every surrounding planet was devoured.

The sky was now a shade of burning red, as chunks of "marbles," big and small, penetrated the atmosphere.

"... It's true, then. I'm growing stronger."

He said it as if coming to terms with a terminal illness.

Ceushius's suit forcefully suppressed his energy output so that Conton City's residents weren't in a constant state of high alert around him, and that he wouldn't break everything he touched. However, in weighing down his power, it had the adverse side effect of nurturing it; he was adapting to the new condition, and had been doing so for nearly a year.

His eyes twitched. He could use less than everything now thanks to his training, but with an ever-growing power level, to go as far down as half was a fever dream. Nevermind a hundredth.

His attention switched to a sound from behind him, like popping kernels played back on a glitching computer. Instead of turning, he crossed his arms and shut his eyes.

"... hm… was your direct assault on Frieza successful, Voshyo-boy?"

"Hrm."

"No, no… hmm… is there something ailing you, Zinco? You seem upset."

The figure circled to his front, before he could fall back on process of elimination.

"It's Kaza..!" she said, a bit huffy.

"K-KAZA!?" he exclaimed in shock, the horned giant's red sockets lighting up. "Well that's vexing. And here I thought I'd improved my ability to sense one's energy. I could've sworn you'd be anyone else!"

"Well… I'm Kaza." Her loose gaze drifted to the side. "I think."

Kaza either didn't mind the new "backdrop," or was considerate enough to ignore it. Ceushius was thankful, regardless. "Indeed you are! Now, what brings you here? Zinco is as busy as Voshyo, lending aid to the others outside."

"I need help."

"Oh? With what, exactly?"

Kaza's head fell. "... I'm not sure."

Ceushius nodded, lowering himself into a criss-cross seating. "I've plenty of time. After all, I wouldn't be much help battling the cretins across Conton."

"Thank you." The tall majin took a tucked-knee seat, muttering a "how do i start?" all the while.

"... I almost lost my match, trying to do what Zinco could. That's where it all started. If I'd just been stronger, from the start, I could've stopped my opponent before he started to… to destroy me."

[ BGM: Bruce Falconer – Nail's Gift ]

"..?"

"And I just let it happen. All I could think of was talking him out of it, but I just made things worse. I didn't know what to do. So I took it. I hurt everyone around me by just taking it… and now, now my only other friend hates Zinco. Because of what I did."

Kaza covered an eye, scowling. "Even ZINCO was begging me to fight, and I… did… I almost killed them, and from what I could tell, their mind still hasn't recovered. But I only had that power when I decided to lash out, to hurt someone. I don't know why I couldn't use it to help Zinco, or prove to my other friend that we could win without hurting anyone…" Kaza stifled whimpers. "It's not fair."

"Kaza…" Ceushius hardened. "Lack of control is a curse I've known for centuries, now. The pain that accompanies it seems unbearable at times, I know."

"That's not all."

"..?"

"Ever since I hit the kid from my match… there's been a voice. One in my head, that sounds almost like me." Kaza began shivering. "It keeps saying horrible things to me, like that I'm pathetic, and weak, and stupid-"

"Be assured, things like that are common for children your age, but-"

"And that I've killed people."

Ceushius immediately caught his tongue. Kaza slowly uncovered her eye.

Crimson blots infested her blue pupils like ants, and her sclera were clouded in a sickly grey.

"And that I'll kill more..! And that what I am now is just an act, and eventually I'll disappear..! Right now, it's laughing..!" Kaza's tone took on a foreign, aggressive growling as he eyes clamped shut. "Things weren't like this before! I just wanna go back to normal..!"

Ceushius could only watch as Kaza began to break down into pained grunts. Her eyes opened again, back to their white and blue, tear-laden luster.

"I can't help anyone like this..! I can't even help myself..! I… I…" Her voice had all but deteriorated.

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!" she finally wailed, clinging onto Ceushius for dear life.

"I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" she screamed into Ceushius, ever-present sorrow melding with a new, burning rage. "I JUST WANNA HELP, BUT SOMETHING'S ALWAYS IN MY WAY! I HATE IT! I HATE IT! I HATE III–T!"

The giant held her tighter, closing his eyes and accepting it.

Like an explosion, her breakdown lasted less than a minute.

"... I need help…" she sniffled.

Ceushius remained silent. And…

"I may have a means of assisting you, after all."

Kaza remained silent. And…

"Really?" she asked, staring up.

There was no pleading or hope in her voice. Only a smile.

"I suggest a spar."

"A spar?" Kaza backed up, her concern palpable.

"Mh. Coming to better know yourself, in body, mind, and spirit, could be the key to owning your power. And in any case, how will you-"

"HOW WILL YOU LEARN TO CONTROL YOUR QI IF YOU NEVER LEARN ITS TRUE EXTENT!?"

Kaza's eyes fluttered, pupils sinking as realization set in. Ceushius's words were so similar, they were overwritten entirely. The latter noticed her odd expression.

"Hm? Did I say something off?"

"... no. You're right. But still, you're a… LOT… stronger than I am. Not even that Voshyo jer- guy's at your level yet!"

Ceushius gave a deep, mistakably-evil chuckle through his bio-mask. "That's the point, dear! As strong as I am, you'll have no need to hold anything back." Ceushius walked behind Kaza, his footsteps heavy, slow thuds across the frozen crystalline landscape, and turned to her once he'd gotten a dozen meters of distance. "In fact, should it ease you, I'll grant you the first attack and abide by whatever pace that may set."

Kaza raised her eyes, took a sharp breath in, and pumped her fists to self-motivate. Turning, she made an attempt at a martial salute; her fist visibly dented her palm with how hard she hit.

"Thankyouverymuch," she squeaked as she bowed.

"(We haven't begun, and she's already stepping over herself… )" Ceushius nodded.

"(I don't need to worry about hurting Mr. Ceushius.)" Assuring herself, she took a stance; it was simple and compact, her hands wide like a palm or a claw. "(No one else can help me this way… so I can't let myself mess up.)"

"(No need to strain yourself. After all, nothing will save you.)"

That voice bubbled to the surface again.

"(Just shut up.)"

Devilish snickers followed as it faded. She knew that it wasn't following her pathetic order; it was biding time. What precious seconds she had left was falling like sand in an hourglass, and she needed to make every grain count.

"Now, whenever you're ready, come at me."

There was a brief still in the air.

"Remember, there's no need to hold ba-"

[ BGM: Norihito Sumitomo – Investigation Headquarters ]

And Kaza had made her move, sending the area into chaos.

Ceushius's forearm stopped the sudden palm, massive sheets of ice behind him shattering as if hit directly. The bottom ridges of his frontalis muscles fringed, and before he knew it, he'd thrown a punch in retaliation.

"Hn…!?"

Kaza narrowly dodged to the side. "H-Hah!" she cried, catching her bearings and regaining her sparse determination with another forceful lunge-and-palm forward. Ceushius parried with another forearm, knocking her off balance, but she instantly swayed around with a dual strike more akin to a slap than an attack, thanks to her abnormal body; though with the way she reacted, she'd've done much the same without it, and would've snapped her spine in the process. Ceushius was tagged by the first, dodging the second, backing off and glancing at his forearm as he flexed it.

"Gh… Mmph!" Kaza whirred back to a normal posture, attacking Ceushius with proper palm strikes at an increasing speed, the frost-demon keeping pace, before punishing a hasty burst of speed with a hammerfist to the torso that Kaza ran into, sending her beneath the ice in a flash of frozen shrapnel.

"Ga—"

It hurt.

"GRR…!"

But those two had been through worse.

A chunk of marble planet, the size of a modest home, crashed in-between them, and Kaza reappeared over the ensuing smokey plume in a brief somersault, magenta ball of chaotic electricity in both hands.

"Ha-aa—AAH!" She threw it, sloppily missing its mark. Even so, the force of its far-distant and horizon-like explosion sent Ceushius staggering forward long enough for Kaza – after a brief roll-and-spring off the ground – to rocket into her instructor with both palms.

"Hm…!"

Kaza gasped, leaping back at the sound of the strained groan. Ceushius's tail then lashed out in an arc, proccing another big jump upward from Kaza. In the tail's path, a distant glacier range suddenly turned into a series of small plateaus.

"(I've left myself wide open..!)" Ceushius looked to the sky, in an attempt to intercept the attack that… wasn't there.

"(Darn…!)" he mentally griped, Kaza's hesitance to go back down visible from her spot, thousands of kilometers above. "(If I allow her to believe that I'm at any risk, even for a moment, she'll falter…!)"

Ceushius followed, cracking the ice beneath him. He overtook Kaza in an instant, the majin blocking the sudden sledgehammer fist and literally shaking like jello as a result before zoning. Applying further pressure, his periodic bursts of attacks were taken by her tightened forearms and shins, before more burning comets of increasing size gradually separated the two. Those in Ceushius's way were instantly reduced to dust, as Kaza sloppily dodged every meteorite.

"(I need something that will keep her focused…)"

The two bounded throughout the icy wasteland, until Kaza slipped across a plateau right after dodging a tail hammer, and landed on her face. "Cold…!" she moped for a moment, the ice cushioning Kaza's profile giving way and forcing her to correct herself mid-air. She clutched the side of her face before Ceushius landed with a monstrous crash.

"Answer me, if you will. Why is it that you cling to Zinco so intensely?" he continued, arms folded and sideways on a giant piece of falling land.

[ BGM: Yoshimasa Terui – Jujutsu Sorcerer, Megumi Fushiguro ]

"W-why do I cling to Zinco!?" Kaza yelled as she covered her ears; multiple glaciers were breaking onto a land of ice amidst an otherwise-apocalyptic meteor shower, after all. "Is that what you said!?"

"Precisely!" Ceushius's voice boomed.

"Is… is that what it seems like?"

"Hm?"

Kaza then stood on something that wasn't there.

"Is that what I've been doing?"

"Would you argue otherwise!?" aggressively inquired Ceushius, atomizing his former platform with sheer force, leaping toward Kaza with a fist. It connected, Kaza being flung countless fathoms away.

"Well... I love him! And I want to be around him, and -" Kaza continued unfazed, suddenly stopping a fist-like kick from Ceushius with her own forearm, completely stable.

"And I want to see him happy." Kaza continuously blocked Ceushius's strikes, suddenly flying into, and through, a planet chunk the size of a lake. As they did…

"Is that all?" asked Ceushius, throwing an orb at Kaza that expanded in both size and speed the further it went, taking her further up the dark piece of planet. "Do your own dreams begin and end at Zinco's?"

"I…"

The battle with Bukyu.

"They… CAN'T!" she yelled, squeezing the orb until it burst into nothing. Moments later, she emerged from the falling asteroid. "Because I can't see things the way he can! I can't do what he can! I…"

The entire asteroid exploded, leaving not a speck of dust as Ceushius chased her with ki blasts.

"You say you wish to help people, no? Are those words your own, or are they of the boy whose ways you claim are lost to you?" Ceushius approached with a fist.

"They're mine!" Kaza intercepted with a palm. Ceushius shook, but held his offensive. "I also want to make the world better, too! Make it a place where no one has to kill or hate anyone! Because I know what it's like to have the whole world against you!"

"I see… then..!" Ceushius vanished in a burst of speed; Kaza's neck inhumanely craned behind her, evading Ceushius's fist entirely before her entire body quickly spiraled around his arm, culminating into a kick that sent him down.

"Keu… YOU CLAIM YOU CANNOT FOLLOW ZINCO'S WAY, YET YOUR GOALS VIRTUALLY MIRROR EACH OTHER!" He yelled amidst the terrestrial carnage.

Kaza had entered an autopilot of sorts, charging toward Ceushius while questioning herself. "I JUST CAN'T DO WHAT HE CAN! I'VE TRIED TO SETTLE THINGS WITHOUT HARMING MY OPPONENT, AND IT'S ENDED HORRIBLY! I'M A FAILURE, THE WAY I AM!"

"FOOLISH!" Ceushius barged shoulder-first into Kaza, the two eye-to-eye as their souls clashed in a brilliance that acted at its own atmosphere; all meteors entering its range simply burned up, and the ice below was rapidly becoming a sea. "BY WHAT METRIC DO YOU DECIDE THIS?" They clashed across the sky, like a divine lighter incinerating the sky. "HOW COULD ONE, WHO WOULD SO EASILY FORSAKE THEMSELVES, EVER HOPE TO AID OTHERS!?"

"BUT-"

"IF YOU TRULY WISH TO HELP THE WORLD, WOULD YOU NOT DO SO BY WHATEVER MEANS YOU COULD, INSTEAD OF SEALING YOUR AGENCY FROM A WORLD YOU'VE DEEMED SO DESPERATELY IN NEED!?"

"THE WORLD… IF I CAN'T FIND A WAY LIKE ZINCO'S, THEN THE WORLD WOULD BE BETTER OFF WITHOUT ME! I'M ONLY GETTING WORSE, I CAN FEEL IT! I'LL JUST END UP HURTING MORE PEOPLE!"

"THEN FOR THEIR SAKE, YOU'RE ACCEPTING BRINGING HARM TO ZINCO!?"

"I-" she began, caught off-guard by the accusation, before Ceushius's tail slapped into her head full throttle –

Knocking it clean off.

"Wha…?" Ceushius slowly realized what had happened.

"N… No… NO!"

Kaza's eyes sailed to the ground. "(... eh? My body is… gone?)"

Purples and blues were all she could make out amidst her rapid, disembodied freefall.

"(I got too carried away. I know he has trouble controlling his strength, and yet…)"

"(Hm. Too bad. Without your head, you'll surely die now. It's only a matter of time before your consciousness fades into nothing.)"

"... gh…"

Somehow, she heard someone screaming.

"N-hn?"

It was Ceushius.

"He sounds like he's dying… no, that's not it. He's blaming himself… isn't he?"

"Shame. Perhaps the guilt will kill him. Would he be the first of his kind to experience such a fate?"

"(He's hurt. Because of my own carelessness. Just by existing, I'm hurting everyone I care about… I'm so horri-)"

Two people abruptly flashed into her head. The same duo that had undergone this before. Not long ago.

"(You two…)"

Not long ago, bearing witness to their friend deeming themselves scum, and placing themselves at the center of all that was bad in the world as she accepted being mauled in front of them. And at the end of it all, they did not accept the blame she'd cast onto herself, but underwent their own self-loathing as a result.

"(He was wrong… it wasn't just Zinco… how much have I put them through, just by doing this to myself?)"

"(A shame. Nothing lost, they deserve a better playmate, anyways. Of course, I'd be-)"

"(This is what you meant, Ceushius-sir? This exact thing, right now, that I'm doing?)"

"(... Oh, yes, what a shame. However, all's forgiven in death, or so the saying goes. Simply die off, and no one needs to-)"

"(No.)"

"(What?)"

"(The three of them. They're the few people that've ever accepted me… even when the world wouldn't! I don't want to… I can't let them suffer! And…!)"

[ BGM: Iwasaki Taku – Bahasa Palsu (2:08) ]

Kaza landed back on her new set of feet, on her new constructed body – minus the cape, which she'd forgotten – with a graceful butterfly kick. All force had vanished, and she landed without a single crack on the one ice sheet still afloat.

"(MAJIN CAN REGENERATE, EVEN FROM SMOKE! I LEARNED THAT IN CLASS, YOU BIG JERK!) LOSING MY BODY IS NOTHING TO ME!"

"Khh… you damn brat, this isn't even your..!"

"SHUT UP!" she demanded.

Kaza jumped into the sky.

"I'M NOT GOING TO LET MY FRIENDS DESTROY THEMSELVES! NOT OVER ME, OR ANYTHING!"

Kaza, Kaza's headless corpse, and Ceushius crashed into each other. The force alone blew every asteroid, save one, far above the clouds. Kaza felt something wet drop onto her head. She traced back to the source: Ceushius's eyes.

"(He thought I was dead… and he shed tears over me…)"

No world she'd ever known had given her – no, would give her – such a kindness. Only these cherished three.

"... THANK YOU!" she roared. "PLEASE KEEP SPARRING WITH ME!"

"(How embarrassing…)" Ceushius thought to himself, answering Kaza by reballing his fist. He sent it careening back down, and Kaza responded with two palms. "(In all my anguish, I'd forgotten that you are a majin.)"

"THAT I MEAN THIS MUCH TO YOU..!" she roared again. One palm smacked away the fist, and the other dove into his abdomen.

Ceushius vanished, and Kaza immediately followed. The sky lit up for a second, and they'd clashed 100,000,000 times in said frame, painting the lower realm in a thousand new colors. Every clash, a thousand kilometers of cloud was split, slowly revealing the biblical falling meteor above them.

"HAAAA—!" Tears fell from her; tears of joy, like those of that day she'd fallen for that boy.

"(Forgive this silly old man.)" Ceushius brought down his tail once more.

Kaza wound herself back. A lot.

And spun.

"I'M GRATEFUL!" She smiled; one of confidence, like that of the one she had when she'd bonded with that girl.

Kaza, after hundreds of thousands of spins, gave a bolley kick.

[ 雲蔭: BROCKEN SPECTRE! ]

The two attacks collided.

The sole asteroid still above them, the size of a moon, shattered into pieces the size of cars.

Ceushius's tail flew back, as if it were rubber.

"(I can see it clearly. The traces of resolve she'd shown on her arrival…)"

Kaza was happy.

"(They've come together, solidified as a will.)"

"C-Ceushius-sir, can we stop now? Your tail, um…"

"Oh?"

He waved it in front of himself. Half of it was gone.

"Oh."

"Sorry!"

Kaza stared at a handful of ice shavings like they owed her money, as her mentor watched the stagnant time-space mend itself.

"Ceushius-sir, are you sure you don't want me to heal your tail?" she said, holding her gaze.

"Mh. It will regrow in time, albeit with a scar. I'd like to cherish it."

Briefly lifting her head, she gave a funny look.

"(Everyone I know is weird,)" she cheerfully noted, before resuming her determined staring, her two tendril-bangs beginning to dance.

[ BGM: Bruce Falconer – Palace in the Clouds ]

"Have you come to an answer, Kaza?"

"Huh?" Kaza turned as a pink beam shot from between her bangs, turning the ice shavings into index cards. She groaned, before turning to him.

"Yes. I care more about my friends, so I won't sacrifice their happiness just to make the world happy. But both Zinco and Mei care about it, and so do I. So naturally, I wanna help build a world where people can be happy, and to make friends like I could. But I don't think I care as much anymore how I do it."

"Who is this 'Mei' again?"

"The 'someone else' from earlier."

"... then despite this Mei's hatred of Zinco? Do you believe you can hold onto them both, when they're at such odds?"

"Both of them are good people, at heart. They've just been hurt in different ways… that's why they have such different perspectives. But I couldn't take it if I made either of them cry again."

"If that's so, then what is your plan?"

Kaza grabbed an index card.

DㅤIㅤEㅤ!

"MMMPH..!"

She angrily cycled through the cards, each giving an equally-frustrating "answer." And then she found one. She looked back up with a smile.

"I'm going to make Zinco win. For all three of us."

Kaza could feel whenever Ceushius was smiling. He physically couldn't, mind, but It was just a thing she could pick up on. It also caused her to smile, as well.

"After that, I want to be there for my friends. Even if this world never accepts me, as long as you all continue loving it, that's fine with me; I'll protect its people all the same, so people like me can find people like you. And if Zinco isn't around, and there's no choice, then deal with bad guys in one blow."

"(... Good luck, you disgusting parasite.)"

The card in her hand turned into a square of dark chocolate with raspberry filling.

"(Thank you. I'll need it.)"

Crrk.

"GAAAAH!"

[ BGM: The Seatbelts – Rush ]

The mook stumbled back, the white-hot pain of a broken forearm overtaking his senses before two jabs to the ribs and a hook to the head laid him out. His fellow soldiers staggered in place, and some took shaky steps back before tripping on the KO'd bodies of bolder allies.

"Oh no, what's gotten into you lot?" sneered Dina, bloodied fists and a cocky smile. "We're not backing down 'cause you found someone with more fight in 'em than a three-legged poodle, are we?"

"Khh… c-cocky little punk…!" One soldier suddenly ran at her with a flashy, whirring lightsaber. "YOU CAN'T FUCK WITH THE FRIEZA FORCE!" His hands were grabbed mid-swing and pulled close.

"N'aw, doesn't really seem it right now, does it?" she purred with puppy eyes before releasing.

His slashes, indicative of someone with honed skill without the mental stability to use it, zoomed past and above Dina, enjoying her time with it to the point of random onomatopoeia.

"Ah- oh - whom- zum - 'at one almost had me -"

Others aimed their blasters and opened fire on the preoccupied teen. Dina only got faster, weaving and back-stepping until the back of her skull bashed into the front of a shooter's, before she kicked him into another, and then kicked them into another. A closer soldier made a grab at her as his comrade lined a shot, and a curious thought entered her head.

She slammed a palm into her would-be grappler and grabbed him by the face, pulling him in front of her and-

"(ch-FUCKING CHRIST, that'll kill him!)"

She threw him away and immediately suffered an aggravating dozen rounds of plasma.

"THESE THINGS CAN PUNCH THROUGH STARSHIP FIELDS, WHAT THE HELL IS SHE!?"

"SHE'S JUST A BRAT, THAT'S WHAT!" The wannabe space-samurai soundly retorted with glee, trying to run her through with a lunge as she staggered, forcing her to stop it bare-handed in the heat of the moment.

"G..GH…!"

"YOU'RE GRABBING A BOLT-ROD WITH YOUR BARE HANDS!? SHIT, YOU REALLY ARE STUPID!"

"KRR-!"

An inhuman growl escaped her before she bashed the assailant's head with her own, caving it in on grisly impact.

"N-hh..!" Her eyes widened in horror.

A big guy rammed her from the side, knocking her off-balance before sloppily battering her with punches a decent level above the others'; the one to the liver that Dina got in immediately stopped him dead, before one of the last left jumped in, seeing a sparse chance of winning.

"-OD -DAMMIT- !" The mook's claws suddenly dug through her cheek.

"KE-HAHA, TAKE THAT!" she screeched in victory, before her hand was grabbed.

Ruby-red eyes stared through all five of her own.

"Ke?"

Her would-be prey was breathing heavily, yet she had not a drop of sweat on her.

The soldier found themselves unable to move anything, despite only her arm being held captive. It couldn't've been any martial art or technique; the one holding her there wasn't using any excess ki. Only her aura that'd reached a violent high akin to a storm.

"You get one decent hit in and you're suddenly on Cloud 9? That's rich."

That was it.

From the corner of the saiyan's mouth, an ear-wide grin was visible. And…

Her breathing slowly stabilized, and her aura dissipated. Her grin fell off, hard.

Dina turned back to the soldier, dead-serious. She let go of her arm, and took a deep breath, laced with regret.

She then decked the higher thought straight out of her, sending her cross-city with just enough non-lethal force. The smoke having cleared, Dina gazed at her blood-stained hand. Her pupils shook in their sockets, all the while. In her delirium, she didn't notice the big guy from before, who'd grabbed the bolt rod with murderous intent.

"DIE!"

Dina turned around, still in her wide-eyed stupor. But in the same moment, the guy's body went flying, despite Dina having not struck them.

"Her" savior craned his neck back toward her.

"You look like shit," growled Kazikum.

Dina ignored it, her head swaying over to the one he'd practically run over. "Is he-"

"The fuck do you think? These fucking losers all break like toothpicks. What, are you sorry for him?"

"... no, I guess I'm not."

"Then why are THEY still breathing?"

"... I'm an Earth girl, so I'm inclined to not like killing people, deserved or not." She said it as if reciting a script that she'd begun to forget. Dina went over to the one that she'd headbutted, checking their pulse. After a small sigh of relief, she gave in to the annoyance that comes with feeling eyes on the back of one's head.

"You're not one for idle chatter. What, is there something on me?"

"You wanted that fucker dead."

"... what?"

"The way you looked at him. You looked pretty 'inclined' to tear his fucking head off, then and there. But you froze."

Dina's face scrunched. "What the actual flying fuck are you even on about? I am a 17 year-old – and in case I wasn't clear enough – Earth girl who gets squeamish at the drop of blood, why in God's name would I want to kill someone, you are ridiculous."

"Why're you getting so pissy about wanting them dead? They deserve it, don't they?"

"I get this is a foreign concept to you, but due process and the like are things for a reason. And also, you? You're the one I'm talking over this with? Fuck's sake, don't you have training to get back to or whatev-"

"Besides, not like it's your first time."

Dina stood in place.

"That look," he continued. "Higher-up fuckwits on Sadala had that look, before I tore them apart."

She then stormed up to Kazikum.

"I defended myself and others, to the best of my ability. There was no negotiating, I used an amount of force required for the situation, and they would've hurt people with or without my intervention." Now she sounded like she was reciting a script she'd memorized for years. She raised her finger toward him.

"So whatever back-handed 'point' you are trying so desperately to make, speak it right now or SO HELP ME -"

Kazikum snagged her hand. He had no idea what she was talking about, but his message felt more important.

"If you can't even kill these meatbags, then quit this tournament shit while you still can."

Rage. Fear. Both shot through her bloodstream, both a byproduct of a long-lost sensation that she hadn't felt in three years and was beginning to overwhelm her.

"You've seen what I can do. You know you're worth jack fucking shit to me in a real fight. If you can't even deal with these pissants, you're only gonna wind up dead."

Are you challenging me?

Do you want to go, right here and now?

Her mind was running wild. The squeeze on her wrist was beginning to drive her crazy.

All of a sudden, she wanted to tear something apart.

A feeling she'd felt before. One she wouldn't let surface again.

"... all that effort just to… FUCKING haze me," Dina snapped, yanking away her hand, turning her back and tossing a gate capsule. "Get bent, you psychopath."

Kazikum watched her storm off. His face fell into a palm.

"Goddammit…" he sighed.

I was 14 when it happened. Hardly out of Junior High and worth more than a dozen special force units, blindfolded. A marketplace was being held up, and those responsible were from a region behind the mountains. So no help from Upper Yarg, naturally. I should've been more than enough.

I was outmatched. They – a triad – had fine-tuned their use of "ki" no-doubt through experience, while all I had was a book and two hours of training per day. I'd never fought with anyone truly on my level before then. I was scared, initially.

But then I started trying. For the first time in my life, I applied myself in a fight, all out. And I started getting really into it. No amusement park could compare.

It stopped being so close. Every other punch broke something important. I'd forgotten where I was or what I was doing, after long. And then, they fired a blast my way.

I wanted to try it. I wanted to meet it with one of my own. And I did.

It was a miracle it was only the market. I'd pulled myself out, and I couldn't comprehend what remained on the other side.

There was one survivor. One of the triad. All I'd let myself think or say, was…

"Why you?"

And then I…

Lost it.

Dina flew through the swirling space leading to Ayeva's time-space, reflecting all the while.

"(That was the second time I ever went Super Saiyan, and the first time I used it in combat. Can't exactly remember the grisly details, only that my dad took the aftershock head-on. Guess I'm thankful for the reminder, on why I can't let myself slip into that.)" She held her head. "(I really wanted to believe that the feeling in the 6th match was some 'heat' thing like cats get, that just seeing Kazi dominate was doing things to me… but crud, that incident just now is proof it could've been anyone, and I still would've gotten hot n' bothered.)" She suddenly shook her head "(No, that can't be right. It never happened with D.I.A.N.A. or Neo or Devine, not even with Trunks or that one giant bellend that I first fought, and I could only feel BAD for the Kaza girl, so what was so different between them and…)"

She tried to piece things together.

"(Trunks is easy; he's an absurdly-strong softie, and I couldn't get a single hit in, save the one he gave me. Big bloke... no, Voshyo was his name, he was a different story. I was overwhelmed just thinking of everything that'd happened, combined with the fact that I'd just died. Y'know what? I take it back, Trunks is a prick for making a 16 year-old girl fight some seasoned warrior from space, the fuck was his problem that day? No, no, focus, Dina. Compared to everything else, what was so special about that day?)"

However, the longer she lingered on it, the more nauseous she got. Prolonged recollection of graphic imagery made her queasy, but she was feeling stubborn at the moment.

"... Gmph-"

No, not stubborn. Arrogant. The spirit was willing, but the stomach was weak. Before she could let out that weakness, she touched down into Ayeva's "Personal Space."

"(Pete's sake, not on her floor!)"

She swallowed in absolute agony, coughing in an assortment of pitches.

"Bleeeugh… not quite ready for that can of worms, am I?" she noted in a raspy voice. In place of the low hum or electric bubble-popping noises common around her mentor's Personal Timespace, a blaring mechanical drumming pierced her sealed vault of a door, causing her head to swivel in its direction.

"... is she playing a video game or something? What kinda lingo…?" She pressed an ear to the locked door.

"-tracing back their point of origin. If you can suppress those infesting this timeline, I can travel to theirs and stop the disruption at the source."

An excessively-loud agreement followed.

"Remember, they're analyzing your power and combat mannerisms, and sending new data back to their mother-timeline with every unit you destroy. Therefore, shift your style with every opponent, or they WILL overwhelm you. I won't forgive you if you die, Tarubei."

Even more loud laughter followed.

"... Commencing. Estimate: 30 Seconds."

Dina took herself off the door. "(But Ms. Ayeva isn't one to prioritize any sort of entertainment over work, is she… besides, never heard machinery that loud in my life. Let's not bother her.)" She walked down to the gravity room.

"(Gotta train my arse off if I wanna stand a chance against Kazi or Kora. Fat chance I'll close the gap without divine intervention, though…)" She entered, set the gravity to x310, adapted to the change as she gradually powered up, and paid D.I.A.N.A. a side-glance.

"(I REALLY don't need to be fighting anything right now, after what just happened.)"

Her side-glance turned into a lingering stare.

"(... It's not like static training will do me much good, in a day's time. 'Sides, it's not like she'll fuel what depravities I have, what with being bloodless n' all. Hasn't before, won't now.)" Dina snapped her fingers. "The~~refo~~re..."

As Dina went to activate her long-time companion, she was drawn to the tiny code pad on D.I.A.N.A's nape.

"(The super-back-breaking-tippy-top-dina-must-die mode that I was never ready for. Instead of a refined copy of my latest combat style, it's a fusion of two of her elite patroller mates': Mr. Stroga, and Kaset bloke. I was able to keep up and overtake it at a point, but Ms. Ayeva fixed that not-too long ago with a tune-up. That said...)"

She recalled a moment where Ayeva recalibrated D.I.A.N.A, inputting a fittingly-complex code. After a few attempts to mimic the pattern, a switch bubbled to the surface of the robot's nape. With a sharp exhale, she flipped D.I.A.N.A's switch.

"(I've had a tune-up of my own, thanks to a rousing round of second-hand smoke. That's more than enough motive for me to-!)"

The sternum.

". . . uh?"

[ BGM: Hidenori Shoji – Through ]

A knife on the edge of a bullet train had just crashed into her sternum. If she hadn't leapt back in time, it would've shattered. A desperate wheeze crawled from Dina in place of a gasp. No time was given in-between before D.I.A.N.A. was in her face again, her arm giving the illusion of bending before snapping into rigid, three-finger form, like that of a serpent's head. Dina cast up her hand to parry, but the impact gave the sensation of a hole having been blasted through it. Hissing something fierce, Dina grabbed the attack in her searing palm, yanking her upgraded opponent into a fist. D.I.A.N.A. weaved past it, and again, and jut her own free hand toward Dina's jugular. Dina slipped past it, a scratch on the side of her neck forming as a result, and had the underside of her arm taken by the shoulder blade.

"-HU-"

The sudden pain was cut short by the headbutt she'd been pulled into. Her grip on D.I.A.N.A's hand loosened, she crashed into the ground with an over-shoulder slam. Dina's robotic foe, grip still firmly latched onto her palm, began to apply weight downward with the steady pace of a hydraulic press, as if trying to send Dina's shoulder through her body. With not a moment to spare, Dina rolled from her side onto her back, kicking herself off the ground and into D.I.A.N.A's head, entrapping it between her legs and grabbing D.I.A.N.A's arm right back, before twisting herself and slamming D.I.A.N.A. into the floor, planting her headfirst. But with a tenacity Dina had never seen from the automaton before that point, D.I.A.N.A's grip tightened, before pulling Dina's arm toward her, and careened a knee into the side of the half-blood's head. Uprighting herself like a stringed puppet – Dina too stunned to do anything with her captive arm – she slammed Dina into the nearby wall, and then across the room with a throw.

Pushing herself up through a slushed brain after denting the architecture, she beheld D.I.A.N.A. giving what looked to her like a beckoning hand gesture. "(Wha…?)"

Her already-erratic breathing grew almost crazed, thanks to how intense the would-be spar had gotten. And yet…

"Why, yOU-"

Engaging D.I.A.N.A. proper, even in her damaged state, Dina's footwork had grown to the point of appearing at three different places at once: D.I.A.N.A's front and both her sides. The aforementioned android had moved on from mimicking those movements and showing Dina the flaws in them up-front, now testing her fluency against a completely-new style with a slew of methodic, quick attacks – a bent fist or fingers like daggers or razor-edge snap kicks from a blind spot – all aimed at squishier areas across the body, occasionally interrupted by a sudden, hard straight or hook or uppercut or knee or crescent kick or elbow swipe or what-have-you that threatened to break her guard entirely. And her new style would flip on a dime, going full-on hard style only to suddenly throw a love tap that sent her shoulder limp for a few seconds too long. D.I.A.N.A's blind spots were all but invisible, save the brief flashes where she'd alternate styles. Dina's brain was overclocking, just to compensate.

In fact, she'd never moved as fast, or struck as hard, until just then. Even more, she'd never been hit as hard until then, nor had she faced anything as fast.

Every strike drew another few dots of red, some splattering onto D.I.A.N.A. And right about that time…

That heat began to rise again. That same concoction of rage, fear, and "other."

Another series of jabs landed onto D.I.A.N.A. with a meaty thud, as Dina wooshed by several of D.I.A.N.A's, her legs quivering with how much force they were having applied to them every second.

"(Why the hell didn't I do this sooner?)"

An especially-hard punch shot into her cheek, like a cool breeze on a humid summer day.

She reciprocated with a hook just as hard. The D.I.A.N.A. of old would've crumbled, but not this work of art. She readied another one, noticed the maniacal smile mirrored in D.I.A.N.A's metallic eyes and red-slicked torso, and shirked back in horror before a lunging knee sent her intestines wrapping around her spine. She once-more crashed against the wall, all five senses short-circuiting before smacking back into her at full force; each screamed of either steel or iron.

"(What is wrong with me… I'm… just… fucking spar-)" she hissed at herself, before suddenly lurching over.

Pete had been forsaken. Yes, on her floor. At over ten times the gravitational pull of a sun, it felt as if she'd had a balloon snagged out her stomach by a rope tied to the end of a dragster. To which trauma she could contribute this nasty development to, that of three years or two seconds past, she couldn't answer.

"And now you're… waiting for me," Dina croaked after a coughing fit. "You've gotten so sweet, I might just fall for you." A bitter look of disgust accompanied the attempt at jest. She fully focused on D.I.A.N.A, who'd entered a new stance. Not that of a fighter's, but…

"You're gonna… sprint toward me?"

The automaton's fingers were set steady on the ground, her posture like that of an arrow's. Her adversary stepped over the puddle of unmentionables, and she took one of her own.

"... fine."

{ 5 MONTHS PRIOR }

"He caught my hand like…" Neo put his right fist into his left palm, the former smoothly pushing back the latter as his back foot pivoted from 90 degrees to straight ahead. "Shuuuu…"

"Just like that, no resistance?"

"Yeah. Not like that little bitch coulda resisted, but-"

"Oh my god you big strong man, I'm like a faucet over here. Just stick to the point."

"Hey shut up, him bein' a little bitch is important. Anyway," he reset his posture and repeated his prior motion, only this time, lowering his stance and slowly pitching a straight punch, putting his torso into it.

"He… did this. Same time."

"A cross?"

"Z'at what you call it? Whatever, see… when I hit his hand, it went back a bit too easy. I mean this guy's a bitch, but-"

"How important is you two's relationship to this attack? Honestly."

"Shut up. So the hand he used to intercept went back like nothing. He read me pretty good, 'cus he goaded me on and I played along. Doesn't mean I expected this. It felt like he hit me with what I had, DESPITE the fact that he didn't put any power of his own into it. He only did the motion."

Dina gave a look, one previously seen only by those who'd ever tried teaching her trigonometry. Neoru sighed. "Yeah, I get it." He walked up to Dina and bumped her abdomen with a fist.

"... the last tutor who tried this method with me quit the next day."

"Didn't hurt, right?"

After a silent "Oooh," Dina shook her head, and Neo nodded.

"Alright, now, punch me. Slow-"

A hypersonic punch abruptly stopped in front of him, scattering the water around the island.

"Think you're fuckin' funny?" He hissed, thwacking Dina upside the head. "Dumbass, I just got done changing!"

"Jee—z, that IS slow for you, ya big baby!"

"Whatever, now SLOWLY." Neo held out his palm like a mitt. "Here. I said slow, but still, put your weight into it."

Dina rolled her eyes and obliged. As she pushed back Neoru's flimsy left hand, his right fist slowly-but surely pushed into her abdomen.

"Feel that?"

"Mh."

"Now, a bit faster."

Dina obliged.

Dina then toppled over. "CHRIST ON A STICK!"

"Oh, oh shit," Neo shame-chuckled after hitting her. "You alright?"

The girl hissed. "Fine, it's fine, just… hell was'at?"

"If I'm right, you just 'hit yourself.' As in, I just sent your own power back to you."

Dina perked back up, pain flushed out of her. "Wait, THAT'S what this is? Diana did just that, a few months back! Just not as precise, like, at all."

"Neat. But yeah, even though it's a solid counter, it's got an issue."

{ PRESENT DAY, PRESENT TIME }

Assuming that stance, she stared straight ahead, "charging a ki blast" in her palm.

"(If it's too easy to see through, then I'll feint.)"

Her palm was tilted on its side. Her front leg was less firm on the ground.

"(I'm thankful that this is what I'll be able to take away from today.) Ahem… TAKE THIS!"

D.I.A.N.A. charged forward in a blink. Dina held ground. And…

Dina's hand caught D.I.A.N.A's charging fist. She spun 'round in place 360 degrees, the back of her fist sailing.

D.I.A.N.A. smacked into the wall.

And Dina kept spinning. Her ankle was also a bit too set into the ground.

After a half-minute of spinning, and a full minute of screeching alongside more -ing on her floor, Dina finally picked herself up.

"Alright. That's it. We're done for the day."

Dina hobbled forward, suddenly falling to the side of the door. Her head hit the side of her fist, as she panted.

"(How long 'till once again, I screw something up by losing it?)"

With one more tired heave, she opened the door.

A raven-like drone seemed to be glaring down at her. Despite the bizarre state, she knew who this was.

"H-hi, Ms. Ayeva…"

By the scruff of Dina's shirt, the huffy bird robot dropped her off by the back door of the hospital. With a pout, the plucky half-blood wobbled up and checked in.

"(She shouldn't have been able to survive a fight with D.I.A.N.A's current Advanced Assault Mode, never mind remember the code. I'm ever-impressed by your ingenious idiocy, Dina.)" The drone surveyed the area.

"(... on analysis, Stroga may've been on to something. Thank Chronoa.)"

It zipped off, as a loud crash echoed through the area.

"YOU THINK WE'RE GONNA LET FRIEZA'S DOGS TAKE THIS CITY!?" one ironically dog-faced delinquent yelled, bashing in the face of one such FF goon with his elbow, before kicking another in the face and heel-first driving them into the ground, as another soldier ran up behind him.

"THINK AGAIN!" a cat-eared girl snarled, eviscerating the enemy's ribcage with the boomerang throw of a ki-bathed pipe, grabbing it mid-air and bringing it down on the back of another soldier's head.

"PROTECT THE HOSPITAL! DON'T LET A SINGLE ONE'A THESE JACKASSES IN!"

As the city's gang alliance did their part against the space invaders' siege, one soldier managed to slip through, a rare species that could hide their general presence from others' six senses.

"(Kukuku… fools!)" he chuckled, running down the halls. "(Lord Frieza will be most pleased once I ransack these halls for everything they're worth! 25%? Property? Just for that, I make sure I do away with your sick and wounded as a parting gift, Time Patrol!)" A look of sadistic glee glinted across his face as he barged into the first room he saw.

[ BGM: Yoshihisa Hirano – Sudden Evolution ]

Ebony eyes of a saiyaness stared back.

"Gh-hh-"

Sitting on the bedside, her tired, angry gaze initially pierced straight through him. In less than a second, after deciding to acknowledge his presence, they snapped onto him, and it felt like he'd been struck by a spear.

"Who are you?"

She was interrogating him. Any wrong answer, anything indicative of suspicious intent would spell death. Every moment he spent silent may as well have been years of his species' decade-long lifespan being shaved off.

"Whatever. I'm not in the mood to fight right now. Leave."

A saiyan not in the mood to fight?

She's bluffing.

SHE'S WEAK!

"KIYAAA—!"

His organic wrist-blades shattered on contact with her eyeball.

"... fine," she growled. Her aggressor prompty barreled through the sound barrier and ragdolled off the outside wall, a crater in his chest.

"(I should get up and leave. Thinking about it won't do me any good.)"

And leave, Kora did.

"So this was the source of that racket?" she asked, glancing at the battles unfolding through the see-through door. With no interest in getting involved in the one-sided brawl between battle-hardened, intergalactic, hyper-advanced soldiers of fortune and woodland critters with attitude, she leaned against the wall. No, it would be heartless to call it one-sided; the soldiers weren't doing too terribly. Both sides were giving each other hell, with a 2 to 1 grunt/thug ratio to make up for each average thug being 2x stronger than the average grunt. Though the gang members were in no threat of death, a fighter would spring up every now-and-then that'd give a stand-out showing against them, at times incurring teamwork.

It was bloody, it was brutal, it was a genuine battle with each side's wills in collision; conquering versus defending the weak. She felt the urge rising, and rolled her eyes with a smile. As she stepped out, two other gangsters – much stronger than the others and with humanoid figures, save for sharp teeth, a set of leopard ears and tail on the young man, and those of a wolf on the young woman – skid across the ground, bloodied. In what had to've been a response, both sides froze up. Kora paused in place, for curiosity's sake if nothing else.

"Oh it's a done deal now," one grunt chuckled. "Captain Ginyu's here!"

A tall, purple and horned, veiny-headed man in a scratched-up, special V-necked FF battle suit stepped forward with a look of disgust. "You've got some nerve, celebrating how you've dragged your commanding officer onto the battlefield! Do you LIKE being a screw-up!?"

"Wha-no-I-"

Ginyu grabbed the grunt. "Is this a game to you, wedge-boy!?"

"Wh… what?"

Ginyu sucked his teeth, before tossing him into a far-off building with all his strength, inciting fear into both his own men and those of his enemies. His glare snapped to the other soldiers.

"And YOU lousy maggots don't look sorry in the slightest!"

The lower-rank FFs stammered, hurriedly rushing into a joint-pose.

"That's more like it, you sniveling sons of-"

"HEY!"

Ginyu turned to a snarling, borderline-foaming Okamidan. "THAT WAS YOUR OWN MAN, YOU PIECE OF SHIT! WHERE THE HELL DO YOU GET OFF!?"

He sneered. "Unlike you, I'm not content with dead weight wearing my colors, never mind Lord Frieza's."

"Dead weight!?" It was Hyoku's turn to get riled up. "He was willing to fight for you all the same!"

"Hnn-Look, kiddos, I'm not here to compare my organized fighting force to your after-school club. I'm here to exterminate any resistance to my lordship's will, and that's that!"

"JUST TRY IT, SHITHEAD!" Okamidan barked, charging with her alien steel beam.

"It's mind-blowing how your son's slipped under our notice for such a long time, what with such an abnormally-high power level and all!"

Ganbo had slipped up. Dad's face said it all.

"... I see…"

It was like he'd given up. All that was left was the question of "How?"

[ BGM: Norihito Sumitomo – Unfair ]

Something blurred past her.

Ganbo shrugged. "Kh… as long as I don't need to do any of those stupid poses, I don't mind."

Frieza couldn't be bothered to address it himself. This was just the means that he'd chosen.

"Ha ha ha, no worries, son. This is just an exhibition of sorts, to see what you're made of before the final decision. Power isn't everything, after all!"

"HRAAAAAAA—!"

I ran after him.

"I'll go, too! I'm stronger now, and you know it!"

Those five looked at me like a nuisance. The probability that we were "similar" must've struck them in the moment, because their eyes would harden and soften soon after.

"Decently around mid-class, huh? Sure, that's a great idea! I'd know better than anyone, siblings have got great synergy! Cap'n? You?"

"We'll leave it to Ganbo. Why not?"

"Tch. You're still a pain in my ass, after all this time. Fine."

Any objection would have raised suspicion. Eyes would be on me for the rest of my life, and some day, I'd no-doubt be sent on a suicide mission.

"I'LL KILL YOU!"

He glanced back at me. We were always angry with each other. I saw it as the resentment I had come to expect from him.

"If you're so desperate to prove yourself, go cross-planet and fight by yourself, you pest. We'll handle this side of the rock. Now get moving, I'm already being thrown off my game."

Ganbo couldn't stand me as a person.

But as a saiyan, as a sister, he did what he could to keep me alive.

"STOP CLINGING TO LIFE, YOU GUTLESS WRETCH!"

He handed me his armor. There was a burned hole right through the torso. There was no attempt to hide what they'd done.

"Your brother… Ganbo didn't make it. He was killed in battle, like a model saiyan. Fought to the end. I'm sorry, ma'am. I'd like to make him an honorary member, if you'd let us."

Recoome stifled laughter. He tried to pass it off as tears, to mock us further.

"Go ahead."

Any one of them, save Guldo, would've been more than enough. The Oozaru was his only chance at victory. There'd be no contest if he'd thrown a false moon. But Oozaru can't conceal power. And I was there.

I told Father. His will died with his son.

"HURRY UP AND DIE!"

Ginyu had no means of countering. Sparse moments of breath were snatched from him, with every retracted punch that gave way to an even stronger, even faster blow.

Giving way to unyielding rage, Kora screamed to the heavens with traces of an Oozaru's roar, throwing her fist overhead before giving one final, downward fist that shattered his armor.

"(THE SPARK!)"

"(I CAN FEEL IT!)"

"(THIS IS THE MOMENT!)"

"(RELEASE IT!)"

"(EVERY BIT OF ANGER!)"

"ROAAAAA—!"

As an absolute savage, she let out every ounce of wrath in a primal roar, expelling her full aura, tensing every muscle and focusing every trace of her ki. Conton City rumbled, an incredible pressure racing across the colossal city. All present were planted in their positions.

Everything began to hurt. Her heart, her lungs, her body felt like it was going to burst. But she was getting close. Her power was rising past what she was used to.

"(It's HIS fault! Everything starts with HIM!)"

"(Killing him won't even bring Ganbo back! He's barely a part of history, now!)"

It felt like something was tearing.

"(SO YOU CAN'T LOSE IT NOW! GIVE THEIR DEATHS MEANING!)"

Kora gave one last pained scream, before her aura popped, and she immediately fell to her knees, doubling over in pain. She wasn't as lucky as those who passed out after trying to transform.

She coughed red spittle. She couldn't hear anything; she'd temporarily rendered herself deaf. All she could do was stare at the ground, in disbelief, as if the state had slipped through her fingers.

She was so close. She'd done everything right… right?

And yet, she'd set herself up for heartbreak. She'd gone back on her own word.

She could only remind herself. Kora would forever reach for something she would never have.

"Haaaah…"

The boy rubbed his temple. "Well that was loud."

/ㅤ/What was that about?/ㅤ/

"Apparently, my next opponent moved up the scale, and she's made it everyone's business." He ate a chip, before getting back to his design. "Of course, it's just standard power, so no concern. Direct bumps to Strength, Speed, Durability."

/ㅤ/Wait, a scale?/ㅤ/

"Mhm. The Calcs Division here uses something similar. Bit outdated, but it works for them."

/ㅤ/I doubt that. The division would've been scrapped years ago if it weren't reliable./ㅤ/

"See, it's based on old tsufruian scouters. They scan one's physical and spiritual capabilities, separate each as a numeric value, divide, and pop out an arbitrary 'Battle Power' number. Small number? Weak, frail, slow. Big number? Strong, tough, fast. See, tsufruians made them to observe saiyans, who relied on honest brute strength, and make weapons that can contest and outdo the visible value. This was done to hold off on using the 'big guns' for threats that could've been handled with lesser firepower. Saiyans were open books in terms of ki, so what you saw is what you got. But open any book here, and you will see that does NOT remain consistent in the long run, but hey, we were long gone by then and Frieza's a fucking idiot. Case in point, just look outside. Moron."

He put up one tool and brought down another; one more "wavy" and drill-like, its target defying gravity.

"Naturally, the Time Patrol doesn't like to think of itself as idiots – I mean, again, look outside, very debatable – so they've implemented variables such as specific concealed power percentages, transformation multipliers, things like that. Honestly, they're still thinking too small." Akaki leaned back for a moment, beholding a holographic table.

"Beyond the physical and spiritual, there are still factors under the table. Spontaneous Potential, Technique, Battle Intellect, Technological and even Psychological Advantage, these can and have been put into numbers with enough data backing it. Is this overcomplicated? Yes, absolutely, but so is fighting, and willingly going into a fight blind is letting yourself be smacked by every branching variable, and seeing how I am literally blind, I'm less-than-willing to do that. Besides, I'm just field-testing equipment to sell, at the end of the day."

/ㅤ/What about your last match?/ㅤ/

"Not every possible variable can be turned into data. After all, the multiverse doesn't run on static percentages like a gacha game. That was an outlier, and honestly? Do you really wanna risk associating yourself with that guy?"

/ㅤ/… Heh. good point./ㅤ/

Akaki pulled out an old-style pocket watch and wound it back, watching it reach 12. To his side, he reached for a gauntlet, rewinding the clock before putting it on.

"Now that said," said Akaki, watching the clock's long hand slow to a crawl, "Something I've 'picked up' is that once you study up on someone, their actions are VERY readable."

/ㅤ/Yeah, of course. That's one of your visor's functions, right?/ㅤ/

"No, it can't see wills."

/ㅤ/Wah?/ㅤ/

The clock suddenly sped ahead, its long hand instantly on the 10th second, before moving forward at its normal pace.

"I wasn't very clear on that, sorry. But yes, go back far enough, and you'll see the structure of someone through, at the time, small details in the past. It wouldn't be easy for me to do that nowadays, not that I'd ever want to, but I don't really need to. Conton's Study Hall is a gold mine in itself, and my compadres in the patrol have gotten details for me on camera. All one need do is to find a certain 'original event' or events to map out their own every action. That goes for individuals, groups, entire species."

Putting the clock back inside his cubby, Akaki looked outside his window, spotted several dead FF soldiers, and chucked a blue orb of light out of it. In a 5-meter radius, the grenade sucked in and further mangled any piece of matter before exploding in raw kinetic energy, leaving a relatively-small crater in the ground.

"For example, I, a tsufruian, am creating advanced, rule-breaking tech for profit and to compensate for my own weakness, instead of using it to proactively better the whole. Did I want to? No, I'd much-rather use these talents for world peace, but that's a fever dream and I know it! I've tried. This is just what I am, as a tsufruian; a piece of shit that bides its time in safety and uses its know-how to get what it wants. That's a role set in motion far before the first one of us decided to crawl out from underground."

/ㅤ/Kind of freaking me out, now./ㅤ/

"Even that's only because of the place in which you were born, because of the things you've experienced, and the people who've come before you and their own experiences. Because a particle from before the first age just-so happened to be somewhere, at some time. Who knows? Move that same particle a whole meter, and you'd be the one on this weird tangent."

/ㅤ/I mean that's rich, considering…/ㅤ/

Akaki giggled a bit. "Yeah."

/ㅤ/But um… back to that "scale" you've made. Mind sending me a picture, just to sit through myself?/ㅤ/

"Oh yeah. Sure. The first number is Strength, Speed, Durability, and Spirit Efficiency. Next number's Spon-potential, Technique, and Battle Int, and the last is Conventional Int, Techno Int, and Psych Int."

/Wow, you and that Kazikum guy are like polar opposites!/ㅤ/

"Yep, I'm fairly certain that even that small cavehuman could knock me flat in a fistfight. But everyone's an idiot, so that's how I compensate. Naturally, as a tsufruian."

/So disregarding the numbers, who do you think is worst-case for Round 3?/

"The majin scares me the most, seeing as how she has virtually no real showing, and whatever restraint she had is likely gone by now. Though my new stuff should make a ring-out a no-brainer, so it's a matter of who makes the first move. If the cavehuman can still use that pseudo-pocket dimension, I don't see a way out of it, but I won't let her use it, so irrelevant. Both Super Saiyans are so slow in the head it's funny, but at least Demon Boy doesn't pretend to be something he isn't. Post-800 humans are especially pretentious, and that one's CONFIDENTLY unstable, to boot; she'd be more trouble to put down due to probable experience with firearms, and her SponPot is naturally ridiculous as an earth-mutt. That leaves 'those two.'"

"Hey! Get a grip, man!" A soldier shook his void-eyed comrade. "Hell's gotten into you!?"

"Frieza's gonna kill us all, anyway."

"W-what!? N-no he won't! Not if we give it our all! C'mon, we just need to pick our battles, just snap out of it!"

His demotivated partner smiled weakly. "Do what you want. Doesn't really matter."

"Zinco's weird. Normally, pacifists stand there and run or take the hits, but his martial art somehow defies basic logic; he hits something full-strength, and it maintains inertia while losing drive. He doesn't NEED to hold back against me, he's too stupid to react to anything I say with lasting effect, and honestly, bad match-up all around. He doesn't SCARE me like his girlfriend, but mortality doesn't scare me, either. I'd lose. End of."

"And the human?"

"Yo."

[ BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano – Heavenly Supreme Absolute Spears ]

Kora's attention shifted. Behind her, the same boy that usually hung around Dina… at least, it looked like him. If nothing else, his pupils shared the same amethyst hue, though this one's eyes practically radiated the color.

"Was that you, makin' all that noise?"

She hesitated to answer, in deep shame over her latest failure to adhere to either of her goals.

"What's it to you?"

"I have no fucking idea what that man can and cannot do. He vaguely adheres to a fighting style, his battle power's in a constant flux due to whatever spiritual bullshit humans were apparently doing behind their own backs, and I can hardly think of anything to agitate him enough to throw him off. Watching him fight makes me want to bash my head in. I'm praying Mei takes him out. I could gun him down the moment the fight begins, and there's a 50/50 chance that he'd BS himself back onto his feet."

/ㅤ/You don't seem to like Neo./ㅤ/

"He's the one thing I hate most about humans. Either he doesn't know his role, or he does, and he's too up his own ass to stay in it."

"Cus if so… shit was sick." He walked off, in the direction of the school, with a casual wave. "See ya in the finals. Maybe."

As if those words were a challenge, she found herself standing up. The pain was still there, she just really wanted to stand up.

"(... what the hell am I doing?)"

Kora turned around and stormed off. "(I need to prepare myself for the next match.)"

/ㅤ/Hey, you haven't mentioned your next opponent, have you?/ㅤ/

"No, why?"

/ㅤ/Don't short out on me! What are your chances?/ㅤ/

"She's just a saiyan. No gimmick, above-average power and smarts relative to a saiyan. She can't even go Super." Akaki yawned. "Thinking about it makes me sleepy. Just scurry-and-shoot, pay attention to movements, redirect if she gets physical, repeat until she stops moving." He shrank his new grenades, placing them on a small, round, glowing table.

"Besides, for the straight-forward and melodramatic, I'm a 'hard-counter.'"

In one day's time, the WHE MAE-T's quarter-finals would begin. And yet…

"How is it?"

Over in the distance, a Human in oriental robes and a tall, pointed hat gave a thumbs-up. The others around the area – consisting of Majin, Namekians. similarly-dressed Humans, and a few Yardrats – repeated the gesture. An elder Namekian wearing ancient robes nodded, and refocused attention to his wrist gauntlet.

"Every inch has been checked and purified. Towa should no-longer have the means of tracking the arena, or the Stagnant Time-Space it's within."

"Good. I expected no less from the Devil-Be-Gone unit."

The senior groaned. "But still, sir, I don't follow. If Towa's used this time to grow stronger, she'd naturally need significantly less conditions to access this dimension. Why not hold this tournament inside Conton City?"

"Her last breech was a suicide-play. She staked Kami-Knows how much effort into a small rift. Doing it all over a second time would be a massive waste, considering what she could stand to gain from this in-progress tirade of hers. Besides, we LET her take energy last time. Precisely why I want a few of you to stay on stand-by."

"But that all aside, she doesn't need to make a move, only watch! We could be under her gaze as we speak!"

"... then let her."

The older Namekian scrunched his face. "... Am I still speaking to Trunks?"

"... Yes?"

"I'm beginning to think I'm being deceived."

Judging by how quiet the resulting sigh over the comm was, Trunks had tried in vain to hide it.

"Frankly, there hasn't been this much promise in a new class of would-be patrollers in years. I'm willing to bet that this roster specifically can bring out the best in each other, fighting at full power, more than any parallel quest or even mission ever could. And to make that happen, they'll need a place where any and all concerns on holding back are thrown out the window. In fact… I've been thinking of a means of making them even stronger."

"That would be?"

.

.

"That just sounds cruel," said the Purifier.

"Well that's concerning. It shouldn't sound cruel, it IS cruel. However, Towa and those like her will subject them to that, and much worse, down the line. If there's anything they need to confront, now's the time."

"This method of yours could very-well break them. You of all people should know this, they're still children end-of-day!"

"You're right. But they've made it this far. I'm willing to bet they'll pull through."

"... you know? We should really make therapy a mandate."

Trunks sighed, without an attempt to hide it. He got up from the pile of bio-android corpses and prepared his Time Scroll, as his father tossed a head with a see-through scalp to the side.

"Yep."

[ ED: Eve – Last Dance ]

6/2/2023 Patch Notes: Buffed Akaki's Scale; now accounts for Spirit Efficiency. Ki and how well the subject manipulates it. Adjusted the D.I.A.N.A. scene for consistency's sake.

10/17/2023 Patch Notes: Changed Gomubo's name to Ganbo. Not very important.

Hey again!

You did it! You read, like, 5 short stories' worth of words! Damn, not even I have that kinda attention span! I'm currently over at Parris Island crying myself to sleep because Major Payne called me a Namby Pamby Doodoo Man and made me do 20 pushups, so I can't congratulate you formerly, so, uh, yeah. Good going.

In any case, welcome to the prelude to the quarter finals. The real story has finally begun. That sounds utterly asinine considering the hundreds of thousands of words before this point, but... man. Learn from me, if you plan on developing characters, keep the main cast to like 5, max. From here, the MCs will battle each other for real, things will blossom, arcs will be completed, the whole nine yards.

Kaza was surprisingly the MVP of this chapter for me. Seriously, everyone else is setting up their own issues, and Kaza just had a whole ass bottleneck moment. There's a VERY fun reason for that, and I can't wait to wrap up boot camp to get into that once her round begins, but until then, Kaza's temporarily Top 5 for me.

I'm not doing Akaki's Scale. You're probably happy over that, idk you guys very well. But that'd be too much brain work I could be spending on the fun stuff.

So I wanna go back and fix some stuff from past chapters that keeps me up at night. Mei's bottleneck moment, for example, should be much more of a struggle, seeing as how she should only be able to use one hand. There was another example but I forgot it. Of course. I'm also gonna start including "patch notes" under the OP Talks sections of said corrected stories, just in case ops ever try and call me out on ripping off shit I didn't know about (YO SIMPLYROII I SWEAR I AIN'T KNOW YOU DID THE "BLACK DUDE IN LOVE WITH A CYBORG AND ALSO KNOWS A GIRL NAMED AVA" SHIZZ FIRST, ON GOD I THOUGHT I WAS BEING SLICK WITH THE EVANGELION REFERENCE PLEASE-)

Ahem. Yeah I was getting into DBZ RP videos. They're weird. They're fun. They're good company on long bike rides. The aforementioned Roii did a fun one, about an hour in length, about a hypothetical History of Trunks. He's a cool dude, check it out.

I also peeped Katanagatari. Shit was ill. Got back into Hunter x Hunter due to Togashi coming back, reminded myself how it's up there as Peak Anime. Thanks for not dying, Togashi. I couldn't take another loss like that.

I'm hoping you guys are doin' aight, too. Keep on strugglin' through it, and keep smiling. I'll do it alongside you, no worries.

But yeah, that's about it. Next up should be a bit on Neo, and he and Mei's match beginning. Will be shorter than this one, I know that much.

See ya in a few months.

And/or next match.

.

.

.

FLYING INTO FREEEEEEE-