[ OP: Hironobu Kageyama: Fight! Oh, Fighting Road! ]
The Devil Only I Know! A Boy With No Concept of Self, A Girl With Nothing But!
He picked a vegetable. Then another, and another, and another.
He walked over to the tree and plucked fruits.
He noticed a fallen one, bruised and dirtied, and kicked it out of the way into a crevice, for the barren planet to swallow.
He walked back into his hut and made something to eat.
He took his bowl and crashed onto his hard chair. He stared into for an hour.
He eyed the weapon on a nearby table, beside a tokusatsu action figure.
"..."
He wouldn't look at it, this time. All he'd have to do is position it, look away, think of something nice, and squeeze. Someone like him was capable of something so simple.
Yet he still wasn't able to squeeze. His finger trembled as he prolonged it.
He tried thinking of nice things. All that came to mind was the sight of devastated scenery.
He blanked out his mind. Yet he still couldn't do it.
Bnk! Bnk! Bnk!
The only soul in the world heard a knock at the door.
He jumped. The weapon went off, grazing his skull.
.
.
"HAH… HAH…"
His breaths paused and leapt through his throat uncomfortably.
His eyes fritzed. He erupted in sweat. He sat perfectly still, like a hare under the shadow of a hawk.
"(... it's… useless.)"
He accepted it as a figment of his fading psyche. "(I'm even tricking myself to escape it. I'm still scared to die.)"
Beyond that primal fear, he had no emotion to show for the discovery. He silently cursed himself and-
Bnk! Bnk! Bnk!
The sobered boy's stomach flipped. That one was no delusion.
He slowly rose to his feet. He reached for the weapon and inched toward the door in a low profile. He hadn't bothered with anything like a peep hole; this version of the planet was destined to be void of life, after all.
Cursing his lack of foresight, he placed an uneasy hand on the knob and twisted.
"Nice place."
The door was wide open.
He'd fallen a meter away.
A towering man in black now stood over him.
He hadn't noticed a single occurrence.
He stammered to his feet and backstepped until he hit the wall, his aim transfixed on the shinigami the entire time.
The man dwarfed any tsufruian, standing at the average saiyan's height. Yet his hair was lavender and came down straight, and his eyes were blue. Neither his sword nor his sheath were anything like those of the saiyans.
Most of all, his judgemental gaze spoke of knowing him, of what he'd done.
He'd never been superstitious before, but there was no other answer. His aim was better than he thought, apparently.
"... hh." He dropped his weapon and fell to his knees. "It's about time…"
The man lifted an eyebrow. "You knew?"
"Say… am I going to Hell?"
He knew the answer, he knew what he deserved, but he thought he'd ask anyway, in the vain hope that the afterlife was different.
"... oh." The man sighed in what sounded like relief, then eyed the action figure in his hand. "Well… I guess that's one way of putting it."
"(And from there, I was taken here. To the infinite prison cell where I belong, to atone for my crimes against time.)"
Akaki strolled through a crowd.
"(Depressing…)"
"(Meh. Hell's what you make of it. It's not so 'Hell-y' once you figure out how it works.)"
Akaki smiled, taking a turn and navigating through a green suburb. "(Right…)"
"(Nooow, did you have fun?)"
"(Oh boy, did I!)" Akaki silently chuckled to himself. "(Those gizmos were incredible! Especially the one that can turn a planet inside-out!)"
"(Yeah, I decided to go a tad overboard with that one. The final product will be scaled down.)"
"(Come ooooon-)"
"(This is equipment I'm selling for field use. Maybe I'll keep one for novelty, but patrollers can't patrol if their objective point breaks off into the sky.)"
"(Yeah, point taken…)"
He arrived at a two-floor home and stalled for a minute at the front door, punching in a pattern on top of the back plate. He then used a key and unlocked the door, turning the knob.
"(How paranoid can someone be?)"
"(Never enough.)"
Akaki grinned. "(That is a fact…)"
He opened the door.
"How's it going?" asked Akaki.
"Not too bad. How about you?" replied Akaki.
A shorter, visored and effeminate young man in a dark blue, yellow-highlighted jacket sat on a couch. He stared back at his slightly taller self.
The two shared a light laugh. "Ooh, that's fun."
Standing Akaki then became someone else. Specifically, a tall, jacketed figure with a thick, bush-like tendril growth comprising the upper half of their head, showing only their mouth.
"I've gotta say, it was fun to be you for a while, despite how freaky it was to lose control of my body at random. That 'link' was something else!"
"Don't worry, I sent it away the moment you walked through that door. It's somewhere in my shop, by now. Though, honestly, I wish you would've kept my entire likeness authentic. The extra centimeters just come off as insecure!"
"A bit of extra reach never hurt anyone. Besides, who'll notice?"
"Oh, you'd be surprised…" Akaki — the real Akaki — reached into his pocket.
"No, don't bother."
The tsufruian stopped. "I don't follow."
The shapeshifter held their chin. "I'm just glad I was able to work through what deep-seated resentment I had for my conquerors. Plus, I stepped out of line a few times. If anything, I owe you." They smiled. "It was fun to play 'Antagonist' for a day… and hey, I even got to help save someone. So I guess I've satisfied my 'nature.' Money need not apply."
Akaki maintained his wad of zeni. "Yes, but money good. You take. C'mon, Kao-rin, it's my treat."
"No. I'll pass."
The boy puffed air. "... Hmph. How about dinner, then?"
"Hm?"
"BRIGHTER THAN THE BRIGHTEST STAR! 'MIRABLE FROM WORLDS AFAR! THAT'S-MY-AR-CHI!"
"KORA-SHE'S-KILLIN'-" Tarubei's student squealed as she mercilessly bearhugged him from spleen-level.
Kora smiled at the two, then turned back to her agent. "... so now that I got her to stop, can you make something small for me?"
Ayeva stoically wiped a visible wave of sweat from her brow. "Anything."
[ BGM: Kuniaki Haishima – Make it Home (Instrumental) (0:17) ]
"... not gonna lie, I expected something a bit more…"
"Pretentious?" Akaki laughed, pushing another pretzel into his mouth. "No, no, I'd do that if I was THAT dedicated to the supervillain bit, but… I've come to this place for a while. It's quiet, about five customers on a busy weekend — even now, barring another reservation, we're the only ones here. It mainly survives off my tips, so it's close to my heart. And the food here's pretty good for its price. Home-y's a good word for it."
Kao-rin shoved another handful of miniature pretzels down their gullet. "So while we're here, that match… does it hurt your pride, knowing you were outwitted by a saiyan?"
"Not really. It'd be obnoxious of me to think that I, some brat who sits in his room all day, could best a honed warrior with years of battle experience. At the end of the day, it was a tech demo and a show. My 'investors' saw what the equipment was capable of, regardless, so I'm not exactly seething over a game of Battle IQ. Definitely not in some inconsequential circus based in egos and daydreams." Akaki reclined a bit. "... then again… I got weirdly annoyed during that fiasco in the middle. And then there was that scenery and augh… not to mention how I sent your body through the ringer to save some dumbass, beforehand…" He sighed. "Maybe I'm losing my touch, I don't know."
The waiter dropped off their single plates, and both thanked him simultaneously in kind.
"So what is it?" Kao-rin chuckled. "Scared of revealing bits of your true self?"
"... Honestly?" Akaki nommed a piece of tofu. "I have no idea what that is."
"Hm?"
"Did I act the way I did because I was on camera? Because I was being watched? I mean… for all I know, I'm only doing this for you because you're useful to me."
"So maintaining a business-partner relationship?"
"If that." Akaki downed more of his fruit mix. "The only times I feel like I'm being true to myself is when I'm genuinely annoyed with someone behind closed doors or explaining my outlook, as pedantic as that may be… it's like I'm going 'off script'. Speaking of, that tournament has left me with questions. Ones that I might wind up slipping over, the more I ask."
"You're kidding yourself." Kao-rin took another chicken wing. "There's nothing to gain from acting and antagonization, yet you do it anyway. You've gotta enjoy that."
"Acting or antagonization…?" Akaki seemed intent on answering himself. "That's pretty miserable, now that I think about it. The only joys I have are based either in deceit or 'correcting' deluded idiots… huh. I can't even say that with confidence anymore."
He watched the cherry in his juice float up and down.
"Say, Kao-rin… just how much did you like 'being me'?"
The shapeshifter swallowed their wing. "The most fun I've ever had in a form."
"... how would you like to pick up the role, full-time?"
"I, uh… that's a loaded question, Akaki."
"Mh. Don't worry, I'm not going off the deep-end. This tournament has shown me that the dream I had – dying to a poor soul from a timeline I've damned for easy atonement – is inherently flawed. While the catharsis sounds nice on paper, end of day, I'm either giving my life to someone too sweet to take one, or to a disagreeable moron. Neither seems just, and um… I won't sugarcoat anything, it was wacko. I got way too excited and stopped thinking. Or maybe I was tired of thinking altogether. So anyway, the plan at which I've arrived is to 'erase' myself, effectively. When it pleases me, I'll create a new identity, occupation, appearance, maybe sex if I'm so inclined, and become something new. Maybe I'll try my hand at career acting, seeing how competitive the market is, thanks to the shockingly open-ended wish that the STEP mission is based on. Concerning your part, it's all been set up for you; you'll own my home, my equipment, my gear-empire, every asset I have, all of it. And yours truly will truly become formless."
Kao-rin scratched their cheek. "But how would I even go ABOUT that, with the way you're able to speak to others and such?"
"Don't fret," Akaki assured, waving off the concern. "I have so many 'faces' for you to choose from, that you could act in any way you'd like, and no one would question it. Believe me, I'm just as much of a shapeshifter as you are." He palmed his cheek, looking down. "... maybe that's why you're all I can… so how 'bout it?"
The shifter eyed their meal. They smiled.
"Not happening," Kora said.
"(!?)"
"!?"
Kao-rin's head practically snapped toward the saiyaness, in full-on panic. Akaki's hadn't moved, his lips neutral. Despite his unfazed posture, Kora seemed to be enjoying his silence.
" 'How long has she been following me?' "
" 'Why would she follow me, despite my role in the tournament ending?' "
" 'What does she even stand to gain?' "
" 'When did she even get in? Don't you need a reservation here?' "
" 'Who told her?' "
" 'Did someone sell me out?' "
" 'How much has she heard?' "
" 'Is my easy life actually over?' "
"Is that what's zooming through that small head of yours, 'Mini Akaki'?" Kora chuckled sinisterly, thriving off her former enemy's lack of response. "How's that for 'Battle IQ?' Say, what do you think Saiyans consider 'battle' anyway? Just punching each other?"
A crease finally formed across Akaki's perfect face.
"Wron~g. Anything that a saiyan considers a 'fight' counts as one. And a fight doesn't end until someone's 'beaten'. Say, I never truly 'beat' you, did I? That satisfied little smirk at the end of ours sealed it."
His crease began to fade, Kora's adrenaline racing in response. "So what, saiyan? You'll just beat me until I submit? In a public establishment? You'd need to be out of your mind."
"It's just as you say. I can't win on a physical level, not against someone like you. Violence won't change that. But I don't want to. That'd be too easy, and that's not your strong suit, is it? In any case, I know what I can do..." She pointed to her ears, grinning just-about wide enough to touch both with her lips. "How do you think I knew about your meet-up spot? Putting my nose to the ground and tracking your scent?"
"... Well that explains it. I mean, I so regularly—"
He was buying time so as to not seem stumped. Akaki's eyes weren't visible, but she could feel the piercing daggers that flew from them. They tickled.
"(MY WALLS ARE SOUNDPROOF! WARHEADS HAVE GONE OFF IN THERE, AND NOT EVEN THE NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS RAISED A FUSS! MY WINDOWS WERE CLOSED, EVERY DOOR WAS SEALED! DID…? DID KAO-RIN SET ME UP!? I SHOT THEM THE COORDINATES DIRECTLY, I NEVER SAID A WORD OF IT! No, no, the way they're reacting… they're just as surprised…! It's all over their face! Keep your damned composure, you're embarrassing yourself…! Since when the hell did Saiyans do SUBTERFUGE, anyway!? Damn it! Wait... wait, of course...)"
"— even more surprising is how you're apparently fond of this teeny diner, especially with the options available to you. I mean, why else would you choose here of all places to make a reservation?"
Kora giggled. "I guessed! Do you think you're the ONLY ONE with connections? All I had was 'Dinner' to go off, and from there, it was basic fun with patterns! The 'checking recent seatings' step was a real pain, though! You really have a thing for aliases, don't you, you paranoid bastard!? I bet you were proud of yourself for using pretzel puns, huh?"
"..."
"(Go on. Say it. SAY IT!)"
Akaki finally showed his small, subtle, ever-so-subtle, not-subtle-enough smile. "... even if you managed to gather all this information, without the physical proof you need, who will take your word over my own, besides your meager handful of contacts?"
Kora's smile faded on the spot. Her arms fell to the side.
"(... Hm. No clue how she got as far as she did, but hindsight scores yet another victory over the saiyan ra-)"
Her tail rose behind her, a small device curled within. It dropped onto the table, and the tail struck a button.
[ BGM: Kensuke Ushio – Run ]
From the first eight seconds his door had closed, to her sudden interruption, every word Akaki had spoken played back.
Kora sat there, the smallest of smirks concealing her urge to burst into cackling, her two blazing, ocular event horizons beaming down at the tsufruian as he took everything in.
"Go ahead."
A sweat drop visibly fell from his face.
"Say you'll claim it's a forgery. Something with this much fidelity."
Akaki's face scrunched.
"Gimme an excuse. Make this fight even more enjoyable."
Her piercing stare seemed more and more like a weight.
Watching her prey squirm and writhe, struggling with all it had to crawl its way out of its cornered situation, exposed not as an untouchable thousand-year devil, but a feeble little vermin that had already been pierced by her own, larger claws and fangs…
"How will you wave this off now?"
Something genuinely evil had surfaced within her. Revealing just how much of a blast she was having, tearing down that invincible foe with the ever-present possibility of a counterattack, would ruin the moment.
"I've never 'fought' like this before, you know. You're MUCH more experienced in this kind of battlefield."
Akaki's breathing grew ever-so-slightly irregular. Just enough for Kora to notice.
"Which rock do I have to thank for getting this far? Which ancestor? Which close relative? Which strand of DNA? Or is it just me? A Saiyan that shouldn't even exist?"
Her rumbling aura was starting to drive the other two insane, a wave of danger that screamed at their own survival instincts to get up and run until their lungs exploded.
"... what do you want?"
Kao-rin swayed to him with a silent gasp. Akaki just shrugged. "You're holding my face hostage for a reason. So what is it, then? Gear? Info? No, I see, a damned rematch? Honestly?"
Kora began to sink back into her chair. "Phew. That was one hell of a fight!"
"Just get on with it."
She held up three fingers. "D) All of the Above."
The small marksman rubbed his forehead. "Oh my… goodness, you're getting cryptic…" And then he slowly lowered his now-twitching hand, raising his head. "... no."
Kora grinned devilishly. "Yep!" She leaned over him, imposingly.
"For now… you're gonna take me to the top." She held up her PDA. "Either way, I'm ending your easy life. 'Partner of the RESET-MET Winner', or 'Cheater'. You have two ways of going public, and I think I know which one you'll pick."
"... the illusion of choice. Of course…" He groaned, gritting his teeth within a smirk. "You're a different breed of evil, you know that?"
Kora's smile did little to deny it. "Whatever it takes to see my ego and daydream to the end."
Archi's stomach growled from within his spine brace. "Man… I hope she at least brings something out to-go… does she just think all restaurants need two people just to schedule stuff?"
"But Kora it literally says on the-"
"I'VE ALREADY TOLD YOU, THAT JUST LOOKS SAD! THIS ISN'T AN ARGUMENT!"
"She was just gonna go in by herself, anyway… I just can't figure girls out…"
The jingle of the door caught his attention.
"Nh? Hey Kor… ah?"
"LAAAAH LAH LAH HLAAAAAH, LAH LAAAAAAH, LAH LAAAAAH HLAAAAAH, LAH LAH LAAAAAAAH! LAH LAH-"
Kora strutted outside like a main character in a gag manga.
"HO-YO, AWCHI-KUN! GEE, OWTSMAWTIN' A TSUTSI TOOK A WOT OUTTA ME! BOY, I'M HAANGY'!"
"I don't… I… huh?"
"COME ON, AKAKI-CHAAAN! PICK UP DA PAAACE!"
Archi looked back to the door.
Out walked a tall-for-a-tsufruian tsufruian, fists in his pockets and eyeing the ground as if it'd betrayed and trapped him in this situation.
"(She's doing this to piss you off.)"
He marched onward, pockets shaking.
"(If you get angry, she wins...)"
Archi stared at him as he walked by, then at the being peering out the door (who didn't have the answer to his implied questions,) and then back at him, before sharing an awkward chuckle and speeding after his partner.
"(...That's just it, isn't it? Hell isn't instant punishment.)"
Kora kept humming her stupid song with her stupid smile, moseying in an unfamiliar direction as at least twenty onlookers respected their namesake — a population that'd only grow, the longer the cruel hóu guǐ dragged him across the city. For the first time in a while, he genuinely felt like crying.
"(It waits until you're content, just to pull the rug out from under you…!)"
"Hhhn…"
Akaki – now in a tattered jacket and chipped visor – watched his door slam open.
He walked over to a random point on the wall and ran his fingers across it. There was a slight texture change, noted by a spot in which his finger hesitated, and he seemed to drag a pattern across it, not lifting his hand once. An audible chink followed his pause, and he went through the wall, into an elevator.
It closed, and he went down.
The doors slowly opened, and he walked on through, pulling out a notepad. He read its contents and scowled.
After a minute's walk, he made his way to a chair in front of a massive computer screen and sank into it.
"... this is my life now, huh?"
He sighed, bringing up his outdated scale. "Can't believe I'm saying this, but yep, power levels really are bullshit. Even my shoddy estimates. They change too rapidly, out of nowhere… they're just not predictable before a fight begins. Just different instances notated in numbers to compare in the after-action."
He doffed his visor, and his face sank into his palm. "All the minor ways I could've avoided all this crap… they were all so small that they're not even worth mentioning, outside of abstaining from this circus in the first place. An ode to determinism." He eyed his gauntlet. "Though I guess it all goes back to 'that day', huh?"
Akaki sighed. "Can't be helped… just can't be helped."
"Wha'cha dooin~?"
Akaki practically stumbled over himself before aiming an FMG at the intruder.
"GET OUT, GET THE HELL OUT OR SO HELP ME-"
[ BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano – coldsnowcrow (start-2:46) ]
Kora threw her hands up. "H-hey!"
The tsufruian sharpshooter squeezed his temple, still aiming. "For the love of… HOW THE HELL DID YOU… kss— will you just EXPLODE if you don't strip me of EVERYTHING I find comfort in, you stalker!?"
Kora – now in a black, compression set of short-sleeve shirt and shorts – giggled a bit, putting her hands behind her back. "I'm just curious!" She walked around the room, nudging Akaki's mental limit higher with every turn of her head. "So you made all of this yourself, huh? Amazing… I tried reading up on you, but all I could get was your arrival date. You're not even that far off from me, yet you managed to get work on this scale done while living under the radar?"
"It helps not to be addicted to petty squabbles. If nothing else, just taking care of matters away from the public eye neuters your presence. Also get away from that, you'll kill us all."
The saiyan pulled her hand away from a wide, floating disk. "A-ah, I knew that."
"No you didn't. Honestly, if you're going to go around touching shiny objects like a child, can you at least sit down or something?"
Kora jumped into Akaki's chair, just as he began to seat himself. She bumped off his supercomputer's console as she spun.
She looked back at him with a stupid smile.
Without his visor to shield them, his very-emotive white eyes tried to burn a hole through her soul.
"I'd call that wish of mine a certain form of paw, but you are the last person I'd like to kill me."
Kora grinned. "Has anyone ever told you how smart you are?"
"... look I have your stupid list, saiyan, isn't it enough that I film the working process instead of you bothering me like-"
She turned up her nose. "Nnnn—ope~! I have to supervise, or else you'll try something. Isn't that right?"
He considered it. "... that's fair, I guess." The white-eyed tsufruian pulled out the notepad – several, with each detail devouring a page on its own – and got to work.
"(Something that uses one's own saiyan biology for strength, with a cost.) What's this first one even asking?"
"Isn't it obvious?"
Akaki gave her a look. Kora pouted but elaborated. "Dina was able to push her body beyond its natural limits by intentionally wounding herself. That was done by using an outer force: magic. That kind of power doesn't come naturally to saiyans, least of all me. So I want to match it with magic's natural counter: science!"
"That's so cheesy it hurts. But on that note, let me get this straight… you want, SPECIFICALLY, a gadget that costs the user something. I'll assume that's in a manner dissimilar to an arcade cabinet, in which case- ah who am I kidding, you're a saiyan."
"Wrong. I'm Kora." She suddenly dropped her cutesy demeanor, the saiyaness glaring at him. "There are plenty saiyans that'd take something like cheap power, and I'm far from them. In more ways than one, actually."
The tsufruian reynard beared his teeth. "wow, if only i'd lumped you in sooner, i wouldn't have a migraine."
"shut up"
Akaki sighed. "I'll guess. You don't want to be outdone, right?" he asked, garnering a nod. He approached the console as he talked. "And at the same time… if-"
"I can defeat her as a Super Saiyan, then the power that'd take would need to be gained through strife, or victory isn't worth squat?" Kora folded her arms, waiting for Akaki to confirm. He didn't. She didn't care. "You're not far off but, it's a bit more complicated than that."
His lip seemed to malfunction with the way it twitched. "Fine. There's something I need from you, first."
"What-G-GREAT GALAX...!"
Akaki rolled his eyes as she recoiled from the machine that'd jumped at her. "It's not even that sharp, come on."
"THAT'S THE PROBLEM!"
"Honestly, if you're not even willing to cooperate, then- oh."
Kora practically tore into her thumb with a canine, the wound oozing with the bio-data Akaki needed.
"... that works, too, I guess…"
"Don't tell me you're disappointed, you little jerk…!"
"Just to clarify… you grew up before the saiyans conquered the tsufruians, right?"
"(Here we go…) Yes."
"... do you mind sharing with me?"
Akaki chuckled amidst the working machinery. "Of course I mind! Honestly, what a horrible thing to ask."
"Oh. Of course. Sorry."
The foxtail-haired boy's seventh sense started biting at his nape, as Kora's eyes scuttled across his hallowed halls. Of course she was only doing it out of a way to escape her own awkwardness, but if something actually caught her attention...
"If I tell you…!" Akaki yipped, causing Kora to perk up. "Will you stay put until I'm done with this crap?"
"Sure!"
Akaki rolled his eyes, refocusing on the work at hand.
"It began with saiyans growing rowdy with how quickly they were cut off from most of the planet, after their arrival. They were used to the harsh conditions that the back-lands offered, obviously, but the tsufruians lived on grounds that were anything but. See, some tsufruians wanted to talk it out, but most of them were only after strong friends once things inevitably went up in flames. More common were traditional tsufruians who spat at the idea of sharing THEIR planet with some barbaric species that crash-landed and started nomadding. Some suggested giving them the technology to find somewhere else, some suggested a slow integration, some demanded wiping them out before they could do the same to us. People were too scared, too angry to make up their minds."
The chassis within was placed into a translucent, gyroscopic orb and rotated in place, filling the room with light as Akaki placed on his visor.
"You can likely find some saiyan in the city that can tell you more about their side of the story, but from what I experienced, the saiyans weren't much different. They weren't so one-dimensional that they could all be grouped into 'good and evil', after all — in your topsy-turvy society, the 'psychopaths' among them were those longing for the possibility of something like peace. Overshadowed by the vocal majority of natural warmongers, however. In time, one… anomalous piece of work… hatched a scheme capable of dismantling the tsufruians systematically, and all in time for a full moon. And what was his prevailing argument to rally the last of the fence-sitters?" He turned to an aloof Kora. "You're clever. Give it a whirl."
"... them or us." She grit her teeth. "How could a Saiyan think like that…!"
"Easy. Another psychopath, just in a different way. But what's funny is… even after that, there were still people on both sides that wanted to give reconciliation a shot. Hell, even more so once the planet had become a battlefield, and the two were now forced to interact. My late dad was one of them. My old master, as well, though he preached peaceful, fate-abiding indifference, the bastard. And… there was this one saiyan. A cook or whatever. Sent a coalition away from my hiding spot, back when I was blinder."
The chassis slowly descended, the waves around it dissipating. Akaki set down his visor. "Regardless, the moon happened, and even those rare psychos returned to their true nature, as did we. Predators and prey. I'd soon learn that was for the best. Oh, did I learn…" Akaki's head hung. "(Hm. I was… oddly giddy to share all that. Oh well, helped kill time.)"
"... I'm sorry."
Akaki raised a brow, then chuckled. "Don't bother. It doesn't matter that you're the same species, you can't possibly answer for others' actions. That's just conceited. And besides, you had no involvement."
"But-"
"Again, take your bleeding heart somewhere else." The chassis raised into the room's ceiling before lowering from above them. "Here."
— it was a breastplate that only accounted for the upper torso, impeccably cut and crafted from a lightweight alloy. A piece dominated by bright, icy blue and accompanied by both wispy light and hard dark greys. It held two rounded shoulder pads with a similar scheme.
"It uses the same philosophy as my 6.67x rounds. Switch it on with a ki burst as you wear it, and it'll create a field with a G-Matter concentration double that of what the body's currently comfortable with, and then continuously apply a greater gravitational force each time the body begins to destress. Switch it off by extinguishing your ki signature or dying, either will work. It suits your wonky biology... as in, while you have so few S-Cells that it's almost comedic, your body reacts and adapts to stimuli in a matter of minutes, without the need for prolonged rest cycles. It's like nature screwed up in one aspect, so it went to the other extreme. So moral of the story is, that piece is perfectly suited for a freak like-"
Kora immediately began clawing at the top of its collar.
"What… what are you…"
Kora began biting at the top of its collar.
"Can you stop that?"
Kora attempted to glare a hole through the top of its collar. Literally. Eye beams.
"If you don't like it, at least use your 'people' '''skills''' and say it."
She stared at him unhappily. "This is too strong."
"I don't follow."
"I can't etch my family crest into it."
"... then draw it on, I don't care."
Kora glared. "Make it weaker or that goes public."
Akaki glared. "Well if you're gonna act like a baby over it, fine, I'll do it."
"No! It's important that I do it."
.
.
.
He finally lost his patience. "... WHY!?"
"IT JUST IS!" She thrusted the chassis out in front of her. "NOW DO IT!"
Despite his small smile, and indicated by his bulging, strained eyes, Akaki was an unpleasant thought away from an aneurysm. He slowly, shakily took back his product, and repressed the idea of throwing it back in her face.
"Say, Akaki…"
"We're on a name-to-name basis?"
"Did the tsufruians… have any legends?"
He ignored her for as long as possible as he operated.
"... DID THE TSUFRUIANS HAVE ANY LEGENDS?"
He ignored her for as long as possible as he operated.
Kora proceeded to tap her PDA on her head, belligerently clearing her throat.
"... no. The majority was raised on an 'if I can't see it, it doesn't exist' philosophy. Made for a civilization that favored technology over hearsays and spiritual matters, like ki. Also made for one that glossed denial in prettier words like rationale."
"... that's another difference, then. Most saiyans were big on legends. Especially in my timeline. Frieza, he… he made an example of Bardock, instead of outright destroying him along with the planet. In most timelines, I should be long dead, but in the one that I'm not… the saiyans lost their fighting spirit. Hope was reduced to fairy tales… ones that turned out to be true, but out of our reach. My family was especially big on it… especially my dad. He created his family just to reach that dream."
"Yeah, dads, who needs 'em."
"He trained my older brother relentlessly, threw him to the wasteland and told him to crawl back, beat him nearly to death. He made him strong, and turned him into a spiteful ball of rage in the process. And I was around for all of it, yet I had to interfere in order to receive the same sort of training that he did. I was a girl, so… I had a different 'purpose'. I wanted to see that dream through so badly, to become that warrior of legend that'd free our people. But if something were to happen to Ganbo, I could give birth to a new start. So my father gave me special treatment, sheltered me so that he could find a strong-enough warrior to pair me with. I was just his failsafe. And my brother hated me for it… how I could demand to hold the same power he did, despite how much differently father treated me. He made sure every day was a living, breathing nightmare, where getting to eat or sleep meant winning a fight against him. Just like how he was raised."
"Mh."
"... and then my mother had a third child."
"(ugh…)"
"He was to be raised just like my brother. Father and Ganbo saw to that. He was either a rework or competition." Kora balled her fists. "... I had the chance to change how he saw the world. Spare him from the daily misery of chasing something we didn't know for certain was there. I could've been the one piece of reassurance he had." Her lip quivered, but she caught it in place. "... but I just repeated history."
Akaki's eyes shook.
"I berated him, and beat him, and stole from him, as well. I treated him like a competitor, knowing full well that if he surpassed me, any chance of father seeing me as a worthy warrior was gone. It was only when it was too late, when he disappeared without a trace, that I finally acknowledged how he had nothing and no one, all alo-"
"Why are you telling me all this!?" Akaki suddenly turned around, eyes strained. "Do you need a reminder that you're holding me hostage as we speak? What are you trying to accomplish with this two-bit therapy session other than…" He smashed the side of his hand against a portion of the console. "Pissing me off!? Just SHUT UP already!"
The room behind the translucent steel suddenly went up in a loud flash of light. When it returned, a few ashes were scattered around it.
"..."
The foxtail-haired boy stared blankly into nothing, eyes wide as dinner plates, before exhaling in more of a growl than a sigh. "I'm going to wind up breaking more of your precious toys if you keep distracting me. Please, see yourself out."
For once, Kora agreed, and left.
Akaki stared into space, before palming his eyes. "... what was that…?"
He'd sat in his chair from morning to sunset, slaving away at his second unpaid commission with his hair down.
"...hhh…" He checked over his shoulder, then turned back around. "... that's it. She told me all that because she has leverage. There's a notional non-disclosure agreement down here, so she feels free to dump all her buried trauma and wrongdoings on me, no judgement accrued. Awesome. I'm her slave and her shrink…" He covered his mouth and muttered to himself. "Sick of being reminded of my screw ups…"
"Honestly,"
Akaki recoiled, as if her self-assured intonations tore a new eardrum tendon every time he listened to her speak.
"Where'd you get such a low opinion of me?" Kora asked, significantly more bruised than before, wearing her armor.
"I'm better off leaving that unanswered." He pointed over to the chassis. "Your gravity room or whatever is like 93.4… .5% there. I made that one out of the same archaic mineral you'd find on pre-Age Sadala, by the way. Learn how to speci-"
"Great!" Kora clasped her hands, running over to it. "Wait… you didn't happen to poison or rig this, did you?"
"Do I look like some kind of-"
"Yes."
"Fuck you."
"You're not my type."
"Hahahaha get your own material."
"I have, thanks to you." Kora happily eyed her new adornment, before raising a clawed finger. Five knicks later, it held the same tears along the center-collar as her current chest plate.
"If anyone asks why that thing has laughable durability once you go public with who's helping you, please tell them that you, specifically, wanted it that way."
Kora rolled her eyes. "Captain Tarubei's old armor holds up just fine." She turned to Akaki. "So back to what you were saying…"
"Please let me not be your type."
.
.
Akaki breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness."
"I'm not…" Kora ungrit her teeth. "I'm not a horrible judge of character. I guess I've never felt comfortable telling anyone like Captain Tarubei or Archi about such things. But someone like you…"
[ BGM: KOHTA YAMAMOTO ‒ Trust You ]
The tsufruian's mood notably sank when she mentioned Archi.
"What?"
"... Archi."
"... exists?"
"It's just… your eyes drooped, the first time I said that."
"Is being tired a show of disrespect on Planet Vegeta?"
She looked at Akaki like he'd put on a disguise behind her back.
"Yeah yeah, we both know the answer to that." Akaki turned his chair. "Your room's just about finished, so from there, there's just means to observe growth as data, means of quick medical support, and means of simulation. All of which are included in the package so… 97%. Quick and easy contract."
"... If I tell you more about myself-"
"No-ho-ho, no, no we are never playing that game again."
Kora pulled out her PDA.
"Oh yes, that, see I already installed a miniature EMP in the elevator, that thing has been reduced to a lump of junk. Useless. I'm just finishing what I started, so once that's done, you're under my house rules from here on. That's why contingencies are important!"
"I couldn't agree more." Kora began tapping at a holo-screen. "Hi, it's me. Initiate Operation Foxhound, T-Minus-3, 2-"
"OH WOW LOOK AT THAT THE BALL'S BACK IN YOUR COURT WHAT A SHAME HAHAHA CUT THAT COUNT!"
"... Rescind that, please~!"
"(that could've been a bluff, but I'd much rather not risk it…)" Akaki wiped his brow.
"(that might've been a bluff, but just in case he tries anything…)" Kora feigned scratching her temple to catch what drops may've been falling.
The tsufruian glared. "If you consistently have this much control over me, then what the hell is with you giving me these horror story 'trades'? I joked, but this is the genuine illusion of choice."
"(I'm just threatening you whenever you get uppity.)" She couldn't really risk saying that, at this point, so she went to her other reasons. "I just think it's fairer if I give something up, as well. I want to be able to trust people I'm going to call my comrades."
"Ah yes, the ones you definitely didn't imply you'd abandon the moment they started slowing you down on that asinine test."
"I HAD TO BE TRUTHFUL!"
"You're just terrible at lying."
"I… Y… yeah… screw you."
"Still don't swing that way."
2-1.
Akaki lightly chuckled at the sight of Kora's nettled face. "That's always been something that bugged me about you. You're too darn honest. That's what's held you back."
"Huh?"
"Standing in earnest to contest arrogant punks on golden high horses or lording themselves around the weak. Speaking your mind far too much for far too long, especially for someone so closed off, to the point of annoying everyone around you. Even the complete lack of subtlety in your emotions. If you actually cared to mend with others' personalities and, I don't know, give the RIGHT answer instead of YOUR answer, maybe you'd hold friendships outside of one hormonal moron."
"... I guess that's… another reason I've been talking so much."
The tsufruian sharpshooter's eyes practically rolled back into their sockets. "I literally just said… you're hopeless."
"It's… to get in practice."
"... practice?"
The saiyan began growing bashful, in inflection and posture. "Well… yeah. I can keep talking with you without worrying about any weird looks the next day, or others suddenly talking behind my back, so I figured I could… try… conversations… more…" She was almost beet-red by the time she was finished.
.
.
.
"... all that… all this… resorting to BLACKMAIL, bringing up points of TRAUMA and GUILT… was your way of… talking to people?"
"... yes," Kora muttered.
"... he. He-he-he-he-he… Hehehehe-hehehehehe…"
"H-HEY, WHO SAID-"
"KE-HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!"
Akaki covered his eyes and started laughing, full tilt.
It was a sort of laugh Kora recalled, actually.
The first time she heard it, Dina had found the gate she'd lost.
"YOU… GE-HAHAHA… IT'S… I CAN'T…!" Akaki wiped away a tear. And then another, and then another. "THIS WAS ALL YOU TRYING TO RELATE TO SOMEONE! It's… It's almost INNOCENT! THAT'S NOT HOW YOU GO ABOUT THIS, YOU DOLT!"
He slowly calmed down. "That's such a 'person' thing to do… if there were just a bit more people like you, then maybe…"
The saiyan, still beet-red and arms folded to the point of creating a vacuum, finally spoke out. "JSF-JUST FORGET IT, IF YOU'RE GONNA MAKE IT SUCH A BIG DEAL!"
The tsufruian shook his head, wiping away one final tear as he hiccupped away his lingering giggles. "Very well, I'll give it straight. My story, flat-out. You can make your own conclusions from there."
"Hm!? Really?"
Akai shrugged. "Sure. My gift from one 'monster' to another."
Akaki talked to Kora. About his life until that point, his master and father's philosophies, the Saiyan invasion, and, especially, the road he'd taken to becoming a timespace outlaw.
It was about nightfall when he'd finally finished.
He whistled. "Wow, I talk a lot."
Kora stared at the ground, without a word.
"... welp, that's to be expected. After all, I've very-possibly made Frieza's death toll look like a tragedy compared to my statistic." Akaki stood up. "I'm gonna go get a drink. Feel free to go wild with the new gear, as long as it's made for yOU-"
He was suddenly trapped in the air.
[ BGM: KOHTA YAMAMOTO ‒ Ignore The Nation... Awaken My Identity PF ]
"You did everything you could," Kora spoke softly. "You're not a monster. Not for trying to make things better. You were... you're still just a kid."
Fighting to escape was useless. So he just waited it out.
His expression was confused at first, but slowly sank to neutral.
"... you can let me down now," Akaki spoke softly.
Kora set him down.
"... for what it's worth… no Saiyan is raised to believe that conquest is wrong. It's a rare case for one to just come to that, one day." He turned to her. "Don't mope around, thinking you're a monster for trying to conform. It's only natural, after all. But if you're insistent on holding that guilt then, I don't know… maybe give back, make those lives you've taken count."
"... then let's both do that. Making it count, I mean."
"... I could never. Planets and timelines are… this piece of shit place is too small for anything I do to make an impact."
"But your casualties... a lot of them are here, too, right? If I tried, I bet I could find those I've killed, or led to their deaths."
"And then what?"
"Keep trying." Kora gave a weary smile. "What's done is done, but… if there's even one person we can help, in some way, then… then it shows the ones we've hurt that they meant something. And in such a 'small' world, it wouldn't take much to impact it. Right?"
Akaki's lip quivered a bit. "... that'd be nice to believe."
"So believe it, dumbass!" Kora grinned.
Akaki chuckled a bit, and Kora followed. "Why not? Fine, I'll try." He shakily exhaled. "In the meantime, I'm gonna go wash out my eyes. Apparently, something's in them."
"One more thing."
He stopped, waiting.
"... am I talking to the real you, right now?"
Akaki raised an eyebrow. He held his face, then stared at the hand he'd used.
"… huh. I don't think I know anymore."
[ BGM: KOHTA YAMAMOTO ‒ Ignore The Nation... Awaken My Identity ]
"HA!"
A transformed Archi leapt at Kora, rebounding from his missed charge seamlessly and bolting toward her, growing ever-quicker as his every punch pounded the steel around her with shockwaves, and every kick singed and swathed the air. He took an under-head counterattack with a light stagger, intercepted a follow-up, and knocked her back, sending her skidding for a few steps before she caught herself and gained distance in a series of gymnastics.
Mid-backflip, her chassis activated, and she slammed into the ground back-first, the 300x gravity around her steadily increasing all the while. Something audibly cracked.
"KH... AUGH!"
"KORA! S-SERIOUSLY, CAN I DIAL BACK THE SUPER SAIYAN!? YOU'LL SNAP YOUR NECK AT THIS RATE!"
She grit her teeth, steadily fighting back. "N-no…!" the saiyaness growled through grit teeth, slamming both palms into the ground and rising. Her tail stood straight as a counterweight, as she hoisted herself up in a handstand. "I still… -ave…"
Her heels crashed into the steel below, as she cast herself onto her feet and into a stance.
"A long way… to go…!" Her aura pulsed and exploded outward. "COME AT ME WITH EVERYTHING YOU HAVE!"
"No, no, you're done."
The gravity slowly lifted, to her anger and Archi's relief.
"I'm starting to think you're going out of your way to knock yourself out, just so your Archikins has to bridle-carry you home." Akaki, visored, cupped his cheek in-palm. "I'm not gonna entertain that thinly-veiled fetish of yours any longer. Honestly, have some self-shame."
"I'm gonna… EAT him…" Kora hissed as she hobbled her way out.
Archi supported her, paying a glare to the smug savant. "Yeah yeah, he's just trying to get under your skin."
"No, I'm just making small talk."
The curl-bang'd saiyan laid her on a table, and two needles – both fortunately(?) much sharper than Kora'd been initially introduced to – descended on a table.
"NOW I'm trying to get under her skin."
"EH-HE-HEY! HEY!"
Akaki reclined as the machine did its job. "You're pushing yourself awful hard, for a Saiyan." "⁽ᵀᴴᴬᵀ'ˢ ᴺᴼ ᴶᴼᴷᴱᵎ⁾" ᴬʳᶜʰᶦ ᵗʰᵒᵘᵍʰᵗ ᵗᵒ ʰᶦᵐˢᵉˡᶠ ᵃˢ ʰᵉ ᵏᵉᵖᵗ ᶜˡᵉᵃʳ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵗʰᵉ ʰᵒʳʳᵒʳ ᵐᵒᵛᶦᵉ ᵗʳᵃᵖ. "Is this really for the sake of pride?"
"Yep," replied Kora, as she stared down the falling contraption. "It started aS A… nh… as her own challenge to me. One I didn't take seriously. Seeing how someone so… so unworthy, could have it, tarnished the state and every legend behind it. Captain Tarubei saw the opportunity to use that disenchantment to my advantage, and lit that fire to surpass it in my heart. It felt real, like something I could do… a way to stick it to my family for worshipping that damned legend instead of taking real action."
She got to her feet, shaking her numb arms like limp noodles. "But a trip to my homeworld opened my eyes a bit more. How I'd been holding myself to one vision of pride, when the truth was that-"
"That Saiyans make their own pride, and stick to it?" Archi happily barked.
Kora smiled. "Archi…"
He winked. "I've learned my own set of stuff, y'know! How d'ya think I ascended?"
"Are you seriously rubbing it in, you jerk?" she lulled.
"Hehe, sorry…"
Kora caught herself with a cleared throat. "I was able to recall just how hard everyone fought to see that state through, regardless of what kinds of people they were. Then in the tournament, that Renchiru guy, and the weird stuff in-between, it… it helped me see just how much pride I hold for those efforts. It stirred it in me again… that longing to make it worth something. And then, Dina fought."
One of her numb arms suddenly twitched. The shock she first showed turned into a smirk.
"It was her, and you, Akaki."
"Oh, stahp it, you."
Kora rolled her eyes with a half-smirk. "I'm not able to achieve Super Saiyan, I just don't have that kind of… burning, explosive emotion. That isn't my strength. But it IS hers. And it's affected her in a way she hates. I saw her, with my own eyes, live up to the first legends of the Super Saiyan, and then subvert it completely, by her will. She… she DIED out there, over and over, just to save someone she saw good within. That same stupid, arrogant punk who spat all over the myth I looked up to… became someone THAT beautiful."
Her arms curled up to her chest in fists, gritting her teeth.
[ BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano ‒ Melancholia (3:03) ]
"I just… CAN'T lose to her. I won't LET myself." Her aura once-more erupted, as her widened eyes glinted with excitement. "I have to… I WANT to beat HER, as MYSELF, in MY way, absolutely."
"(Super Saiyan GOD, she's hot…)" Archi suddenly thought of something. "(... wait… the way she's talking about her…!)"
"Heeey, Kora… when you call her 'beautiful'... you don't mean…"
Kora calmed down, turned to him and scoffed; her mood was slain. "Get over yourself, Archi," she groaned, before walking out.
"H-hey Kora, wait up!" Archi made after her. "Please! Y-you're not gonna answer!? Come on!"
As the desperate boy pleaded, Kora looked back at Akaki. Akaki met her glance.
"(I have no idea if she knows this or not… but she bent me to her will in record time, in the exact same fashion I would. And all she had to do was remain annoyingly honest. In the one role I have no idea how to complement.)"
He lifted his visor. Both winked.
"(Kora, as Herself.)"
"(Don't ever say anything as hammy as that again,)" he said to himself.
"(No promises,)" he replied.
[ ED: Bop Alloy ft. Cise Starr - Step Into The Cypher ]
1/22/2025 PATCH NOTES: Changed Akaki's reservation giveaway from 5 letter-names to pretzel puns.
Yo! OP Here!
3-1. The score has been proclaimed. Kora now has TWO vassals.
So anyway, goal of this chapter was to make Akaki open up and give Kora a new means of growing stronger. TBH, that was Kora's goal as well, with how competitive she is. That's the way she prefers to conquer.
I like the contrast those two have btw. It's in the title, sure, but the only other place I've seen this trope is Shang and Lin from Thunderbolt Fantasy - the latter alongside Kuang Juan being the first motives for Akaki's creation. (I've been rewatching the entire series btw, it's still peak fiction.) Yeah I don't admit it enough but, my characters are just amalgamations of various characters I love from other franchises. I mean... That's literally most fictional characters ever, sure, but... nah, I've got nothing to add to that. But I still wanna harp on that 'cus it's fun to admit, and I'm really passionate about those things that I like.
I don't want to admit it. But it seems... I like Akaki (now). I was frantic to see him as an enemy because I didn't want to accept the fact.
He just can't maneuver his way around someone who's finally at peace with themselves like current Kora, and since she's actively on to his shit, he can't really adjust a "face" for the person she is. Also she holds his rare public image in her hands so, he's in a constant losing scenario with her. And she just blatantly pisses him off, there's that, too. And her existence makes him question his ideology, and the way she views herself mirrors his own self-view, and... yeah, the point is, Kora's a hard counter to, the complete opposite of, and a mirror for Akaki.
... jfc I literally made her a way for everyone she's fought to reflect upon themselves. She's a Mirror of the World.
Happy Chaos was no-bullshit an influence on Akaki, too.
And Happy Chaos was afraid of Baiken because she's a mirror.
... bros I think media is influencing me more than I even consciously know. Guilty Gear is kino btw. Get into that.
Back to what I was saying, that's why he eventually finds himself opening up when around her. As for the other way around, Akaki's a figure of interest to her as well as someone else who's done horrible things in the past, and it's just fun for Kora to screw around with someone smarter than her and thinks they're untouchable.
Also, you prolly noticed but yeah, this and a few more later chapters will take place before the last one happened.
One more thing: I simplified the way Kora and Archi resemble their, uh, IDK what to call it. I'll keep calling it motif. These two's has always been based on Shishi, Shisa, Komainu-Let's just say Guardian Lions, with Kora taking on the Snow Lion motif to further clash with Dina's Tiger one. What I want more now is for Kora to inherit the Lion/Apex Predator aspect in tandem with her Snow Lion motif (she's the only female saiyan I will ever call a saiyaness for that reason alone) and Archi to inherit the Dog/Loyal Guardian aspect.
Also the Male Shishi traditionally has its mouth open, which is why Archi talks so much shit, while the Female has its mouth closed, which is why Kora's more reserved. Bit of irony now is added to that, considering how one's managed to better a Fox Yokai (Remember that Link Set shit he has? That's personal to him, that's why Kao-rin couldn't use it in the tournament,) and the other's managed to better an Asura.
When a saiyan has something that isn't an Oozaru, it represents how they break away or rebel from the traditional saiyan in a certain way. People like Voshyo and Vegeta, Saiyans with OCEANS of pride in their species and yet creating their own unique philosophies that distinct them from traditionally-evil aspects, embody the Oozaru, albeit with an oddity. Voshyo's keeping his mane, fuck you Kora he did it first.
IDK who's next RN. I just know that the stuff I have for Dina seems much more fun than the other two. But with this chapter, I officially like all my characters. 'cept Dumdum and Aisu no Bukyu. Stay tuned.
This is my 77th chapter and 66th Doc, somehow.
That's about it. See ya.