"Dream?"
"Yeah, like, what you'd be doing if things were better."
"When things get better!" a pre-teen blurted out.
A man with a slung rifle laughed. "That's a tall ask, kiddo!"
The boy's weary void eyes drifted across the others around the campfire, then at the flame itself.
[ BGM: Kensuke Ushio – sweet dreams ]
"What good's something like that if you die before you can get it? By then, it's just more stuff you wish you did." He threw a stick in. "I don't need dreams to live."
Barring the sticks breaking in the fire, there was an uneasy silence.
"... Maybe not to survive," a middle-aged woman spoke up. "I know what it was like before Jigoku. Maybe the sky wasn't as pretty at night, maybe things were a bit busier sometimes… but it wasn't always a struggle just to eat. You could walk into a store and just buy what you needed, trading the exact same thing that everyone traded. You could see someone on the street and you wouldn't worry about whether or not they wanted to kill you or take something of yours off with them. Kids like you would be in school right now, making friends and getting into trouble."
As those below his age oohed whimsically, and the few around his own sulked in melancholy, the boy rolled his eyes apathetically. "Must've been nice…"
"It was. Especially for kids like you, Neo."
"Neoru," he hissed at the ground.
"Neoru," the woman responded lovingly. "Kids like you had all the time in the world to think over what they wanted, where and when they wanted. My dream is to see you all grow up well as the world heals."
"... what if you die before then?"
Yonder, the rifleman's demeanor went sour and somber all the same.
The woman paid him a shaky frown, before livening up again. "I can hope to make it there. And people like you, and Hisefu before you… you'll be what let people like me hold on. I know it."
"Sure…"
The rifleman looked over dejectedly. "Hey, I'm right here!"
"Oh, an' you too, 'til we're outta lead at least," the woman playfully chided.
"HEY!" he pouted, amidst giggling.
The void-eyed boy smirked for a blink of an eye, and fell back to his usual apathy.
An old man carried boxes onto the scene. "Good news, everyone! Not a single injury this supply run! And guess what…!" He stuck his hand beneath canned goods, clothing, and a few bullets, pulling out a bag. "We found sweets!"
The kids and some teens ran past. Even the woman, though hesitantly, got up to inspect.
One girl lingered behind. "You… want any, Neoru?"
He shook his head.
"Oh. Ok, then… b-bye!"
"You sure?"
He raised his head.
The rifleman was staring straight at him. "I thought kids liked sweets."
"They hurt my teeth." He was lying.
"You're too young to worry about shit like that, kid... c'mon. Go eat something that tastes good, for once."
Neoru shook his head. "I'm good."
With another somber gaze, the man nose-sighed. "Suit yourself."
By himself again, he stared into the smoking flame, as happier sounds filled the air. "(Nice for people to have shit to keep themselves goin', I guess…)"
He woke early — a few were standing guard, but even the hardass with the gun was taking micronaps. The sun hadn't arrived yet, and the area was still lit by the flame and its contemporaries scattered around the camp.
The roar of a dinosaur in the far distance caught his ear. His stomach rumbled on cue.
"Why not," he muttered to himself, leaping away.
With some hiding and a well-timed slash, he nabbed the tail of a big one and headed back. He thought about them for a moment and a smirk, again, flashed across his face. A drop of oncoming drizzle plopped down onto his eye in the process, forcing a hiss, but he continued.
He'd been gone for thirty minutes.
Getting closer, he heard a flame.
He stopped.
"Feeling people" was an odd thing he'd recently been able to do. He couldn't describe it, but he could just… know where someone was, to a certain distance. It didn't work after that distance or on corpses.
He didn't even question whether or not it was working. It was. He just knew.
His grip on the tail wavered until it dropped completely. His eyes fell into tired slits as he broke into a sprint.
Soon, he saw it.
A flame had devoured the camp. Across it, bodies.
He saw the rifleman first. Several foreign bodies before him, his rifle gone.
He scurried around and saw more. The woman was over one of the kids. Both were dead. Every tent was opened. "Useless" objects were scattered haphazardly.
[ BGM: A Perfect Circle – Counting Bodies Like Sheep To The Rhythm of War Drums ]
Not a single person.
Nothing showed across his face. This was par for the course.
People died. People died without warning. Was the way of things. He made sure to distance himself for just such a reason.
Must've been the supply run, in this case. Maybe others tracked them down. A need for supplies, taking back their own. Either was likely.
In any case, he needed to find what he could and keep He couldn't move.
Something inside of him wasn't letting him move. He kept eyeing the corpse of the woman, and the child she was over.
His tired eyes slowly opened. Standing in place, he began thoroughly surveying the environment. A few footsteps led in one direction. His head slowly turned in said direction.
There were tire tracks still there. Trailing far off.
People did this.
His fists had balled to bleeding point some time during.
They didn't need to do this.
The thought rang in his head, over and over, as his breathing harshened.
These were good people.
His legs carried him forward, in the same direction of the tracks.
It was stupid to do such a thing as chase an unknown amount of people for how long of a distance. He rationalized it somehow. He didn't remember how, because by then, his pace had risen to a run.
The drizzle had broken out into rain. If he didn't hurry, they'd wash away. So he ran faster.
The sky darkened. He grew faster.
Some time into it, he found people standing guard outside a building. Crossbows, bows, rifles. One had the rifle. He forgot what they were holding, the amount of doors and rides around them. He didn't notice the downpour around him.
Someone screamed. Very loudly, someone screamed. Before either could open their mouths, someone screamed.
His brother's sword was torn out. Something metallic shattered. More yells ensued, almost drowned out by one.
His throat grew rawer and rawer over the one voice. It didn't matter. It meant he was still able to keep going.
The hole in his chest was going to burn him alive if he didn't act on the impulse.
Someone had to answer.
[ OP: My First Story – REVIVER ]
Weight of the Dream…
Neoru watched his opponent struggle to his feet.
The wounds that hadn't been cauterized slowly dripped down his body. His hair bunched to the back of his head, stuck in place like an action figure's. His life wasn't at stake, yet his breaths alone were like audible pleas to live.
"HH… H-HAH-"
Zinco crashed onto a knee again, after an eternity of struggling upward.
The stoic violet eyes tracking his movement began to furrow. "Yo…"
A palm smacked into his knee, and with a gargled roar and a burst of effort, he finally stood on two wobbling feet. He stabilized them with a much clearer, much louder kiai. With the way he panted to the sky, the burst was all he had to give. His emerald eyes constricted in their sockets, desperately trying to draw more from himself and failing.
The concept of losing now, to someone like Neoru, felt unforgivable.
"This can't…!" The thought seeped from his lips without strength to hold it back. One fist could hardly clench, stuck in a shaking claw. The harder it shook, the more his legs shook.
"(I can't…)" The strength in his eyes waned, fading to black as the sky shrank.
.
.
And with that, the strength in his ears slowly returned.
All around him, however soft they were to his ringing ears from miles away, he heard his name. His first thought was to drown them out, hyperfixate on the dream now at stake; it couldn't matter to him how he'd riled others against him for his failings.
— but such a feat was difficult in a way no amount of training could prepare the boy for. His ears betrayed him, and he fell privy to a dream he thought lost.
"ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴏɴ, ᴋɪᴅ!"
"ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʟᴇᴛ ɪᴛ ᴇɴᴅ ʜᴇʀᴇ, ᴢɪɴᴄᴏ!"
"ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ᴀʟᴍᴏsᴛ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ! ᴊᴜsᴛ ᴀ ʙɪᴛ ᴍᴏʀᴇ!"
"ᴋᴇᴇᴘ ᴘᴜsʜɪɴ', sᴀɪʏᴀɴ!"
"sᴛᴀɴᴅ ᴜᴘ! ʏᴏᴜ'ᴠᴇ ɢᴏᴛ ᴛʜɪs, ᴊᴜsᴛ sᴛᴀɴᴅ ᴜᴘ, ᴍᴀɴ!"
"ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ sᴏ ᴄʟᴏsᴇ, ᴍɪsᴛᴇʀ! ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴛᴏ ᴅᴏ ɪᴛ!"
"ɪ ɢᴏᴛ ɴᴇxᴛ ɪғ ʏᴏᴜ ʟᴏsᴇ ɪ'ᴍ ᴊᴜsᴛ sᴀʏɪɴ"
"ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ᴅᴏɪɴɢ ɪᴛ, ᴅᴀᴍᴍɪᴛ! ʜᴇ's ᴏɴ ʜɪs ʟᴀsᴛ ʟᴇɢs ᴛᴏᴏ, ᴊᴜsᴛ ʟᴇᴛ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴏᴜᴛ!"
"ᴢɪɴ-ᴄᴏ! ᴢɪɴ-ᴄᴏ! ᴢɪɴ-ᴄᴏ!"
At his lowest, countless others weren't lambasting him, or crying out for his death. They were spurring him on — It, on. Light pooled into his glistening eyes as he began to understand.
[ BGM: FreQuency – Dive Into the Flame ]
"You can hear them… can't you, Zinco?" One last voice whimpered with joy. "... this is all because of you. Congratulations!"
The thump of a single heartbeat rolled through the air.
From sheer rising heat alone, his outline broke out into a mirage. A spiritual pressure shrank deeper and deeper into his layered core of being. One such layer sparked uncontrollably, erupting into cracks, before finally exploding.
A divine roar unleashed from his center as a golden light covered the world. A hundred-fold brighter, a hundred-fold more magnificent than the last instance. As such, the agony of such a sudden ascent threatened to tear his body asunder.
However, the sheer binding force of his dream held him together. Every last spur pushed him up and over the last hurdle.
IF I'M SEEING THIS CORRECTLY, STUDENT ZINCO HAS NOW BECOME A SUPER SAIYAN! OR… A GRADE 2… THREE… WAIT, HE'S ASCENDING TO THE SECOND LEVEL ALREADY!? WHAT!?
THERE'S NO MISTAKING IT! WE'RE SEEING THE EXACT SAME TRANSFORMATION…! OR, RATHER…! CHAIN OF TRANSFORMATIONS THAT WE SAW IN HIS LAST MATCH, FOLKS AT HOME! JUST THAT THIS ONE IS A MAGNITUDE ABOVE THE LAST, FROM THE SOUND AND FEEL OF IT!
They weren't even audible — Zinco's roars drowned them out entirely. The boy leapt over Super Saiyan states like realms of heaven, his body's countermeasure to forcefully digest the surge of power — a fully-transmigrated spirit, not hastened by circumstance, a true battery.
"(... what'm I waiting for?)" Neoru asked himself as he rooted himself in place. "(It should be over for me if he gets to the point he was at last time, against a guy like me… so what's stopping me from doing something?)"
He looked inward, toward the fire in his stomach, and verified the subconscious superemotion. "(It's that simple. I just wanna see how far the guy can go… and the same's true for myself, yeah?)" A melancholic smile took him as he covered his violet, burning eyes with a palm. "(I'm honored to've pushed you this far. But, I'm still seein' every bit'a this through, 'til I can't even make a fist. That's all I have right now.)"
He reached the third level and with it, a limit. The pain enrapturing his body became mind-bending, tendons stretching to their tensile limits and his very makeup at the molecular level threatening to collapse against the pressure of his own ki. His mind, unwavering, beat flash after flash of past force into his very cells, fueling the present's significance. His fangs grew amidst the chaos, his vacant white sockets straining with red veins as he refused to compromise, even as damage compiled, his own bar of HP descending, tick by tick of 1%.
Staring from the stands, uncertainty chaining her motionless, Kaza shattered herself free and shouted from the heart.
"ZINCOOOO! DON'T LOSE TO YOURSEEELF!"
Mei's eyes widened at the sentiment.
"DON'T LET THAT JERK OUTDO YOOOOOU! YOU'RE EVEN STRONGER THAN YOU THINK, I KNOW IIIIIT!"
"..." She couldn't help but smile. "IF YOU CALL HER A LIAR AND FALL TO YOURSELF…!"
Kaza looked over in surprise — mostly from how unfathomably loud the small human was capable of being.
"I WILL DRAG YOU FROM HEAVEN AND KILL YOU AGAIN, NINE TIMES OVEEEEER! YOU ARE NOT YOURS TO LOSE TOOOOOO!"
Both flashed a hopeful grin at each other. "DO IT ALREADYYYYY!"
Their passionate encouragement could hardly reach him, but hardly was more than enough to fuel his indomitable will and keep him going.
It was the next roar that threw him over.
"HEY, DUMBASS!"
His eyes somehow constricted further.
Neoru made the aforementioned fist, throwing it his way in a gesture of defiance. "STOP WASTING MY TIME, PULL YOUR TAIL OUTTA YOUR ASS, AND BREAK, THE FUCK ON THROUGH ALREADY!"
Dina stared. "You… idiot…" She slowly, surely broke into giggling fits as her palm moved over her face. "Why're you goading him ON…? That'll END you, ya… daft…!" She shook her head, remembering how thinly veiled this side of Neoru was at all times.
Kora watched on, flabbergasted. "That's a Saiyan out there… it has to be…!"
Whether or not it was the innate ability of Tlatla, or his own more-repressed emotions finally erupting through the surface, or both, was irrelevant.
It worked.
"(GROOOOOOOOOOOA!)"
"EIIAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Red swallowed the whitened voids of sclera, and then, for a flash, the returned pupils, before white and a vibrant blue shot forward into the sky.
Renchiru stood from his seat. "...I have no more doubts. He's the... A... Super Saiyan God! And yet, so much more than...!"
Voshyo's initial shock was replaced by a brimming grin. "Marvelous!"
"Holy crap!" Archi turned back to Kazikum. "Is THAT the guy your dad knew!?"
Kazikum seemingly ignored him.
"Uh..."
His stoic demeanor unchanged, Kazikum proceeded to gag a stream of smoking blood.
"WHAT IN THE-"
"A-allergies, I guess!'" Wabi waved off, sweating from the constant healing of the devilish brute.
"UM, AM I WEIRD FOR THINKIN' HE'S SORTA CUTE!? NO SERIOUSLY I DON'T WANNA WIND UP ON SOME LIST SOMEWHERE OR-" Before Devine could finish, everything around the section grew brighter and brighter until nothing was visible.
A divine, blinding flash, that of which nullified even the aviators of each announcer, blared out as a roar eclipsing the volume of human and saiyan, both extremes simultaneously, sent everything skyward.
And then…
..
.
Sight returned to the dragon boy in blurry waves. Releasing his guard, Neo realized just how far he'd skid across the arena.
— his back had hit the gate from which he'd entered, faster than it could retreat backward. By all accounts, in a standard One Under Heaven bout, he would've been DQ'd on a ring-out. His eyes shot up to the stat bars up-top.
50%.
1ㅤ0ㅤ0ㅤ%ㅤ.
"... oh. Oh." The seed of what he'd done germinated within him. "Oh come on…"
The thunk of boots onto the ground snagged his attention.
"... dude that does NOT look good on you."
This hostess would beg to differ, personally.
[ BGM: Don Davis – Neodammerung (0:00-1:35) ]
A faint, aureate cloud in an orbiting hailstorm of jade. The pressure emanating from him was nothing short of divine. Just standing in his field of view was like deadlifting in the Midnight Zone, and he – Zinco, allegedly – was staring directly at him.
"... Neoru…" His voice was calm, yet carried more weight than the most fierce of shouts. "I'll give you one last-"
"Shove it up your ass." Neo didn't care, despite his saucers-for-eyes. The flames of Tlatla slowly enveloped him, clashing with the blatant heat of Zinco's aura and causing an escalating drizzle. "I started it. I've lost too much not to finish it. That's all there is to it."
The fact rapidly pissed Zinco off further. "What is it with you?" It sounded more rhetorical than anything, something Neoru didn't think he was capable of. "You spur me on, and yet you're still gonna fight me…! What's the point!?"
"Iunnuh."
Zinco's leering figure marched over to the smaller Neoru, and Neo balled his fists, moseying over to meet Jin in the middle. A war horse loomed over a garden snake.
"All you have to do is live peacefully. You don't even LIKE fighting."
The outline of a dragon flashed around the boy. "Neither do you."
"But I have a-" Zinco bit his tongue.
Neoru's face tightened. "Yep."
They stopped a meter from each other, just as the rain grew into a storm. Neoru's aura fluctuated like a beating heart, that very outline continuously flaring — only now, it seemed wrapped around him, ghostly feathered wings appearing for brief moments around his shoulders as a spiritual amethyst flame enveloped his body.
Taming his fighting spirit, Neoru opposed a will directly against it. Amidst the heat, space seemed to bend between them.
"This is happening."
"You're impossible…!"
"... well that makes two of us."
Jin growled in a rage.
Neo growled in a rage.
And…
A great ape struck at a great serpent.
A man struck at a god.
[ BGM: Juno Reactor – Navras (0:16) ]
Neoru lurched over; in one motion, Zinco had completely destroyed his fighting spirit.
The rain dragged a line of blood down the corner of Zinco's lip, as he turned his head back toward his enemy.
Neoru, as he lived and breathed, created it again from nothingness. Once again, he tightened his fist.
Both glared into each other's souls, daring one to strike at the other.
Yanking his reformed fist back, Neoru sent a push kick for Zinco's kidney. The half-blood blocked with a knee upward, only for his enemy to escape the ensuing axe kick and spin directly beneath him, smacking palms into the earth with a monstrous slam and sending another, now skewer-esque kick at his chin. Jin dodged with a motion no more than a millimeter, planting his returning leg back and firing his fist straight for Neo's now-exposed core, only to hit air; he balled himself mid-air in a somersault, bursting into a side-kick. Zinco took it directly, canceling its force with his headbutt and leaving Neoru airborne for as long as needed to leap up in a seemingly-instantaneous straight kick to the sky that sent a vibration across the very space, but Neoru had already used Zinco's thick forehead as a jumping pad and leap away with one seamless flip back onto his feet, just as Zinco's retouched the ground.
The two sprang at each other. Discarding everything with any sort of flashy windup, they fought like mad, Neoru miraculously evening the gap in power as his flames revved back up — his mad barrages were constantly met by Zinco's own, the former's violet pupils hazing out of focus as he pushed himself to throw more and more seemingly-mindless attacks without a hint of higher thought, Zinco meeting each one with a punch or shin check of his own, equating the force of every attack as he hounded for an end to the violet-eyed boy's stamina. The air between them began to spark in their clashes.
And then Zinco weaved past a fist. "YOUR GAME IS…!" His palm rocketed toward Neoru's body,
Only for Neo's own to cut it off with just as much force. The act alone winded Neoru spectacularly, but his will continued to circulate just as his roaring spirit kept converting ki from one world to the last. The side of Neoru's hand careened for Zinco's throat as he muttered something under his breath, and the strike was parried by the half-blood in a seamless swat as he dished out a hook, only to just-then notice Neoru's one-handed, wide-fingered gesture as the boy outsped the oncoming hook by a hair stretched thin.
Zinco said it louder once he understood. "SOLAR FLA-"
Light drowned his eyes, stunning him just long enough for Neo to dash into him full-tilt, yanking himself on-and-over the transcendent's arm before kicking in his jaw, locking legs around his neck, and flippng them both, slamming the opposing blonde into the ground and overextending the seized arm in the process. The dragon boy spun onto his feet before rotating into the air, sending a knee en route for his back.
But Zinco still had every other sense; even without sight, he could see just fine once his thoughts cleared, and they did so in a blink. He outstretched a hand in rage toward the direction of Neoru's odd air currents, pattern of breathing, scent, and ki signature. He twisted himself back 'round, tail smacking the concrete, and his veined arm caught the knee. He sprang upward, briefly holding Neo with a single hand before a thrust sent the scrapper skidding backward; Zinco, however, didn't lower his hand.
"VOLUTUS!"
Neo watched a wave of pressure careen toward him. It went off into the sky forever and stretched across the horizon. "Oh fuck you, KIKOHO!" he responded, sending everything out in a ki-infused light that fashioned a… pocket… inside the biblical tsunami.
OH- BY THE- LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, STUDENT ZINCO DID, IN FACT, JUST THROW A BORDERLINE SOLAR STORM AT STUDENT NEORU! S-SOMETHING LIKE THAT COULD, WITHOUT FAIL, BAY A PLANET'S WORTH OF PEOPLE, AT WORST! S-SENIOR ANNOUNCER, DID YOU HAVE ANY REMARKS!?
Trunks dropped his mic. Pan, this is wrong.
… aaND IT LOOKS LIKE ONE OF US HAS GOTTEN… CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE, UH… Holy shi- UM- LOOK!
The breadth of space gave him just enough time to reel back both hands. "KAMEHAME-"
And then Zinco burst from within the cloud like a leopard from the brush. "HAAAAAA—!"
The floor began liquifying, shattering the dragon's posture as its natural predator went for the kill.
What followed was a divine dance of Cirrus that made his previous techniques look insignificant. Countless strikes slammed into the boy's soul, tearing apart his innate fight with an intensity that rivaled what'd been seen from the human, just as the rolling typhoon of true ki swallowed them.
"(THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU…!)"
Another dozen fists.
"(YOU'RE JUST HURTING EVERYONE AROUND YOU WITH THIS STUPID GAME YOU'RE PLAYING!)"
Another round of kicks.
"(EVERYTHING YOU SAY SOUNDS SO CONFIDENT…! LIKE YOU HAVE SOMETHING EVERYONE ELSE DOESN'T…! BUT YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT IS, DO YOU!?)"
Every martial movement of the hand and foot, the arm and leg, quickened to a point where his every move was a blurred wave orbiting a spiritually-crushed Neoru.
"KAAAA!"
Reappearing to his front, both his fists collided in C-form, killing his fight.
Neoru shook, unharmed yet broken. He fell to his knees.
Zinco seemed to seize him in a grapple, hand gripping his lower core, a steady haze of violet mist burning off from his back. "It's over…!"
Looking on, cradling his chin atop interwoven fingers, Tenganosu's thoughts wondered.
"If it weren't for the power vacuum our people caused, the South Stretch wouldn't've died off…"
"I mean, so you say but, but we were only doing what it takes to survive! Every clan! It was bound to happen eventually, the way you put it!"
The young woman with a sash of whistles shook her head. "No… no other creature on Earth holds the sheer capacity for warring that we do. The Orojia, especially. This fighting spirit they all flaunted… it's a curse that brought our islands to ruin…! And it was only made worse, as we learned to master it…!"
The Graffia gulped, his brows converging. "(I… I wanna see Neo pull through, but… I dunno anymore, mano… what good's that excess fighting spirit doin' any of us, much less you?)"
Ceushius's eyes grew in concern. "This is new…"
"Hn." Voshyo turned his head. "Is that concern in your voice, old man?"
"Not even in his battle against you was Zinco this… intense."
The Saiyan heir smirked. "You. Archi."
Archi's head snapped up, looking around before slowly pointing back to-
"YES, YOU-... What do you see in the earthling down there?"
"Huh? Oh, uh… I dunno… I kinda wanna kick him in the face. But that's just 'cus he's strong, right? 'Specially for a human."
Voshyo slowly shook his head. "See, the Saiyan's natural instinct in battle, in ANY measured contest of will, is domination. To prove absolute superiority over their opponent, over anything capable of wielding strength." He turned back to his kinda-mentor. "Zinco's dream has given him a temperament that he himself hardly knows of, but it's foretold in his genetic code. To absolutely obliterate the concept of 'fight' in his foe, that is his instinct in combat. The more he is denied this, the fiercer he is inclined to fight. And the one down there…"
Zinco's eyes grew in rage.
Just like Neoru's.
"I SAID…!" He applied even more energy into Mammatus. "IT'S OVER…!"
Neoru struggled to so-much-as frown, for a moment.
And then he frowned. And then he grit.
And then he burned. Faster than even the gods' essence could put him out.
"IS THE ABSOLUTE EPITOME OF 'RESIST'."
Neoru gripped Zinco's face. "SAYS… YOU… FUCKER…!" he bellowed between his teeth, before throwing him into a knee.
Tlatla burned even brighter than before, surged even quicker than before.
Zinco's head bounced up, pelted in a flurry of his own blood, before being brought back down like an asteroid, slamming harmlessly into his enemy's skull with the weight of a star. "NEORUUUUU—!"
"YELLIN' LIKE I DON'T ALREADY KNOW MY OWN DAMN NAME, YOU STUPID BITCH!" Neo dragged him into a clinch and forced his head even closer, the once-stone waves parting from between, and sweeping across the skies behind and around, the two. "I'M STILL FUCKING HERE! DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, ZINCO!"
The demigod forged a jade flame in his fists, and was promptly elbowed in the face.
"U-SHAAAAAAAAA—!" The tides burst and the waves violently churned. A storm of elbows, fists, knees, kicks, chops, headbutts, everything flew into Zinco, rapidly taking to the air as Neo beat the tar out of him before a kiai sent him back. The half-saiyan manifested eight colossal orbs above his own head, hurling each one at Neoru.
The dragon boy formed a naga mudra. "ooom-Everything-Nothing-Short Life-Good Life-INRONKO!" His sacrilegious prayer aside, a great light beamed from his hands, dispelling the blast entirely as another one charged him.
"PISS ON A STICK I JUST- INRONKO!" He made another, and another, and another, seemingly losing his voice with each iteration as he seemed to dance, hurtling through the air.
Zinco appeared behind him with his hands outstretched. Neoru entangled them with his own as they stared each other down in a shared anger.
"(SO SICK OF YOU…!)"
"ASPERITAS!"
"INRONKO!"
What followed was very, very loud, and very, very bright.
WHAT ONCE FAILED TO SO MUCH AS DENT STUDENT ZINCO'S OUTRAGEOUS SHOWS OF FORCE HAS NOW MATCHED IT TIT-FOR-TAT! THIS VERISIMILITUDINOUS ANNOUNCER, YES THAT IS A REAL WORD FOLKS AT HOME, CAN ATTEST THAT THE DISPLAYS OF SUDDEN POWER IN THIS MATCH WOULD SEND ANY MEETING OVER IN THE CALCS DIVISION UP IN FLAMES THE SECOND HAUNCHES TOUCH SEATS! AS UNFORTUNATE AS IT MAY BE, MY SENIOR ANNOUNCER SEEMS TO'VE TAKEN A STEP BACK FROM THE VIOLENCE DEPICTED TODAY, BUT I FEEL CONFIDENT SPEAKING FOR HIM WHEN I SAY-
HWOOOOOOOOOO!
Pan jumped back as a twitching Trunks took back his microphone in full earnest. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IF YOU TELL ME YOU'VE SEEN A BETTER LIGHTSHOW ANYWHERE IN THE COSMOS, I'D CALL YOU A LIAR AND DECK YOU WHERE IT DON'T SHINE! WHAT A BATTLE! WHAT A CONTEST OF STRENGTH ON DISPLAY TODAY! HOW THE HELL COULD ANYTHING ELSE TOP THIS!?
"(what kind of demons has this old coot been hiding?)" Son asked herself nervously.
Zinco emerged from the fold, smoldering yet resolute, before Neo rocketed INTO him, briefly surfing on his face before kicking off him in a backflip and ripping back his taloned hand onto his forehead, as if he'd kickstarted a chainsaw.
"TAKASEN…!"
Kaset almost leapt over the banister. "YO, THAT'S…!"
Pan's eyes widened. "Mom's technique…!"
"KO!"
Zinco stared down the attack angrily, raising his hand to use a technique that predated his own knowledge — it simply felt right.
To his surprise, and despite massive parts of it spontaneously ceasing to exist, the blast split apart, each spirit-talon being enveloped in boiling-hot focused winds that pincered in on the blonde. Jin responded with a silent kiai from his exhale alone — one that sounded exasperated, though not from any fatigue, from what could be heard.
Neoru then sprang into him with a blazing knee to his sternum.
It broke through the kiai's force handedly. Jin took all of it, unmoving with grit teeth fit to burst from the gums. Neo had much the same affliction.
His emerald eyes flared. "...! KHAAA!"
A pressure sent him flying away, stopping himself over melted marble sea.
His head rose back up, and he stared in something between shock and terror.
The Kirin had showed itself again, soaring toward him.
Neoru pulled everything – EVERYTHING – out from his soul, forcing it into nigh-overtime and tempting nonexistence. He charged right back, the Dragon once again.
The two, vocal chords shattering, entered a screaming match.
Zinco poured his heart and soul into the fist, the one that without fail could subdue ANYTHING above and below, heaven and earth, all things that faced its judgement.
Yet without a dream, without a reason, the dragon held its form against a force beyond reality. In that instance, that was all it could do.
That was enough.
Blood erupted from their mouths as their eyes went blank. Kirin bit into dragon as dragon uselessly, stubbornly coiled around kirin.
There was no feasible way he could overpower such an unstoppable attack. None but an inexhaustible torrent of "self."
Neoru simply rebelled against Zinco's will. That was all there was to it.
And as close to divine as he was, the boy had a limit to his stamina. He could only maintain the attack to a point.
The "evil" in him was torn out. Over and over and over again, in a blinding, rotating display of destruction and rebirth that seemed limitless in sheer energy. Until the attack, ultimately, ended.
Both fell. Eyes amethyst and jade suddenly shot back open, catching themselves in cat-like flips. They dropped to their knees, panting. Both were slick with sweat, pools falling onto the scorched earth and back into the pouring sky.
Neoru coughed up specks of red, grabbing at his throat.
30%.
Zinco shook violently, breaths coming out in what looked like steam.
60%.
On seeing the fight present in his enemy's eyes, a raging headache assailed the half-blood.
"... when…" He covered an aching eye with a hand. "When you say… reason… what are you saying?"
"... something deeper… than strength… or love, or pain, or… or anything else…" He fell on both hands. "... somethin' that'll keep me goin' even if I… lose… everything…"
"Don't…" Zinco reared himself up. "Don't you already HAVE that?"
[ BGM: Kevin Canham – Cumulonimbus ]
"..." Neoru went slant-eyed at the boy. "What?"
The blonde, his hair half-matted over an eye due to the rain and half pointed-upward like a horn, pointed an accusatory finger at the brunette. "You've had that 'Turatura' thing ever since back then. That means you've ALWAYS had a way to keep moving forward. Even without 'it'… if you need that something so bad, then why did you put yourself in front of me back then?"
"Why I put myself in fronna… someone who couldn't defend himself?" Neo asked with an annoyed, further-cocked brow, before swallowing his breath, finally self-regulating. "-hat's a bare minimum, jackass. ANYONE should be able ta do at least that."
Jin did likewise, letting out one last massive exhale. "What's wrong with bare minimum? Why can't THAT just be your purpose?"
"So what, I'm supposed to wait until someone's gettin' tossed around for me to do anything that matters at all?" He aggressively swatted the idea away. "Bullshit! I want something with any real worth, then it's gotta matter to me even if everything's fine n' dandy n' right with the world. I'm not gonna rely on hellholes like the one I'm from to give myself shit to do, that's FUCKED."
"IF IT'S SO FUCKED-"
Neo staggered back like he'd been shot.
Jin kept going, maintaining his grit frown. "THEN WHY AREN'T YOUR FRIENDS ENOUGH!? Mei, Dina, Katlij, everyone else around you, they're right there, and they clearly care about you! So why aren't they 'GOOD ENOUGH' for you to be 'purpose'!?"
"I ALREADY FUCKING TOLD YOU, DIPSHIT! THEY'VE GOT THEIR OWN LIVES, THEIR OWN BRIDGES TO CROSS, THEIR OWN DAMN REASONS!" Neoru began visibly twitching. "So if something happens to them on the path they choose, what the hell am I left with, huh? Since you're so fuckin' mature now, you tell me, what am I left with!?"
"THEIR MEMORY!" Zinco threw his hands up into the air, as if the answer were as obvious as the kanji for 1. "Everything they taught you, all the time you spent with them, they're still there! So when they pass on, they're still with you as memories! That's why it's so important to live for other people!"
"But you DON'T live for other people, do you!? Your entire purpose has been that damn dream of yours!"
"Why do you think I WANT it in the first place!? That's why it's so… STUPID that you're still fighting me! I only want my dream for all of YOU!"
"WELL I DIDN'T ASK FOR SHIT FROM YOU!"
"I DON'T CARE IF YOU DIDN'T ASK!" The half-blood gripped his head with a hand. "WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM!? YOU'RE FIGHTING FOR NO REASON," Zinco pointed off toward the audience, "WHEN YOU HAVE A REASON TO STOP DOING THIS, RIGHT THERE-"
Neoru's mouth opened faster than he could think.
"BECAUSE I CAN'T LOSE ANY MORE FUCKING REASONS!"
Silence.
The scenario changed. Completely enrapturing the plane, a rocky, mossy land cut off by a cliffside narrowing off the edge, into a crashing, stormy sea.
The human's head fell limply. "I can't… take another loss… that stupid 'memory' bullshit you're dronin' about, I can't just DO that forever, dammit… if Kaza died tomorrow, if she died RIGHT NOW, you'd still HAVE THAT. I… " He chuckled through the pain. "I'm… I've always been jealous, alright? I want that. Somethin' strong enough to do the impossible over, somethin' that sticks. A dream. But right now, all I got…" He found the strength to make a fist once again, and released more from there. "Is ta keep fighting to the end. That's all I can do not to break."
"... so you're going to keep resisting… just to resist… because you're too scared of people dying?"
Neoru ashamedly nodded. "-Mhm."
The young man's emerald eyes looked tired. He dragged his head to the livid sky with a tight, shaking palm that covered his curling frown, his harsh inhale painfully audible even amidst the rain. The palm pulled away from his face and slowly, tightly clenched into a fist.
"... coward." His fist fell, face still skyward as droplets splattered across his jade eyes and wind crossed his elongated blonde hair. "I'm not gonna lose to a coward."
It was almost understanding, his tone.
The young man was out of comebacks. All he had left was action.
So Neoru lashed out, like always.
And Zinco endured, like always.
[ BGM: Kensuke Ushio – livingroom ]
"(I should've known.)"
The punch was blocked by a palm. The kick from below and its follow-up were parried and weaved, and distance was gained. Neo honed in again, and evaded a high kick, then dove in to catch the quick side-kick backup before it could fully spring from the chamber.
"(I should've known you'd make me struggle this hard.)"
They tussled for a moment, Neo picking up and driving him into the ground before he pushed off to the side in a split moment of looseness thanks to the rocky earth, torque-ing off in a series of small spins and settling into a low, levitated side-strafe as he launched blasts. Within a haze of self-caused debris, Neoru caught himself and leapt over the energy – that of which exploded without destructive effect, yet shot off in spiritual shrapnel – as spokes of his own shined through his clenched fist, sending a blazing orb down as he bounded across the cliffside. The ensuing explosion sent the half-saiyan away in a flailing fit before he somersaulted back to bearings.
"(And I can't help but think over and over, how easy it'd be for me to just hit you on the head and knock you out, or stop your breathing with a stranglehold.)"
He skid right into and under a waiting mule kick that parted the ground and split the waters past the cliff face, stopping himself with the flick of a tail and a driven foot into the ground, jumping into a spin kick that Neo ducked by a hair and countered with a heel-led, surface-to-air variant that Zinco side-stepped and countered with a three-point kick, low-to-high; the final chin strike Neo side-limbo'd under in a haze of singed violet, before veering into a 90-degree handstand kick, sending Zinco away in a roll as the violet-eyed human cartwheeled over, charging his ki into a hand and taking aim point-blank, before the saiyan touched back down and sent his wave off-course with a forearm parry into a hold.
"(But that'd be the easy way out. I know it would be, and everything I've worked for would be lost just because I wanna 'win'. I just didn't know you still had so much within you. Something this… impossible.)"
Zinco tried pulling him into a palm, only for him to send it off-course with his empty hand, turning back and kicking one of Zinco's knees from under him, before yanking back his arm and kneeing him in the back of the head, pulling him in and drop-kicking him away in a seamless sideflip onto his own two feet, briefly stumbling before smacking them into a rally.
"(And now I have to ask myself… do I even really want to get rid of it?)"
Zinco skid to his feet, rubbing his bloodied nose and confirming the injury. He looked back up and stared for a moment — the boy his opposite was looking backward on the small path to the edge, as if he'd swallowed something stale.
"(Would that be cruel? Or is leaving it worse? I can't make up my mind with you, you're… you're the only one to leave me without a good answer.)" Zinco stood back onto his feet and slowly made his way toward him.
Neoru noticed, and nervously reciprocated the pace.
"(If I don't, I don't know what you'll do, or why. This fear that's driving you… I just wanna send it away. Like with everyone else's, if not more. Somehow.)"
They slowly veered to each side, half-circling each other before meeting in the middle; Neoru opened with periodic feints that Zinco didn't even bother reacting toward, even amidst the burning fighting spirit pervading each mock-strike.
"(But if I do erase it, somehow… will… I mean, is that fighting spirit really what makes you, you?)"
Zinco caught a true strike, and his own was caught in turn. The two entered a martial game of tag, one's successful attack between the sea of countered blows leading to a proton-sized gap in their defense, giving the other an offensive edge for a time before the cycle repeated as they zipped across the rocky, unstable border of land and sea.
"(And what could I even say to you, to that? Is it too late for me to change this about you? Why do I need to do this to a good person? Why does everything always need to be a FIGHT with you?)"
One of their hits – Jin couldn't tell if it was his or Neo's – left a gap one size too large. Their fists suddenly collided. A match of strength transpired.
"(And why does it have to be YOU… that makes me FEEL THIS WAY…!?)"
Zinco's grimace twitched up and down as he struggled against his opponent, who seemed to share that sentiment.
"HRAAA—! (HOW DO I END THIS FOR YOU IN TIME…!? EITHER OTHER CHOICE MEANS I LOSE… MEANS THAT I CAN'T LIVE UP TO THAT IDEA! SO WHAT CHOICE DO I HAVE, EITHER, TO KEEP FIGHTING!?)"
"GRAAA—!"
"(I NEED TO FOCUS! I CAN BEAT YOU! I WON'T SUBMIT TO IT, I JUST NEED TO BELIEVE IN MYSELF!) HAAAAAA!"
The debris going skyward paused, the seas halted, everything slowed to a crawl except time itself; Zinco's front kick jut forward and sent the waters far above the cliff, just as Neoru began to will through, break again, and will through again, elbowing Zinco in the throat, splattering the tidal wave. The two distanced again.
"(I… I need… to want this… to end, I can't… let myself…)"
Both formed a fist, and it continued.
One announcer looked on with trepidation. "(Didn't expect this to take so long…)"
The other raised his mic.
What is conviction?
[ BGM: Alisa Okehazama – Hallyang Seo and Samul Nori ]
Son looked over to him with closed surprise.
The strength of the ideal itself? Or is it the will with which one fights for it, no matter how pointless it seems? Or is it just the ability to put it in words in a heartbeat, and mean it, without even the faintest shadow of doubt? Even if those words are challenged directly, over and over?
Both boys assailed each other with bursts of ki charging their movements, the battle taking to the skies and back to the ground in violent, spark-infused flashes that sent swathes of the rain around them up in steam.
With ridiculously-different ceilings of power across each student's matches to now, there's been something binding them; a conviction beyond victory, one allowing them to surmount the insurmountable with every match. Trunks seemed to be taking the fight much more serious, though for a reason Son couldn't discern. It seemed like he was describing a memory of his own. Is it an idea of justice? Or a "way" by which they believe one should live?
Or is it nothing more than a disagreement? In any case, Pan still loved drama. A drawn-out argument that's at long-last able to be resolved through pitting their very souls against one another!?
Trunks seemed taken aback, initially, but somehow took it with even more melancholy. Whatever the answer, the fact stands that the two students have long-since left behind any external reward lying behind victory. The sole prize that awaits these two…!
IS PROVING WHOSE CONVICTION IS STILL STANDING FIRM BY THE END OF THE FIGHT!
The scenario changed.
Again.
Again.
And again, with every split clash, the two cycling between burning and conserving energy in those flashes of full power. The insides and outsides of a dilapidated clear-sky apocalypse, the interiors and exteriors of a shiny smog-coated dystopia. A green, forested land, a white, snowy scape. A yellow sky going red with dawn, a cliffside of grey going blue with dusk.
The anger slowly left their eyes, yet the intensity remained.
"(... That's right.)" Trunks' mind traveled to a place not far from the current point in time. One with a man he could've called a brother, one he fought for the sake of good, one whom he'd lost handedly to after questioning his own ideals in the midst of the fight. "(This is why I wanted the STEP program.)"
The two's roars became split-second shouts, kiai after kiai, as their forearms and shins collided over and over, as their fists continuously missed their mark. Orbs and vectors of ki began to manifest overhead, firing toward their elusive targets and colliding into each other as they danced through the barrages. The triangles of their father-arts began to return in snippets of varying size, each boy pining for something strong enough to best the other, each's movements growing more and more rhythmic between bursts.
"(Not to create unbreakable patrollers, but to nurture warriors who could break, and were strong enough to mend, with beliefs even stronger.)" The lilac swordsman smiled. "(To prove 'you' wrong one day, and never break again.)"
The Saiyan's body grew stronger, just as the Orojia's soul grew stronger. They continued to meet each other.
The two suddenly broke, each wiping a dark shade of spittle from their mouths, neither any the wiser — they hyperfixated on the other's dwindling state.
"(This one'll get him.)"
They simply ran at each other again, loading everything into a fist.
Different terrains shattered under their heels as they charged. Their eyes streaked as rays of light as they finally reached proximity.
They sent their fist flying.
And…
..
.
Merona confidently stomped out both feet, shoulder width apart as a power began steaming off her. She pulled her arms in a steady sweep from the ground into her core, and then raised both arms skyward, before they shot to her sides.
"IKKEU!"
Zinco spread out and repeated the gesture, albeit more wonky and out of order.
"EIAAA!"
She darted forward, a kick springing from thin air and breaking toward Zinco.
It shattered the sound barrier, a textbook kick performed with falling snow's grace, yet Zinco was able to parry it. Gasps, barely-but-just audible enough, emanate from the creaked temple door.
Merona split from him, and the fight continued. Her dance-like style, each arm waving in a circular and fluid, mesmerizing motion, was complemented by each passionate kick; low, high, front, back, everything in between, it didn't matter. The water-esque motions she showed ‒ as if stepping upon an ever-moving triangle that followed her position ‒ coupled with the ever-growing speed and ferocity of her attacks as she entered and exited the air was down-right demotivating for many of the silent spectators.
Yet Zinco was keeping pace. His movements were just as fluid, following the same form of triangle; it was starting to look like he had more legs, and his ever-stabilizing tail wasn't helping.
A kick was suddenly blocked by Zinco's fluid parry, and in a likewise fluid throw, he tossed Merona to the other side of the court as a result.
Merona let out a small wince in pain, but she was having too much fun to notice the funny feelings in her limbs and abdomen.
Both charged back in, their velocity rising as Zinco dodged a flying scissor kick and Merona narrowly bounded over his first genuine attack. Engaging in a brief palm-ridden exchange before a shared grapple knocked the two away, they threw down in a beautiful battle of assorted kicks and mutual parries.
In the ensuing clashes, Zinco had forgotten his gripes about fighting Merona. His fist had even balled in all his excitement. He was fighting a strong opponent, and that was all that mattered.
"HAAAH!"
"KAAAA!"
Right then, he could unleash everything he had, see how strong he really was, against someone genuinely strong — something he'd wanted since he learned what fighting was. So he did. With gusto, he did.
The attack made a sound like ground rock. She flew back.
"... ALRIGHT!" Zinco cheered, racing over to her. "That was awesome, Merona! YOU were awesome! I had no idea you were so strong!"
She didn't answer.
"Oh…" he bashfully parted his hair. "I got too carried away. Sorry…"
She didn't answer.
His gaze continued. "You aren't… mad at me… are you?"
Slowly, surely, he started to notice something wrong. The wound, the red stemming off it. Her contorted face.
"... hey. Hey, Merona…?" He knelt down, trying to get her attention. "I-I'm right here, Merona…! You can s-stop ignoring me now, it's… it's not funny anymore!" He started to quake. "Merona? Merona!?"
The door behind him suddenly slammed open. "YOUNG MASTER!?"
Zinco turned to them in a panic. "SH-SHE WON'T STOP LOOKING AT THE SKY! I THINK SOMETHING'S WRONG!"
"MOVE!"
He immediately obliged, though gently lowering his friend to the ground all the same. Someone checked her pulse, while another applied their own life force to her.
"... stop."
"NO, SHE-"
"SAMANKO!"
The boy's shoulders slowly slumped, as his face melted into tears.
"She's gone… she's gone."
"But… she's right… th-..."
In her glazed eyes, slowly being lowered by Samanko, Zinco encountered death.
Mortification grew along his face as Merona's vibrant image faded into her corpse.
"YOU…!" Samanko turned toward him with eyes of murder. "YOU!"
The elder amongst them reached out. "Samanko, wait…"
"GIVE HER BACK!" The red-headed boy rushed him. "GIVE HER BACK, YOU MONSTER-"
"BUT-"
Zinco moved back, pushing him away by means of brushing against him. He saw his former friend smack into the far wall.
"... gh..."
He looked him, and at his bloodied fist, and began to know why he'd been so hesitant in the first place to use his everything.
He realized why Merona was no longer there.
"... NGH…!"
"No…"
The two girls denied it in unison.
[ BGM: Shunsuke Kikuchi – The Sleeping Princess Chorus of Doom ]
One fell into their palms, weeping as their face contorted with anguish. Not a word came from them, as if the outcome were an inevitable tragedy she needed to be reminded of.
The other welted into hiccups, clamping shut her mouth with her hands. "No… no, Zinco, no…!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAA—!"
Zinco became inconsolable. His jaw practically unhinged as he screamed in horror, crashing onto his knees. His voice briefly gave out before bursting with a grotesque intensity.
A limp body lay before him, bleeding beneath his tattered shirt.
Ki exploded from him with a violence unseen from any before. He didn't notice, and kept screaming.
The more he tried rejecting reality, the greater force with which it crushed his insides. Everything he'd done from that day to this one burned in the golden-verdant flame he'd been enraptured by. His sole means of salvation was lost, and every word he'd ever said became a lie.
He began to subconsciously murder himself, no trace of ki being left in reserve as it sputtered out in full force toward the sky, without any form to help sustain it. His screams only grew louder and louder as he lost all sense of self, all control, scattering it to ashes with the cursed power he'd tried and failed to hone for a greater dream.
And that dream was now-
"-YAAAAA-"
And then someone headbutted him.
Zinco tumbled from it.
In the midst of an unrestrained divine eruption, in the depths of a bottomless anger, Zinco was sent tumbling by a headbutt.
Mei and Kaza tore down their hands in tandem.
[ BGM: Keitarou Hanada – Wounded Beast (1:03) ]
Neoru got back up. "... shit…!" He held his bruised, held-together chest. "Knew you were somethin' else, but… shit. Explains everything, honestly."
Picking himself up, Zinco didn't acknowledge the person in front of him as real. Another figment of his fracturing mind coming back to bite at him. That said, still desperate to hold on, his body spontaneously donned the form of Super Saiyan.
"GROOOAAA—!" He sprang forward and lashed out again,
And hit a spirit.
"... cHKROAAAAAAA!"
Both flew back into plumes of snow that melted in proximity, atop a stone, carving-adorned temple along a mountain range.
"(Holy shit, so THAT'S everything he's got.)" Neoru shakily, and then firmly, stood back up, spitting out a gob of blood. "(No… that doesn't matter. He's lost his mind.)" He looked back as the divine berserker roared in the distance, sending the mountain range up in an inferno as each one was torn from the root. He felt around his still-burning chest, held together and beating like a drum. "(I took it though, Zinco. I took that head-on. I almost died, hell I DID for a sec, but… hell, look at me now.)"
He tried settling his nerves as the beast set his sights on him. "(... nothing I say would get through to him. He just went outta his way to punch me, he's barely even Zinco anymore...)" Neoru frowned, remembering who the boy once was.
And it occurred to him.
The reason he once couldn't stand the boy. Why his witless smile pissed himself off. Why his insistence on the dream, his apathy toward its impossibility, all drive something through his head.
Looking back on what once painted Zinco's face, he remembered a reflection. One he shared with his brother, as he was taught how to throw stones.
— the unstoppable self that he'd lost.
The world reduced that boy to rubble. Over and over, it broke him. Until the day he died, desperate to keep it alive, somewhere, in someone.
He was watching it happen again.
His nerves steeled.
"(... I won't let it happen.)"
The blonde-haired doofus with a bizarre outgoingness and an unshakeable resolve flashed through his head again.
"(After all, you're the reason I've been able to go as far as I have…)"
The hill came to frame.
The dragon shook his head. "And I'm not letting this setback take away how far YOU'VE come!"
Neoru threw his tattered shirt, and vest with it, into the air, and roared.
An image that spanned the whole of the mountainside came into view, cutting loose with a resounding roar as it flickered between dimensions. A great, winged serpent pervaded the sky.
A dragon, nothing less.
"IF I GOTTA SHOVE THAT DUMBASS DREAM BACK DOWN YOUR THROAT WHERE IT CAME FROM, THEN FINE! YOU'RE NOT LEAVIN' IT HERE TA DIE!"
"SHAAAAAAAA—!"
[ Mitsuharu Fukuyama –
Battle For The Dream ]
The dragon compressed onto his body like water, in a cascade of burning wind, as he and the enflamed saiyan bounded toward each other.
The collision split the clouds and valley alike.
Neoru gawked at just how hard the blow was, his mind going dizzy for all of a nanosecond.
A now-Super Saiyan 2 Jin hit him with another punch, and another, another, in half that time, before Neoru grabbed one and roared into a straight of his own, knocking out a tooth.
Jin reciprocated in an instant.
Neoru reciprocated in an instant.
Jin's imminent punch was suddenly bashed to the side, taking all of Neoru's power before he slammed the saiyan away with a rotated kick, vanishing with a burst of speed to the side of him as he added a haymaker that turned the blonde berserker into a meteor, sending the area up in a plume of debris before a massive beam solely comprised of his focused aura broke through it, reducing to smoke and fragments what still-floating mountains remained. Neoru kept a razor's distance between it and himself, suddenly braking and spiraling around it in a harebrained maneuver letting him close distance. He landed behind Jin, and hit him with a back-elbow before he could finish turning around, sending the wave off-course. The vacant-eyed boy's honed instincts soon kicked in, however, and he dodged the gut-check from Neoru before slamming him with a roundhouse in the temple and, with worlds of momentum, following him into the ground, the amethyst-eyed boy's body contorting like a ragdoll before cleanly touching down and spinning into a heel kick into the kidney that stunned his tailed hunter in place and pathetically onto the ground before he could fully follow through. He shrank down just as the berserker started to recuperate, smacking Jin's knees and forcing a lurch, finally spinning into a compass movement and then an uppercut that sent him careening out of the crater. Jin flew before catching himself and slamming his head into his enemy's just as the former ascended once again, and for a moment, Neoru went loopy. It forced a reflection out of him.
"(It's awesome… most focused I've felt, this whole fight…)"
A Super Saiyan 3 Jin raised his fist with a manic expression, preparing to drive it through Neoru.
His eyes flared back, and he repaid the headbutt, Tlatla keeping his skull together.
"(It doesn't feel like I'm searching for anything anymore… like I've finally got something like a purpose…)"
Jin laid a back-fist, and he flew back, before his sternum was almost caved in by the rabid half-blood's full weight, sending the mountaintop caving in on itself in a mighty omnidirectional avalanche.
"(But this isn't the first time I've felt this way, no… Tengano, Mei… hell, her twice, now…)" Jin was forced into place with a pull of ki emanating from the dragon boy like a planet's gravity, before Neo death-rolled Jin onto the ground and then rolled an elbow into his face, sending him straight through.
"(I felt… I dunno… whole, back then. Like I did when I…)"
"I SAID GO!"
"(Yeah. When I sent Cleo off that cliff… it all finally felt worth something… like now…)"
The dragon boy pursued the ascending half blood into the falling mountain, whirring around city blocks' worth of debris before narrowly dodging a punch from a red flame-imbued Jin that obliterated everything above them in one swoop. Neo raised his leg over his head.
"(When I say 'Keep Fighting'... is it seriously to just go at it an' not give up? When I know, when I keep knowing what it's like to have a concrete reason?)"
Jin blocked it, vibrations bouncing across his entire body as a result. Neoru didn't let up with the pressure applied, the two coming to a gradual, destructive brake. "(No… it's 'till I find somethin' to really push me along… somethin' that I can't have taken from me…)"
The berserker finally deflected, countering with his own leg and sending him through mountain after mountain until finally hitting a dreary city, his red essence flying from him all the while. The way it looked after he landed, it was almost nostalgic.
"(But what if there isn't an 'until'...? What if there was never any one goal I wanted?)"
He made a fist.
"('Cus it's startin'a feel like it's always been small dots like this… stuff that makes life worth living, giving me something like a purpose… even as I lose people, to just keep fighting, just to find dots that're anything like that again, even for a chance…!)"
The mantra he used for Inronko was not his own creation — it was given, and he interpreted it well enough. It 'added up' for a reason he couldn't put into words then and there. But now, he finally began to piece together its essence.
"(Holy shit…! ME, YOU DUMBASS…! EVERY 'POINT' LIKE THAT'S GIVEN ME SOMETHIN' LIKE A DREAM…!)"
He chanted it within his heart, and let loose with a heaven-rattling roar.
"(MEANS MY PURPOSE, MY 'DREAM', MY REASON TO BE, HAS BEEN WHATEVER THE HELL I WANTED IT TO BE, RIGHT THEN AND THERE!)"
The two boys rushed each other.
Every stray hit, every connected hit, took apart another piece of the world they were on, never mind the city.
"(AND RIGHT HERE AND NOW, WHAT I WANT MORE THAN LIFE ITSELF, IS TO KEEP YOUR DREAM ALIVE!)"
He ducked a blow and two-shotted Jin's sides, finally staggering him. Jin lashed out with a world-cleaving kick, and a flaming Neoru weaved it to deck him across the face with a full-body hook. Jin attempted to rush him, but Neoru deflected each one with vacant eyes of his own before rapid-firing a single point on his chest, setting him with an iron-mountain slam and one-inch punching him away. He ran toward Jin as he staggered back and knife-kicked him in one side, then full-force elbowed him in the other, cartwheeling behind before flipping to bring his knee down onto the back of his head. Jin snapped back around and bounded forward as a ray of light, punching him hard enough to force up blood.
Neoru grabbed the fist before it could leave. "(One more…!)" He threw his fist and stopped short, only for his brother's sword to zoom straight after and clock Jin in the face side-first, sending him into a massive podium and through a saiyan-esque city beneath a sky that'd become golden.
Erupting into hints of azure divinity, Jin roared out in an earth-shaking anger, as Neoru focused everything into a single palm — the one he'd used to control bro's sword.
The half-blood launched.
Rooting himself in place, the responsive dragon held onto the wish and, in what way his power would allow,
"CIRRRR—US!"
Granted it.
…
..
.
Wet spots fell onto the ground.
"(... what was I thinking…!)"
[ BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano – THE pOINT Of A sword E-moll (0:00-2:32) ]
Between grit teeth, Tengano chastised himself, slowly thumping his temple over and over. "(Look at you, mano…! You've gone an' made it something more, while I beat myself over the head feeling sorry…!)"
Katlij paid him an odd, sympathetic look. "... I think I doubted him too, my friend. Who wouldn't?" He gripped his shoulder. "Don't hold it too hard against yourself, mh?"
Mashii let off a sentimental cough into her fist. "That same jerkass… that's… still him, right there…"
"That's impossible…!" Renchiru stared in absolute disbelief, oblivious to the smile across his face. "I… I can't believe…!"
For once, Voshyo had no smart-ass remarks, or words, or so much as a peep. The value he'd seen in the Saiyan Warrior Race was brighter than ever… yet the one standing wasn't a Saiyan.
Amid Archi and Devine's unintelligible howling over the fight itself and Akaki and Baubi's cheerful clapping, Kazikum – through the blood trailing down both corners of his mouth – drowsily smiled. "That's what happens, moron…"
"You sure you're alright?" Wabi asked, sharing a similar smile, albeit uneasier.
Kazikum burped red smoke. "Fan-fucking-tastic."
In an empty room, pervaded by inane screaming, Kora faced the ground.
"The Calculations Division should be fun tomorrow, huh?" Stroga chided.
"I think I'm going to call in sick tomorrow, actually." Ayeva sighed amidst Tarubei's jubilant battle-crazed hollers. "There will be blood the moment someone sits down and tries to quantify this crap. Besides…"
She looked to her side, to a Kaset slumped over the bleacher behind them. He covered his streaming eyes with a palm, as his smile stretched across his face.
"Someone has to stop him from turning the town upside down tonight…"
"(Please…)"
Ceushius' head raised to the sky. "(Don't allow this to steal your light, Zinco…)" His fist clenched with a desperate tightness. "(PLEASE…!)"
Tears streaming, head held by a shaking palm, Mei bit her lip to the point of bleeding.
"You can stop now."
She looked up and to the left.
All that appeared above Kaza's folded arms were her red, tired eyes, her voice sore from the ugly-crying she'd stopped. "It's over."
Mei only further welled. "I have brought nothing but-"
"You didn't do anything." Kaza wiped her face. "This is what he wanted. I just wish he could've been happier…"
The small human's head fell to the side of the tall majin's. "I, as well…!"
Something below suddenly caught her attention, and Kaza shot up. Mei reacted, followed suit, and her tears halted.
"(Maybe I'll break again. Someday far off. Maybe tomorrow.)"
Neoru eyed the palm he'd used for his Diet Cirrus, cracked but bound with this newer, perfected means of Tlatla. "(But I know I can bring myself back. Find new dreams. Reasons. And y'know, I don't think I care all that much about purpose, actually. As long as I keep fighting… living, struggling, gettin' back up… I'll find one dream after another. That's…)"
Bro. Kuole. Cleo. The fallen that he'd met in between.
"(What I've been doin' for a while, now, huh?)"
Kaset. Dina. Mei. Katlij, Mashii, Tengano.
"(... I found it. Right there in my pocket, the whole time.)"
"That's not…"
Neo's eyes lit up.
A piece of rubble was being moved, before disappearing outright. For the scenario had changed to a hill.
"... how you use it…!"
"Zinco!" Neo yelled, excited.
"Huh? What are you so…" Zinco hissed onto his feet, hunched; his hair had somehow shortened, spikier now. "Happy about…?"
"You're… you again, man!"
"..." Zinco brought his hand up to his eyes. It still flowed with the same great energy that surpassed even his first awakening against the dragon before him, only now under his lamenting control.
He then stared at Neo, still overjoyed.
The word "conflicted" didn't begin to describe it. He looked… pure.
"... tch."
[ BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano/SilveryWings – BLAZE~Crimson Lotus~MIX Ver ]
Zinco stood upright.
He'd used everything, everything, far more than he knew was right. And yet there he still was.
There was a happiness, a need to atone, a quiet anger at his constant defiance, and many more. All buried if-not intertwining with a greater emotion he thought he'd cut off long ago.
"(This guy's still not down?)"
He stood with a burning fight in his eyes. "(What's it going to take for you to fall already?)"
Neo looked in confusion, before understanding. He looked down at his hand, made a fist with ease, and marched. "(Not done yet, eh? Fine by me.)"
The two were, very much so, at their strongest.
Zinco's pace ramped up, beating Neo to each quickening step.
And he pounced.
"EIIIIAAAAAAA!"
"ORIYAAAAAAA!"
They clashed off each other's will like blades, each spiritual clatter growing stronger and louder as none other than Conton City's fiery sunset blared in tandem with their surging inner flames. The two grew faster and faster as they tried one-upping each other, throwing technique and tactics to the wind as they painted the sky white and gold, emerald and violet, spirals and zigzags and all in between.
It was funny.
Now that Neo had a point of reference, the cloud-walking fist hit HARDER than Zinco's regular attacks — and those were fewer and fewer in between, mixed in as the blonde struggled to reclaim the technique. Though now, even they seemed to have a sting to them.
A sting meant just for Neo. Zinco's focused glare sealed it.
S-SOMEHOW, SOME WAY, THE TWO STUDENTS HAVE… CONJURED UP CONTON CITY!? WAIT, THAT'S BROOD ROCK! HOW!? WHY!?
"It just doesn't make sense…" Kaza wondered hopelessly, clueless in the direction the battle was going. But as if she'd developed a seventh sense for it, she turned to the one who always seemed to have the scoop and refused to share. "... you DO know, Mei, don't you!?"
Mei playfully, guiltily scratched her cheek. "Perhaps."
"Mmngh…"
"If I must…!" she hopelessly sighed. "They saved each other from me."
"HUH!?"
"THIS LAND WAS FOREIGN AND I HAD NO ONE, LEND ME YOUR SLACK!"
Mei blew away a strand of hair, her grief blowing away with the revelation. "But since they are both boys, being forced to acknowledge the part they played in their salvation irks them, has irked them. So now they fight over it. As a matter of course."
Neo fired a kamehameha, and Zinco KAAA'd it into nothing before rocketing through the stardust and straight into Neo's gut.
"OUUU...!"
"(That day… you reminded me…)"
"(How weak I was… how much I needed THAT to change, before anything else…)"
Zinco was kicked away, stopping himself as they continued clashing with a fiercer and fiercer heat, breaking away with a discharge of haywire ki.
They eyed each other, forming divine mysteries in their hands.
"(I never let go of it…)"
"(I couldn't let go, no matter how hard I tried…)"
They bolted toward each other, and time seemed to stop between them.
"(And I'd be lying if I said anything else…)"
"(So I don't have any choice but to admit it…)"
"(From the beginning, YOU were the one…!)"
Yellow and purple exploded before fading.
And the Dragon and Kirin lunged.
"(WHO SET THAT FLAME IN ME!)"
Neo and Zinco exploded.
Twin lights flared into the sky, constantly vying for dominance and endlessly resisting. They looped over and under continuously, before the forms of a great winged serpent and a draconic stag-horse flared and stutter-flashed into view, before melding with an unreal heat and forming a-
WHAT THE HELL IS-
IS THAT A TAIJI!?
"P-PRETTY…!" Kaza stammered in astonishment, the view greater than the most vibrant of solar phenomena.
"BMPH…" Mei, however, discovered her epilepsy.
"LOOK, MEI! ISN'T IT- WAH-"
No longer bound by the wanes of stamina, the violently-rotating symbol of two opposing colors, without exaggeration,
"BLAST IT, WE'VE JUST BUFFERED THOSE FLOORS!" Enma cried out in shock and heartbreak.
Shattered through Heaven.
And in the midst of two absolute opposites, falling back down…
Not two hardened warriors, fiercely battling to live another day,
Nor two great beasts, savagely lashing out to destroy its opposition,
But two boys, brashly comparing their strength against the other.
In their eyes, in that moment, nothing else mattered but besting the one in front of them.
The ground erupted in rubble, but the following debris, as high as it shot, was short-lived and visible.
The sky's incessant rumbling and quaking and shattering slowly came to an end, though the hole in the sky persisted even with the return of the dimension's true sky. It shimmered and shined down like rays of the sun piercing beneath the ocean.
Zinco watched them.
"I failed."
.
He gazed off with a smile he gave up on killing off, never mind concealing. "I failed so hard."
.
"I don't know… where to go from-"
"You're lyin' in dog shit, man."
Jin's eyes widened. He slowly, painfully got to his feet. He didn't get to check himself over before he saw Neoru, on the ground with glints of blood trailing down his mouth.
His violet eyes still burned as he smiled. Though, that burn was faint. A candlelight in a foggy night harbor.
Remorse overtook the boy. "Neo…"
"Just keep like that, dumbass." The boy hissed in pain, but laughed through it. "Couldn't join ya up there if I wanted, anyway." His hands twitched like crazy, straining to come together and close, but after a few clawed gestures, they calmed down and fell.
"... No, Neo, you-"
"I looooost. -Tell me what the hell I did and didn't do, dickhead, jeez…"
Frustration curled his face, and then a joy, and then a fusion of the two. "You…" He almost sat back down, careless to the numbers being called out.
"Ya still ain't checked yourself over, stupid. There's caca all over you, stay away from me 'till you get it off."
"Ah, right, I…!" Zinco checked himself over. "What… where… Neo, where is-"
[ BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano – the Edge oF a §WORD ᐸFinal Ver.ᐳ (0:41) ]
10!
AND THE WINNER OF THE SEMIFINALS' FIRST ROUND IS…
Jin gasped.
Neoru flashed him a shit-eating grin.
ZINCO!
Neo stuck out his tongue. "I lied, duuuumbass."
Zinco stared in abject disbelief. "... you're such a…" He fell to his knees in defeat, staring down at his friend. "... what even are you?"
Neo stared up at his friend. "I don't feel like explainin' myself to you. Oh yeah, that mob's after your stupid ass."
"Huh?"
Before Jin had time to take in the fact, he was hoisted upward.
"HUH!?"
Ceushius laughed. "RETURNED FROM THE BRINK OF ABYSS, HAVEN'T YOU, ZINCO!?"
"W-WHAT'S A BHISS!?" Zinco asked in confusion.
"HE SAID 'ABYSS', DUMMY!" Kaza happily screamed, healing him up amidst the countless congratulations and concerned questions.
"O-OH! SORRY!?" His eyes initially darted around in anxious blurbs but, as it slowly donned on him, his awkward laughter slowly, surely became sincere.
He'd made a mistake, and those around still saw his true self.
Neo stared on, a lazy smile about him, fulfilled and emotionally spent and also in a lot of pain, holy shit.
"Hand, mate?"
He didn't need to turn. There was a sole person who spoke like that — no, he DIDN'T know Selaine like that. "Sure."
He was picked up like some breed of small monitor lizard. The "mN Up ya go…!" couldn't've been spoken with any less sarcasm.
"Ah screw you, I'd weigh more if I wasn't on Spirit Life Support…"
"Whatever ya say, loser!" Dina chided.
Neo frowned. "You fu- c-can someone heal me? Please?"
Wabi smacked him on the back out of nowhere, procuring a yelp and a quick recovery thanks to Tlepoctli. "OKAY WISEASS, IT'S-"
He tried to move, but couldn't. Dina's hug was too tight.
"Awesome," she whispered. "You did awesome."
"..." He mellowed. "... I found it."
The red-eyed girl released him. "Really? What's it, then?"
"Gettin' some damn water."
"... eh?"
Neoru looked at the (smaller) crowd that'd come to greet him. "Yeah uh, I get that I lost n' shit but, can ya make some room? I'm thirsty."
A water bottle smacked into the side of his head. "IT'S 'EXCUSE ME'!"
Turning at Mach 10 to get pugnacious, he saw the figure and begrudgingly accepted the water bottle. "... yEs, Mr. KaSeT…" he said in the most belligerent way possible. He'd already started drinking before he was held in place and mercilessly jumped.
"THIS KID, MAN, I SWEAR!" Kaset yelled, Ayeva right behind him with a hidden smile. Dina grinned beside her.
"YAAY, ATTACK HUG!" Devine yelled, joining in on the noogie.
"LEMME AT HIM! LEMME AT HIM!"
"I WANT HIS HEAD! NO MERCY IN DEFEAT!"
"I GOTTA GIVE YOU A SLUG TOO, MANO, IT'S TRADITION!"
"HEY, YOU LITTLE BRAT, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO WIN!"
"Y-you won't even give him a bit of kudos, Videl!?"
Surrounded and attacked from all angles, Neo started welling up like the bitch he was.
[ ED: 14? Ft. Substantial – When The Luster Fades ]
— surrounded on all sides by people he'd slipped up and fell for. Impermanent reasons with their own paths that could end at any moment.
But all things were impermanent. What mattered was then and there.
Now that his thirst was sated,
Staying in the moment with them became his one and only reason(s). For then.
Trunks watched it unfold from a distance.
"I can't believe you actually went through with that." Pan walked beside him. "There's no telling what could've gone wrong with letting the audience dogpile the contestants after a match."
"Yeah."
"... so why?"
Trunks side-eyed her. "It was your idea…"
"That's why I'm asking…!" she grinned.
Trunks sighed. "The idea had heart, ok? Sheesh."
"Softiiiie…" Son whispered to herself, only to be crushed head-first by a knuckle sandwich.
"Shaddap n' help prepare for the next round, there's an extradimensional hole up there and it's not sealing on its own."
"KHHH!" Son hissed as she held her wounded noggin. Suddenly she remembered a detail from the past battle. "Wait, on that point, why didn't you step in when Zinco was losing it?"
"That's a question you can answer yourself. After all, you're the best at letting things run their course, ref."
"H-HEH-HEH, y-yeah, but…" Pan's smile went somber. "I wanna hear your reason."
The lavender-haired struggler stopped.
"... Believing in our fellow man, helping each other to survive…"
Zinco was thrown up and down into the air.
"It's what redeems us. Makes us who we are, makes us worthy."
Neoru finally stopped fighting back and let Baubi stretch his cheeks, forcing a very-unhappy smile upon him.
"THAT'S what gives us our real power." He looked to the ground. "It's one of the few convictions I've got that've stood the test of time. I guess I just like having it proven, every now and again."
Pan shoved her hands into her pocket, and walked ahead of him. "I like my answer better."
"Hh." He walked ahead to the next phase, as well. "Color me surprised…"
5/25/2024 PATCH NOTES: Made the taiji in the sky yellow and purple.
10/4/2024 PATCH NOTES: Tightened up choreography.
11/28/2024 PATCH NOTES: Tightened up everything else and also choreography more.
Yo! OP Here!
Whole lotta YUME in this chapter.
Can I share MY dream, real quick?
My dream, for this story, right now is...
To finish before it exceeds the Bible in length.
Yeah. Yeah.
This'll be 620k once I upload this chapter.
The Bible, King James ver., has 807,361. That seems far, but I'm getting waaaay too close to that shit. You pass the Bible and that's... like... a problem. A "why the fuck did you write a story with more words than the Bible" problem. IDK, not a great look for the hoes.
Nah but seriously, I wanna end before 700k. If I can finish before then, sick. If I can't, well, damn. You know? That's 9 times outta 10 not happening, whatever, before 800k is still a valid goal.
When you see shit like "Taiyoken" and "Solar Flare", and they mean the exact same thing in this story, that's because I really don't care that much about certain levels of consistency (WOOOAH SHOCKEEEER leamme alone). It's the same reason I'll say shit like "Tenshinhan" and "Tien" in the exact same chapter. In fact, I feel like going back and changing "Tsufruian" to "Tuffle" again because it sounds better and it's not called "Tsufruian" anywhere despite technically being more accurate. Can't really extrapolate "Fruit" from "Tuffle," no, but at the same time, the person I got "Tsufruian" from insists on calling Bulma "Blooma" even though HER FUCKING NAME IS ON HER FUCKING CHEST CIRCA CHAPTER ONE. And THAT'S funny because the first chapter is called "Bloomers and the Monkey King" which means it was technically first translated in English as Bloomers so BOTH ARE VALID but- you see what I'm getting at? But yeah, one of the most important aspects of being in the DB community is to pick up the volumes, peep the subbed episodes (funi was so ass at translation that they legit started making shit up back in the day, the 90s were a godless wasteland), and start thinking for yourself as soon as possible, because I made the mistake of writing before I made this essential decision, and I messed up a fair bit in the process. Be well informed enough to make your own decisions, your own interpretations, and back them up with a strong leg to stand on. That's important for... life, actually. Yeah, unplug yourself and stay informed. Somewhere? Sometime. Better place? Here. Better time? Now. OK I'm off my soapbox.
Tsufruian sounds stupid. Tuffle sounds cool. Next question.
Concerning the audience, there are probably more interactions I could've done, but honestly, I HATE zooming back and forth between the audience. Doing it, watching it. Not fun. Sorry.
So... Neoru and Zinco. This was the payoff for literally everything they've done, everything that's been set up for them. Shit's been wild. I'm honestly shocked I was able to live long enough to get here - and that's from like an "entropy" point of view, considering... the shit that's happened as I wrote this story. So shoutout to the fallen. I'm honored to've been inspired by so many of them, though. From my boy Slick, to Miura, to Kikuchi, and the man himself Toriyama. They made this shit possible.
Ah. Old dirt on the two. Neoru's dragon shit was always meant to be just himself, but there was a point where I wanted this fucker's soul to be humanoid and have three heads. Real dumb Scaly Ghidorah shit. Zinco, on the other hand, was initially meant to have Super Saiyan Rage. Hell, for I know, he's cracked the code and DOES have it. SSJ0 is fun like that. Anyway, he would've gotten that shit during a fight with Baby, and Neoru during a fight with Goku Black, because I was like 15 when I was thinking that shit up while grinding Attack on Titan osts. I thought I was legit cooking with that shit. K-know what, let's go over how that'd go vs how it planned out real quick:
Old:
"Here's me droppin' a speech about how ya made me life better an' how I've got no regrets, cheers n' shit"
"DINA NOOOOO-" *Dragon Stand*
New:
"Yeah no screw this, I give up on life"
"ZINCO NOOOOOO-" *Time For Yinglong*
... man this story is zesty. This chapter is VERY zesty. Whatever, it's centric on fighting, it's supposed to be zesty. You know, it took a rewatch of Code MENT to realize that Zinco and Neoru have damn-near the EXACT same interactions that MENT Lelouch and Suzaku have when shit's funny and Geass Lelouch/Suzaku when they're actually boxing, and also they have the exact same eye colors as their respective contemporary. That debatably makes it zestier.
Also, I plan on bridging the gap between Neoru's fucking coke-infused killing spree and his eventual death thanks to Jigoku at the start of next chapter, and yeah, Cleo's that bridge.
One more thing: The Fable is a sick anime. Seems to take influences from a lot of the same shit Ryu Ga Gotoku got theirs from. Ranger Reject is also gas. Because strugglers are still cool.
I think I'm finished. Yeah, that's it for me. I'm kinda scared of uploading this because I KNOW I made a mistake somewhere even after proofreading, but uuuuh I'll find it in a month and freak out about it, whatever. On that, I made Zinco a fucking Kaiju three chapters ago. I forgot the C in his description, so he turned out 182 METERS.
Next chapter: Seras Kane gets her runback after five years.
How long? Not long. Because what you REAP?
Is what you SOW.
That's about it. See ya next match.