The girl normally took her time to fight off a raid. She was too useful and too strong to be micromanaged by anyone but Kon'pachi, anyway. Something about this one put a pep in her step, however.

Chiefly, the explosion. She lived here, after all.

She ran through the repurposed corrections center, its armored walls in tatters and littering the way to the courtyard. As she moved, a familiar "feeling" hit her; one vaguely nostalgic, for a reason she couldn't piece together. Shoving it into the back of her mind, she sped toward the strong presence and its accompanying screams. Finally, she leapt through a freshly-made path toward meeting the source of the ruckus — a body flew past her, and she sidestepped it to maintain her view.

A lone, rugged figure was tearing through her acquaintances. A trail of dead and/or broken lay in their wake, and a group uneasily held ground, waiting for someone braver to make a move.

"... what?" The voice was male, young, couldn't have been a day past 14. "What, what's the hold-up? Eh?" He sounded unhinged, either on the verge of laughing or crying. "What, not so damn easy now that a kid's bitin' back? That all it takes for you CHICKENSHITS to catch second thoughts!? AH!?"

He swung a… sword? Club? There was only one of its kind she'd ever seen.

"MOVE! FIGHT BACK! DO SOMETHING! COME ON, HAVE SOME FUCKIN' BALLS! NOT ONE'A YOU'S LEAVIN' HERE ANYWAY!"

— he had violet eyes. Blaring, vibrant, violent violet eyes.

"No way…!"

The cluster of rattled raiders looked back. "OH THANK GOD!"

"STOP STARING AND STEP IN ALREADY!"

The purple-eyed boy's brows flared. "Huh?" His gaze darted toward her. "YEAH C'MON, DIPSHIT, COME AT ME! THEY SURE AS SHIT WON'T!"

With hesitant golden eyes, she drew two knives – one once held by her late sister – and dove in. They fought for a spell, swaths of rain divided in the scuffle, each receiving cuts along their bodies with every other close brush. In a single decisive movement that cost her a few ribs, she lunged into him, stabbing into the meaty sections of his hands and pinning him to the ground. For the first time, unmasked by the rain, she got a good look at his face. After what felt like an eternity of tugging at the back of her head, all doubt abandoned her.

"... Neo?"

Halfway through dislodging himself, the boy paused. Just-enough sense returned to him to recognize the person he stared back at. "... Cleo?"

Before anything else, she knocked him out with a strike to the temple.

"-ᴏʀᴜ!? ɴᴇORU!?"

He awoke in a post-berserk stupor.

"Neo-!"

Immediately after, Cleo took him into an embrace. "I thought you…!" She tore him away, examining his beaten face. "...You've changed."

His emotions churned slowly to the surface before becoming a confused storm. "Why are you here…?"

"Wha-"

Neoru shook free. "What the hell are you doing here? Are you HELPING them!?"

"What, I-... It's complicated, I…"

His anger, though fading, hadn't expired in full. "Whaddya mean complicated, the fuckers just tore through a whole group'a people! They killed KIDS, Cleo!"

"I know, I just-"

"Then WHY THE HELL are you ANYWHERE NEAR THESE SACKS'A SHIT, NEVERMIND ON THEIR-"

In a flash of rage, Cleo slammed him back down like he owed her money.

"... because I had nowhere else to go," she choked. "In one day, I was left all alone, thinking that everyone I had ever loved was dead."

The boy's shaking grimace softened. There was a somber silence.

"I've had to play along to earn my keep. And I've done everything I could to stop myself from becoming a monster." She let go. "I've tried, Neo. I've tried to honor those two... but it's hard to do both. I could've done it if you…!"

Neoru's expression slowly melted.

"I've wanted to know that, actually. What…" she swallowed. "What were my sister's last words? Did you hear them?"

"... she said to live." He started shaking again. "That was it. Live."

"... oh."

"... Cleo…" He practically fell forward. "Cleo, I'm-"

She snatched him into a tighter embrace, this one strangling. "No it's fine…! It's fine!"

"I didn't wanna tell you…! It was my fAUL-…!"

"I said it's alright! I just…! I'm…!" She successfully downed her sobs with a bittersweet grin across her face, as he continued to choke into her shoulder. "You're still here…!"

For the first time in years, the two had become human once again.

"GNM-!"

The fist sent the boy off his feet and red spittle smacking into the ground.

Cleo held her mouth shut to keep her yelp at bay.

"Hm. I wanted to tunnel straight through him." The old man door-kicked Neoru away before he had time to keel over and grieve for his compressed organs. "You're right. He IS 'different'."

Said geezer wore a gaudy robe that wished to visually declare what he was too ignorant to put into words with any sort of tact, its colors and faded stitches overdone to mask the decay and bloodshed it had accrued under its owner.

"Whether or not this is a good thing, however," he continued as he raised a palm, "Is yet to be decided. He has set our fair community a fair aways foreback. And furthestmore, we have more than enough of those chosen by The Energy." Light pooled into his hand, finally scaring Cleo into motion.

"NO!" She desperately wedged herself between the two. "L-..."

The old man raised his brows like she'd insulted him. Giving him the title was natural at some point, but now, in front of the boy, the once-present feel of humiliation sank back in, a childish embarrassment she thought she'd thrown aside resurfacing. It sat on her tongue before finally being spat out.

"Lord Kon'pachi, don't do this. He's almost as strong as I am, he's so much more useful than the other morons it's not even-"

"Ah, but that's exactly my point." Kon'pachi approached her, placing his hands on her shoulders in a way that made her skin wriggle. "You're the closest anyone needs to be to my imminence. I have no acquirement for this boy… is it because you know him? Is that where this attachment is from?"

The possibility of her favor with the pretentious creep saving Neo guided her answer. "... yes. It was a long time ago."

"My eyes are ever so privy now. Cleo, wait here."

"Wai-what are you going to…!"

"I'm going to severe his abilities. Then, you can have the boy as a pet or what have you." The old man leisurely approached the boy's motionless body. "But in lieu of this decision of mine, remember who you truly bel-"

A feral shout shot from the boy. In one motion, he swiped his sword across the old bastard's chest, a pained scream firing into the air like a flare. The men on watch outside the room closed in on him, and he ran, outpacing them.

Cleo stood, still absorbing what'd happened, what'd been said to her, what to do in that instance.

And the lack of hesitation the boy had, as he rushed away.

The sun began to set.

Gripping at his broken ribs, Neoru staggered forward with labored breaths, his pursuers evaded. After ignoring it for as long as he'd allow, he finally asked.

"... what're… ya doin'?"

Save one.

"I don't know."

"Then go back. 'Cus I don't know, either."

"They wouldn't even let me."

Neoru sucked his teeth. "How do you know?"

Cleo's eyes remained glued to the ground. "I just do."

"Then go an' find out."

"No."

"They were feedin' ya n' whatever, right?" Not breaking his pace, Neoru turned his head. "So why the hell're ya followin' me now, dumbass?"

"Because they were all I had." Cleo looked up, indigo hair flowing above angry golden eyes. "And now, they're not. Are you happy? Or are you gonna throw me on trial for this choice, too?"

Neoru glared back, but it seemed to lift — whether confused from that weird word, "trial," or remorse from what he knew she meant by it, Cleo's last statement was the culprit. "No." He returned to watching where he was going.

"Then suck it up." A small, sly smile crept up her lips, as she gave him a shoulder for support. "Because I'm happy."

"... just walk."

For the first time in a long one, Neoru successfully saved the defenseless, and Cleo was the one beating back marauders.

Outside a monastery above the clouds, they learned how to fly.

Cleo tried and failed to teach Neoru how to skip rocks. There was one, but it was a fluke that he couldn't replicate.

The two found somewhere that took them in with open arms, before ever finding out how strong they were.

Neoru found a personal strength in growing things. Cleo became an adept fisher. The two made connections. That place became a home.

And time kept passing.

Standing amidst the ongoing drizzle, willingly drenching himself as the warm summer rain washed over he and the harbor, a 15 year old Neoru took things in.

The thought of how he'd lived months back was fresh in memory. He'd do it a thousand times if it meant he'd get to keep watching the small settlement flourish. The food was good whenever it came — fresh, without the scent of blood permanently stained into it. Water took a while, despite being next to a whole lot of it – he tried proving a point once, and lost more water than he'd gained from the experience – but it was a guarantee every day.

The people were those of whom he could approach without a second thought. He could count on one hand how many times he'd found folk like that throughout his life.

As he took it in with eyes closed, the sound of chatter hit his ear. He looked down and saw the fisher boy yucking it up with the girl he thought he'd never see again. The boy tried closing his eyes again, only for them to be pried back open by his ears.

They were still talking, practically glowing in each other's company.

He felt his face droop as a heavy feeling took his heart. He then took a look at himself.

"(Sure's hell beats fearin' for my life every day.)" The feeling was a new kind of pain, but yes. It was lighter than any he'd felt in the past, significantly so. He was almost glad small pains like that now had room to sting.

With a sigh, Neoru decided to call it a day early.

Not long after,

"Hey."

Cleo entered.

"Yo." Neoru kept staring vacantly into the ceiling, sleepless for reasons that eluded him.

"... think I just had the best conversation with another human being… ever."

Neo's eyes narrowed. "Good for you."

She sat down next to him, frustrating the teenager in a way that slipped his pubescent mind. "He's so wise for his age! You two should really talk, sometime."

"Sounds like a plan," Neoru replied through his teeth.

"It actually…" she pulled out her dagger, "Got me thinking. You never questioned how we're both 'different' from others, have you?"

She got a shrug and gave a breathy laugh. "Of course you do, twerp… My family has a legend behind it," Cleo mentioned, her golden eyes radiating in the dimmed room as she examined her griffon-etched dagger hilt. "There's this island, far off in the middle of an endless storm, forgotten by time. My ancestor, Nelle Caryotique, washed up there, on a trip that veered off-course. Even though she hadn't been born there like the natives, her saviors taught her how to survive. The islanders there… they could draw out an inner power I once thought was simply ki, but now I know to be more so Sis and your brother's ability. In time, she learned what it took to do the same… and with what she gained, she, her son, and his lover risked their lives to return to the mainland, to teach it to others in her homeland. She only lived for three days after they returned, due to old age, but…"

Cleo proudly raised her blade to the dim, shaded blue light. "No one could best her in any regard. It only took three days to forge a legacy in the underworld, and even then, our name is just as rare as we were. Though, now, there isn't much of an underworld anymore. And I'm all that's left. So are you."

"For all I know…"

"I'd like to say… I'd like to call it random, my sister finding your brother, you finding me. I hate things like fate. For all the ways it dolls up the pretty things, it also means that everything was fated to happen. We really would all be just… swimming… against the current, like how he put it. So I stick with calling it all random. What about you?"

Dull, void-purple eyes returned to the ceiling. "I'm fine with whatever. If it's fate, if it's random, doesn' change the fact that I don' know whether I wake up tomorrow or not. As long as I can keep tryin' to, either's fine by me."

Cleo sighed, laid down and slowly closed her eyes. "Ever the thinker, Neo…"

For all his strength, the gaze Neo held to the ceiling slowly fell to the indigo-haired, golden-eyed girl. "Hey, Cleo…"

"Yeah?"

"..." He was tempted to send his eyes to the ceiling again just thinking about his next question, but he decided it deserved eye contact. "You… D'ya, y'know… have you found anyone you like? Like, like like?"

Cleo sighed dreamily. "I think I've said enough about him, now."

His face visibly, however momentarily, crinkled. "N-Neato."

"But if you insist-"

Thunder crashed. Loud enough to rattle dust from the ceiling.

They froze.

[ Long Distance Calling – Apparitions ]

Both went bug-eyed. Their chests rose and fell in quick millimeters.

"(No.)"

Both felt it. It wasn't thunder.

Cleo threw herself onto her feet. Neo remained frozen.

"Hey. Hey, get up…!" she whisper-shouted, to no avail — he'd been sent into a mental frenzy. Shaking him amounted to little more than a refixed gaze.

"Dammit- SNAP OUT OF IT, NEO! Get people underground somehow once you do!" Cleo ordered before bolting out the door to lead by example.

"(Get up…!)"

Unbeknownst to her, however,

"(GET UP…!)"

He was physically unable to do so. Akin to a prey animal's survival response, betrayed by his own survival instincts and the trauma of the past, he'd shut down.

"(AT LEAST SAY SOMETHN', DAMMIT! PLEASE!)"

The commotion outside grew with every passing minute, Cleo's shouts growing less reserved by the second as the reality of the situation grew clearer; and yet, there he was, in what was damn near the fetal position.

Powerless.

The end results of that same howling that hounded him all his life flashed across his streaming, frantic eyes — berating him, warning him. The prevailing reminder of his own weakness, the respective roads of abject misery and certain failure down which they led.

Yet in lieu of further recession, small grunts began to squirm from his body as his hands shook into a curl, his contorted grimace depetrifying. The void violets within his reddened whites shook in place like caged hornets, his core tensed.

The events of the past now assailed his mind with the intensity of strobe lights. His shallow, quiet, death-like breathing grew louder, strangled, angry. His grimace melted and intensified. His quivering fingers, in an explosive instant, slammed into a fist, and in the same instant,

"AAAA—!"

He screamed in enraged terror.

A fear greater than dying to the coming beast — that of living through losing everything to it again.

He jetted from his position on the ground with the thrusting of his clenched fist, bursting through the concrete wall in a glowing fit of spiritual fire.

Cleo's head snapped toward him as she moved others to makeshift bunkers. "NEO!" Her relief died in a heartbeat. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

"THEY CAN'T STAY HERE, IT CAN FEEL YOU LIKE WE CAN! GET EVERYONE GOING!"

The glow he cast was almost like his older brother's. It terrified her. "WHAT!? NO YOU IDIOT, HELP ME GET THEM TO-"

"IT'S TOO FAST! IT'LL BE HERE BY THEN, ESPECIALLY WITH US USIN' SO MUCH ENERGY! JUST DO IT!"

She could feel a sob coming on and tried pushing it back in the same scream. "WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO!?" Cleo exclaimed, knowing full-well.

Neoru flashed a confident, scared-shitless, desperate, proud grin. "I'LL STALL IT…! I'LL STALL IT ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, DAMMIT! HELL, I'LL EVEN LEAD IT AWAY FROM HERE!"

"NEO!"

"PLEASE! PLEASE, CLEO!" With the final plea, he shot off in a brilliant white flash of spirit, speckled with embers of violet.

Zooming toward his death, he tried to rationalize it for himself. At long last, there'd be penance for those he'd killed. Kuole's death would finally have a purpose. And good people would live on because of this.

He failed to ease anything. After all of this, he was still going to die, and it was going to hurt. Every fiber of his being still quaked like cables in a train cart, and a sob escaped him — but it was only one. A final gasp from the weaker self that'd led the way all his life.

Neoru released his grief and focused his energy, all in one resounding roar that sent the surrounding rain up in a plume of steam. After a few deep breaths, he lowered himself onto the small cliff face.

It felt him. Its course had changed. Now it bolted toward him, the same infernal howling announcing its arrival.

His brother called it Jigoku, after what it'd done to the world. The name fit. It tormented him all his life, and now, it was sure as shit gonna send him there.

"(As long as I can.)" Death was literally right there. It was fine, he'd save his screaming for once it ate him. In the meanwhile, Neoru gathered his ki into his hands. He meant for a ball of energy fit to make a point before dying.

His absolute life force, with all of its fervor, spilled out in a wave. The beast's advance was halted by the attack before it tore through in an ear-splintering frenzy. He duck-and-rolled beneath its lunge with a speed he'd never known beforehand. His shock at both developments turned to anger at himself for holding out all his life, however short-lived said anger was as he refocused on buying time. He ripped his brother's stained weapon from out his backpack-sheath and cried havoc as he threw himself into Jigoku's proximity. The club's new flare and ensuing bolstering of his ability failed to register with him during the infight, Neoru giving into the haze of thought and desire to swing that he'd found harder to stave off with every person felled by it. His essence trailed from him with the beast's every passing motion, yet his mind and spirit kept his body standing and able to fight. After all, there'd be no surviving the fight, for it wasn't a fight at all. Everything in reserve would be used to the fullest.

He grew paler and paler by the moment, matching Jigoku's sickly complexion alongside the beast's growing ferocity. It could've been toying with its food for all he knew, with how easy it'd be to tear out his throat at such close distance — like a submerged emotion had begun to spill from the beast in the face of the young fighter simmering with an ever-growing violet blaze.

Neoru was doing his job. All was well, and he began to slow — he could hardly feel anything anymore. Being eaten just meant more time for the others. He could die at peace.

"NEO!"

His trance shattered. "NO!" his gravelly voice cried out. A blast shot down from the sky, catching the beast unawares and sending it tumbling into a rock formation.

Cleo touched down beside a stumbling Neoru, catching him. "Everyone's away and underground!" she exclaimed, herself in an exhausted state. "You did it! You bought us all the time we needed! We can go back now!"

Neoru pushed her off. "...-uMBASS!" he shouted, before sinking to the ground. "I'm… dead already…!"

"No you're not, you idiot!" she countered in denial, the severity of his injuries dawning on her. "You're hurt but you've been through worse, I know it! Just… just come back so I can f-find some-someone who c-an…"

The boy simply looked back at her. That was all it took.

"... no…" Cleo's emotions began to seep from her. "No, no…"

For her sake, despite his mortal wounds and pain alongside them, he pulled himself together. "Cleo. He's gonna follow you if you don't."

"But I can't…!" Her legs gave out on her as she cried. "I DON'T WANNA LOSE YOU TOO…! YOU'RE…" She clung onto him, as if the Reaper wouldn't pry him away if only her hold were tight enough. "NEO, NO…!"

"What about Fish Boy? Ya got him, right? An' everyone else." The beast howled, its stinging energy surging into a point with every rock shoved off. "Kuole said live, right? You can do that."

Cleo gave him eyes he must've given his brother a thousand times. "We… we can at least beat him togeth…"

Neoru chuffed. "Nope. You feel it. An' ya never let me forget it. We can't. Let me hold it off so you can unfuck yourself, 'kay? Please."

He took her off himself, stood his ground and summoned literally everything — even his blood glowed. "Everything's fine as long as you're still here. Go."

He looked content.

Jigoku roared, swelling with the same energy that it used to kill Kuole as its lava-like essence flowed from its shallow wounds. Neo was glad he'd receive it head-on, protecting what she left behind.

And with a savage roar, they unleashed.

All three of them.

It rocked the waves. The cliffside deteriorated before them.

Cleo's arms felt like they'd give out at any moment. She screamed with everything she had to give, desperate to cling onto the last piece of her former life.

"Look,"

She turned to her side, to a perturbed Neoru. No, he hardly even looked angry. Just hurt.

"You're better than me!" he yelled over the noise. "I know it, you know it, hell, they knew too! So if anyone's gonna make it past here, it's gotta be you!"

"JUST SHUT UP AND FOCUS! STOP TRYING SO HARD TO LOOK COOL, MORON!"

The beast's energy overwhelmed their best efforts with every waking moment, pushing them further toward the edge.

"Use your head, dumbass! If we both die here, everyone would've died for nothing! Listen, I'm sorry I fucked this up, just…"

"YOU DIDN'T MESS ANYTHING UP! YOU DID GREAT, NEO! I SWEAR!"

"..." His eyes went soft. "... You've gotta be the one to give this bastard one for all of us, ok? I'll hold him off my damn self, you just go!"

"NO! I'M… NOT… LOSING YOU TOO!"

Suddenly, the air went cold, as Neoru burned like a sun. He gave her one last look, his eyes flaring for a moment.

"I'M NOT-"

"I SAID GO!"

A pressure slammed into her, casting her off the cliff and into the water below. As she fell, the sight of him burned into her mind.

His eyes at that moment were beautiful. Like the burning amethysts he had as a dumb kid.

And then…

.

He thought he lost all sensation, that dying from there would be easy.

He was wrong. His mind held on. It was like countless hot knives sawing through his every cell. The pain was overwhelming, and he couldn't think.

He couldn't even pass on in peace. Just the agony alone made him regret the decision.

— but, for those blissful moments beforehand, he felt whole.

Neoru died.

But then he didn't, somehow. For some reason. He fell onto a grassy hilltop and then everything spiraled out of his hands. At some point, he wound up in a bed, under a weird wavy machine, beside a dumbass who thought eating a pillow was a good idea.

Now he'd awoken on a sick bay. Again.

Under an SRU. again.

Beside Zinco. Again.

Considering what'd transpired, staff erred on the side of caution and stuck both under one each.

"... what, too good to eat your pillow now?"

Zinco continued wordlessly staring into the unit. "... You're not still hurt, are you?"

"Nah."

"... great to hear."

"... thanks for killin' me, by the way."

Zinco's frazzling practically slammed into him.

"It was just for a sec, dude, c'mon. Besides, you just stopped my heart for a sec." Neoru slowly sank into sentiment. "It let me see somethin' neat. A blue sky I hadn't seen in forever and, y'know… I saw an old buddy'a mine."

The image played out in his head as he reminisced.

"Her eyes were all, like, colorless, the way mine used ta be. She was crying for some reason, but she saw me an' stopped. Shit, my head's kinda fuzzy on the details, so it might've been a dream… but I THINK I said something along the lines of…"

"Glad ta see you're still holdin' things down over there!"

"My spirit was still burnin' hot, so I wasn't down for very long. I just told her that I had my own fight to get back to, to keep up hers, an' then I jumped back into the whirlwind. Not sure what happened after that."

Cleo's dull eyes began to take on a shine.

And an irate golden flame burst from them, as she made a fist once again.

"Thank you."

"Huh?" Neoru looked over.

Zinco's jaw had clenched, his eyes joining his fist in trembling. "For coming back. That… meant a lot to me…"

He passed out, to Neo's confusion.

"You stayed up for that long just to say that, huh…"

Neoru's head rolled back to the sky, eager to fall right back to sleep. "Stubborn jackass…"

[ OP: Minami ‒ Rude Loose Dance ]

Battle Fourteen: Dina VS Kora!

Trunks and Pan stared at the hole in the ceiling.

They were outside. Several thousand meters in the air.

And there was a hole in the ceiling.

"Break?"

Trunks tugged at his hair, thinking of any other way to resolve the issue. All he could give was a slow nod.

"ER… ATTENTION, PROUD WARRIORS… DUE TO TECHNI-... WEATHER-REL-... QUANTU-"

"EXISTENTIAL DIFFICULTIES, THE NEXT AND FINAL MATCH OF THE SEMI-FINALS HAS BEEN TEMPORARILY DELAYED. YOU CAN EXPECT US TO HAVE THE TOURNAMENT BACK ON TRACK WITHIN…"

"..."

"..."

"Pan, that's a hole through this life and the next."

"Well how long do you wanna try fixing it for?"

Trunks squeezed his temple. "What is it, 1000?"

"10:48."

An aggravated muttering grew beneath the two.

"Shit… I really don't even want to try fixing this…"

"Can't we just get the Supr-"

"NO," Trunks whisper-yelled, "NO WE CAN'T. DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG GODS BICKER WITH EACH OTHER!? THE STEP PROGRAM ALREADY PUT HER AND ENMA ON SHAKY GROUND, AND WE JUST BLEW A HOLE THROUGH HIS FLOOR! NEVER MIND THE FIT SHE'LL THROW WITH US BEFORE THAT!"

"Alright, jeez. We have mages and sorcerers and majin and stuff-"

"Aaaand our best are off on missions. Of course they are. With what we have, assessing damages, it'll take upwards of maybe eight-"

"EIGHT HOURS!" Son frantically screamed into the mic, petrifying her senior. "WE'LL SEE YOU THEN! STAY POWERFUL, CONTON!"

The halfling retired her mic as the hybrid stared.

"... eight to twelve hours."

"We'll… just work really really hard, then!" Pan winked.

"Are you winking because you have a plan to that end or-"

"Nope!"

Trunks death-stared her as he raised his mic again. "Attention, proud… magic-adept warriors…"

| 6 HOURS LEFT |

"Say…"

"Huh?"

Staring up in confusion as she and her current company traversed through the thick and crooked forest was a young humanoid girl in long garbs, with sapphire-like skin and what seemed to be an organic crown of curved, banded tubes, and white vacant eyes. "I didn't want to be rude, but you feel… different… from the usual saiyan who helps me with this."

"Yeppers!" smiled the other humanoid: a tall young man in a hoodie with a furry tail, as he effortlessly hauled a truck's worth of wood, plants, minerals, and a fourth rubbery material he'd need to be paid to try pronouncing aloud. "She's got some real important business comin' up, so I thought I'd pitch in some! Give her time to get warmed up before the big one!"

"Aww~," she replied as they hit the road toward the city. "She surely must love the help!"

"H-Heh, yeeeah, she sure will… (she's gonna kill me once she finds out.)"

The girl raised a confused brow before continuing. "To be honest, I never dared dream of a place where saiyans couldn't be ruthless harbingers of darkness before she appeared one day. I felt a full saiyan's chaotic essence and believed that one had come to finish what others had started with my family… but even the way she spoke was so off-kilter, I thought my eyes were deceiving me!"

Archi sighed. "('Off-kilter'?) That sounds like her, alright!"

The two finally reached the plaza. The odd rubbery material was laid down as a base and, once the wood and minerals were placed, constructed themselves into a vendor. It was smaller than most – especially considering that amount of materials it apparently took to build – and said material used made it look dingy and low-quality compared to its many tech-juiced competitors.

The tube-haired girl set up her signs and bit Archi farewell. "Thank you, Bueri Archi. Please send Bieru Kora my best wishes, as well!"

He gave a two-finger salute, watched five people walk right past without a care, and walked right back.

"? Bueri…?"

He inhaled.

"HEEEEY HEY HEY HEY CONTON CITAAY!"

[ BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano – From Either Way (3:28) ]

The girl experienced second-hand embarrassment for the first time, as Archi grabbed the sign and started spinning it. "ARE YOU TIRED OF EATIN' THE SAME OL' APPLE CRAP FROM SOME MUCKY POLLUTED EARTH FARM!? AJISA ORANGES GOTTEN SO BLAND THAT YOU'RE STARTIN'A GET WHY NAMEK'S LOCALS STICK TO WATER!?"

Archi definitely caught more eyes. As the saying goes, one catches more bees with a thrown rock than honey.

"THEN STOP CHEATING YOURSELF AND COME TRY OUT SHUMAKKI'S FRESHER-THAN-FRESH FRUITS 'N VEGGIES! STRAIGHT FROM THE BEST CROPS OF PLANET F'TI RAISA, JUST ONE'A THESE BAD BOYS AND BAM! YOUR DAYS OF BEIN' SICK OR SORE ARE OVER! WHO NEEDS REGULAR-OLD CARDBOARD SENZU!? EAT A SALAD OF THIS STUFF AND REST UP FOR A FEW DAYS, AND PRESTO! YOU'RE BACK FROM CRUTCHES TO CRUNCHES, AND THE PROCESS WAS DELICIOUS! WHAT'RE YA WAITIN' FOR, AH!? GRAB A BAG TODAY!"

Shumakki's covered eyes, behind fingers gapped out of macabre curiosity, beheld actual movement toward her planet's produce — the same amount that'd approach her over a week's course traveled over in a group. She dashed over to her bags and got on her hustle, but not before throwing an elated grin over to the boisterous saiyan boy.

"(Everyone's business has gotta start somewhere!)" He raised a peace sign. "(Doesn't bother me none being someone's lucky break!)"

"What the hell are you doing…!?"

Archi froze. "(... now can someone be mine? Please?)" He slowly turned.

Sure enough.

"I'm, um… I'm helping you out."

"When did I ask for your help, Archi?" Kora growled, looking like she'd just finished sprinting around an entire crooked forest or something.

"That's, uh, that's the problem, Kora… you never ask for help."

Kora glared a hole through him. The glare seemed to soften with time, however. She walked away from the scene, and Archi raced to her side, to her frustration.

"You, uh... you lost some muscle. It looks... different. I mean um, it looks nice on you! I mean, yeah I don't really mind either way-"

"In 732," she began at random, "Frieza took interest in Shumakki's homeworld. There was hearsay across the quadrant that the Ferchi could create herbs capable of extending life by centuries, so he approached them with his back-handed peace at first. But they, the Ferchi, refused him, and resisted his takeover enough to beat back his usual forces. So he sent a small team of saiyans to wipe them out. I took part of that genocide."

"... oh…"

"Is that all you have to add to that?"

"I've never had a whole lotta words to give, Kora. Sorry…"

"Well it sure as hell didn't seem that way, back there…" she told him with a cocked brow and daggers for eyes. She turned away as Archi nervously chuckled — he could've sworn she held back a smile. "The point is, this doesn't involve you. This is my burden."

"... y'know… you weren't like this before that spat we had."

Kora's forward gaze sank just enough to be noticed. "I saw what it took to be great here, as a Saiyan. Once the fact that I didn't have it settled, even after everything, I took it out on myself. On you. I hurt you, Archi."

Archi grinned. "No ya didn't."

Kora sucked her teeth. "That's your problem."

[ BGM: GUN DOG – Chair ]

His grin dropped as she began elaborating.

"You act so tough, so unfazed, but… Archi, what's it going to take for you to see when someone's bad for you?"

"... look, I get it. Alright? You still think this is all me being a kid thinkin' with his ding-dong and I'm smitten over a war criminal or something-"

"Archi, that's EXACTLY WHAT I-"

Archi spun her his direction. "I KNOW."

Kora stopped herself.

"... I know. You're overestimatin' just how innocent I am, y'know, you always have. My hands aren't as clean as you seem to think, and… dammit all, you AIN'T the first woman with a garden'a gravestones that I've fallen for. I know what saiyans are now, what we're capable of becoming, what we can come back from. I've seen it first hand, alright? I can take your worst. I don't give a damn what it costs me, and I know what I'm in for this far in, and you know, I've got no problem standin' by a 'monster'. 'Specially not one this desperate to keep tearin' herself down for the rest of her life, despite everything she's done to turn around."

"You don't get it."

"Then what is it I don't get, Kora?"

"I… I'm just going to hurt you again…!"

Archi opened his mouth.

"And you'll let me."

Archi's lips fell over his bared teeth.

"... and you'll keep letting me. Over, and over." Kora lifted her head again. "I know you're strong, Archi. Against that arrogant demonic asshole, against Kazikum, against Captain Tarubei, against… I can't even chase you off. It doesn't matter how deep I cut into you, you'll always come back. You've become the spitting image of a proud Saiyan, a proud Super Saiyan, through and through. You deserve to hear that."

"Kora…"

Her head hit the inside of his shoulder. "You've changed so much, yet you never let go of who you really are. Like a polished sword."

"...!?"

She shook into a chuckle. "See? The old you would've laughed at that… Win or lose, I don't know what I'll become after this fight. I don't know what'll stick to me or what I'll throw away. I can't even predict myself anymore. But if I ever repeat what happened in that room again with you, that's it. I'll give out." She stared him in the eyes. "And I won't let myself do that to you."

"Kora, wait, that'S-"

She pushed him away from her. "I love you."

Archi transformed without a word. Just a tattered face.

Kora smiled wistfully into the golden mess's eyes. "... beautiful…" She turned around. "You gave me pride in the Saiyan that I could be. I can… I'll win with that. Goodbye."

She walked away as he sank to his knees.

The gravmag settled onto the floor of the room, its doors sliding apart. The saiyaness inside lifted her head from the side wall to find…

"(What…?)"

Taking a second to get over her self-inflicted heartbreak, and three more to overcome her confusion, Kora walked into a digitized cross between a theoretical physics chalkboard and a first-grader's scribbles, dotted by picture after picture of other's boards… which, somehow, all looked the exact same.

Sprinkled throughout were maddened, bold words such as "THE OLD MAN KNEW," "ALL IS ONE IS ALL," "THERE IS NO GOD PARTICLE," "THE FLOW IS REAL," and "NOTHING IS UNTIL IT IS".

"Um…"

"Wha?" groaned the arrogant demonic asshole she happened to know — for the first time in what little she'd known him, Akaki actually looked tired. "Oh, yeah, you… PEOPLE exist…"

Kora stared at him, and then his holoboard, and then him. "I'm… gonna need your chamber."

"You can RENT one, elsewhere, far and FAR away from me."

"Are you drunk?"

Akaki raspberry'd. "There is NOTHING, ANYWHERE, that can impair MY brain without killing me." He lifted a three-neck flask. "So I gotta MAKE something." He fell back into his chair and belligerently sighed. "Yeah, go away, I got two minutes before happy time ends."

"... what is this?"

"Go aWAAAAAAAA-"

"OK, alright, gods…!"

Kora waited in the gravmag for two minutes and walked back out. The floating discordant lights had faded.

"Akaki, I'm using your chamber."

"Mhm. Objective determinism is bullshit, by the way. You all have free will and there's no grand mechanized outline for anything."

"... I'm sorry?"

Akaki turned in his chair. "Mh, indeed you are, and it's all your fault. Well, more than it used to be, if nothing else. While one's concept of 'free will' is still entirely subjective and dependent on what someone believes constitutes their 'self', had a LONG conversation concerning THAT one, the short and sweet of the matter is that, yes, just the entire concept of fields and everything they create completely obliterates the concept of the cosmos being a long-since-set-in-motion machine. After all, no outer, vibration-born force actually results in waves and fields which, of course, is obvious once one says it. While it could be ar-"

Kora watched his mouth flail up and down as more and more information fell through her mental Care Bucket, before entering the chamber again.

[ BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano – Wir Fliegen (2:53) ]

"(... what can I do but trust in what I've done?)" She pressed herself while sinking into a stance, consciously activating her chassis, while before her formed a mutant machine straight out of a tokusatsu cartoon. Once her body weighed down, she waited for a shift in its demeanor before reorienting as it dashed inward.

"-preexisting fields like gravity and those of the literal hundreds of the poorly-named 'elementary particles' which IN FACT double as IF NOT flat out walk the line between wave and par-"

"(Think of it… the Saiyan that Archi and Captain see…)" she continued, an amazed glance leaving her as she veered away from a punch in seeming slo-mo. "(The one completely divorced from Super Saiyan, from the idea of the Saiyan in love with battle…)"

"-meaning so long as these 'waves of quantum probability' are in play, there IS no definite, determined, absolute way in which matter comes to-"

"(Her every sin, her every struggle, and her every step forward from then… I have to own up to ALL OF them!)" Even within the enhanced gravity, she flowed seamlessly between dodge and parry, reaching the point of stopping attacks before they could spring outward in full. "(That's how I'll make everything worth it. I'll stop measuring myself to others and become a Patroller that's strong in her OWN right.)"

"-and what's more is that energy can create EVEN MORE PARTICLES if you just SMASH them into each other, but these particles aren't PIECES of any other sub-sub-atomic particle but in fact paradoxically created FROM THE VERY ENERGY THAT-"

She snap-kicked a roundhouse as it left the ground, forcing the machine off-balance. Her foot came down with it.

"(In a way that NO ONE ELSE can.)"

She was set in position.

"-which brings me to the potential nature of ki as a dual-natured quasiparticle, and the realities that IT can induce-"

It happened.

A reverse punch with more than just one force acting upon it shot forward in an instant.

The machine mutant shattered.

Akaki finally broke from his babble. "Oh."

Kora looked down at her fist. "(... it's been three days since I dialed everything back, and yet… if anything, 'it's' even more consistent…)"

She turned toward the glass. "Also, what the hell were you talking about?"

"(... I think I LOVED that Fighter, actually…)" The boy rubbed his temple — he wasn't going to repeat himself. "It's nothing. Just that the cosmic stage is a bit less scripted than I used to think. Especially when its actors begin to manifest their own form of improv."

She abruptly clenched that very fist, and the ground briefly quivered. "... good to know." She prepared another reverse punch.

| 2 HOURS LEFT |

[ BGM: Tsuneo Imahori – Irradiation ]

"(SHE'S STILL RUSHING ME!)" commented a sweaty Dina as she rushed D.I.A.N.A. with a ceaseless barrage of punches, the latter playing a perilous game of defense versus her fleshborne cohort. "(SHE'S NOT LETTING UP AT ALL! TOO STRONG, TOO FAST!)" Dina upped her speed for an interval, tossing disorientating jabs as she snapped into range and resumed her heavy hits as normal, striking from every angle; D.I.A.N.A. was forced into a guard. "(IT'S LIKE SHE'S EVERYWHERE! SO, NOW WHAT!? WHAT DOES DINA SPAURK DO IN THIS SITU-)"

D.I.A.N.A's shoulder rammed into her mid-hook, the android having dove in and setting up a counterattack.

"(BEAUTIFUL!)" the half-breed noted, her chin being tossed upward by the top of her robotic counterpart's cranium before she kicked herself back and a kiss away from a vicious hook. "(HOWEVER…!)" They struck air and each other's guard for a heated moment, D.I.A.N.A. swerving out the way of a lacerating elbow. Dina pulled her arm back and tensed her hip. D.I.A.N.A. lowered her posture, one hand growing softer like a baby's first fist fresh into the world.

"(EVEN THAT'S…)"

Dina surged forward. D.I.A.N.A. struck out at the fist with what looked like a jab.

At the last millisecond, it sprang out like a snare and caught nothing.

"(TOO OBVIOUS!)" the red-eyed girl chided, a cross loosely based on a gyaku-zuki – though, this one had a literal twist to it – slamming into her double's would-be solar plexus, sending her spiraling into the ground.

D.I.A.N.A. stopped in her tracks. After holding her stance for a time, Dina rose with a sigh. "Pie."

"Oh, poot!" Diana huffed, seamlessly standing in a fittingly-robotic jerk as her hands rocketed onto her hips. "I thought for sure I had you dead to rights darn it all Spaurk you were point-right-blank where I wanted you!"

Dina took a breather for her. "Which means I'd've thought the same… even though I know that SHE knows… crud, I only have a few unseen cards in my deck, never mind whatever SHE'S holding now. For all I know, she's got a royal flush to smack me with as soon as the round begins." Dina fiddled with her collar, briefly exposing what hung by a chain beneath its center: a starlike piece of steel. "If she so happens to flatten me in the first moment, believe me, there will NOT be a repeat of the fiasco last match. The more I screw up, the deeper I bury myself."

Diana's artificial brow raised. "Well if you're so adamant, why not let down those golden locks of yours and end things quick and easy-like? The fight'll be a snack if you go all out!"

"Because Super Saiyan Dina Spaurk isn't me."

"Wh?"

"... I saw the way Pan transformed. She makes the form look so… serene. Then you have me, whose only way of keepin' Super Saiyan under control is by repeated shock therapy, in comparison. I'm not gonna beat her with something that's not mine. I mean, not ENTIRELY… I can control it a tad, sure, but it was only because of the amount of time that'd passed."

Her mind recalled the details. "I was practically fresh off an explosion during that dumpster fire of a date, but I'd been clean for three days when I fought Pan. That was all it took for me to forget half of my viability and submit to impulse. It's my full power, and I shouldn't be afraid of it if it means saving a life, but… this isn't what this fight is about. I'm only doing this so I can take some of the burden off Pan, Ms. Ayeva and others like them."

She steeled a quaking hand. "But if my best measure of service eventually leads to me turnin' to a chest-beatin' mong who answers 2+2 with a five-finger death punch, then I'm worthless. 'S I am now, I'm at Dina Spaurk's pinnacle. Super Saiyan is something that'll take me longer to master than a week, now that I can do it almost at will. That's fine."

"... hmph. hWell by the sound of it, even YOU know that's a load'a malarkey! I've got your number, Spaurk, don't you soon forget that!" Diana proclaimed with crossed arms, garnering a scoff from the original model.

"No need to be a prick about iT!" Dina threw the same twisted cross from before, sending forth a torrent of wind pressure.

Diana seemed more focused on the insult than the maneuver. "By golly Spaurk, I just can't jive with the way you're wired…"

"I've got to grow up sometime, yeah? If I don't at least push myself in that direction with something that sounds convincing in the moment, I'll always be the over-emotional child who can't step up once it's time and bungles everything at the drop of a hat." She threw another twist-cross. "A bit of reprogramming is all."

"hWell don't see how keeping someone close to heart is a bad thing, is all!"

"heWhale I don't see how keeping hold of a petty grudge is of any help to me or anyone, is ALL."

"HWELL I DON'T SEE WHAT YOU STAND TO GAIN FROM MOCKING A GOOD WOMAN FOR GIVING A PIECE OF HER RIGHT MIND, IS ALL!"

"HU-WEH-HAILE YA KNOW WHAT!?"

"..."

"... i agree, i'm out of line right now," Dina pouted before preparing another screwy straight.

"HMPH!"

Just outside the chamber, someone lovingly watched through eyes like a mother bird… with emphasis on "bird."

"(… I could've sworn she used to be so much smaller…)"

A knocking at the door sent both Dina and Diana's heads turning.

"Ms. Ayeva!" both cheered, noting the metallic black raven with a rolled sheet of paper between a set of talons. The doors slammed open, and the two girls quickly huddled around it.

"Yay, Bird Mom!"

"Never seen such a sharp-looking avian, I'll say!"

The drone chuckled. "Sorry that I can't make it in-person to coach you a bit more."

"I'm a tad preoccupied on my end." The true Ayeva had rooted herself in place, as a flame-blooded Kaset desperately tried tugging himself toward a patrol kiosk. Stroga observed all the while, a tired glee about him. "More importantly, Dina…"

"There's something I know you should have, by now." She hopped over to Dina, glancing at her hand until the girl opened it for her. The rolled sheet plopped into it.

[ BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano ‒ The Top of Oshu ]

"!? This is…!"

The mechanical bird smiled in spirit. "I remember you calling it a degree, at some point. Just a bit off the mark… if high school's the subject of discussion, then you were thinking of a diploma."

"I was joking back then, y'know…" The girl shuddered in place, her android double smiling all the while.

"I've been able to watch you grow in so many ways, and this experience has done more for me than I can explain in words. Besides you… losing your original certificate… creating this is the best way I could think of to express my gratitude. Congratulations on finally finishing High School, Dina."

"... w-... who'd… ve… thought…!"

Dina suddenly keeled over, clutching the raven as strangled sobs escaped her clenched teeth.

"Ohhh— poor girl…" Diana moaned, hand in cheek.

The stuttered sigh from the drone's mother-model couldn't slip past the comm. It stayed until Dina could go a dozen seconds without a sniffle.

"Now knock 'em dead, Tiger," said the raven, fading in a bright burst of geometry. Glimmering ruby orbs saw her off, partially obscured by lids half-shut, yet all the more clearly teeming with a teary gratitude.

With a shaky inhale, Dina stood, wiping her face and checking her watch, having already dropped the paper. "Two hours, then. I've got two more hours to ready up."

With a growl into a roar, just a bit faster, only a biiiit faster than last time, she threw another cross.

This one was ionizing.

"Oh… alright."

"hWell, if that's not the most shocking punch I've ever seen, then darn it, I don't know what is!" quipped Diana with her partner's diploma in hand.

"You haven't seen anything yet," Dina sparked, opening up her hand. "Count on it."

| 1 HOUR LEFT |

Sharp nails rapped across the stand's table as it refracted the falling sun's crepuscular spokes.

"(I'm still blown away by how well he can take God Ki… the stuff being put out in that match was nothing a normal demon could stand before dusting away!)" His companion smiled as the tall, droopy-banged demidevil gave his slabs of mammoth tataki ugly looks. "(Then again… you've never been as simple as a normal demon, huh? Especially as you are now.)"

Everyone else in Kazikum's general vicinity was quick to disagree, as nonverbal as they may've been.

"ᴴᵉˡˡ ʷᵃˢ ᵀʳᵘⁿᵏˢ ᵗʰᶦⁿᵏᶦⁿᵍˀ"

"ᵀʰᶦˢ ᶜᶦᵗʸ ᶦˢ ᵍᵒᶦⁿᵍ ᵗᵒ ᴴᵉˡˡ..."

"ᵂʰʸ'ˢ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᵈᵉᵐᵒⁿ ᵇᵉᶦⁿᵍ ᵏᵉᵖᵗ ʰᵉʳᵉˀ"

"ᴬⁿʸ ᵈᵃʸ, ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᵖˢʸᶜʰᵒ'ˢ ᵍᵒⁿⁿᵃ ᵉᵃᵗ ˢᵒᵐᵉᵒⁿᵉ...ᵎ"

"ᴹᵃⁿ ʸ'ᵃˡˡ ᵃʳᵉ ˢᵒʳʳʸ ᵃˢ ᶠᵘᶜᵏ ᴵ ˢʷᵉᵃʳ, ᴬʸᵎ ᴬʸ ᴮᴵᴳ ᴰᴱᴹᴼᴺ ᴮᴵᵀᶜᴴᵎ ᴬʸ ᴵ ᴸᴱᴳᴵᵀ ᴴᴬᵀᴱ ʸᴼᵁᵎ ᴸᴵᴷᴱ ᴵ'ᴹ ᴾᴼˢᵀᴱᴰ ᴿᴵᴳᴴᵀ ᴴᴱᴿᴱ ᴵᶠ ʸᴼᵁ ᵂᴬᴺᴺᴬ ˢᵂᴵᴺᴳ ᴼᴺ ᴬ ᴿᴱᴬᴸ ᴺᴬᴹᴱᴷ, ᴼᴺ ᴾᴼᴿᵁᴺᴳᴬ ᴵ ˢᵀᴬᴺᴰ ᴱᴵᴳᴴᵀ ᵀᴼᴱˢ ᶜᴼᵁˢ, ᶠᵁᶜᴷ ᵂᴵᴹᴹᴱ⁻ ᵃʰ ˢʰᶦᵗ ʰᵉ ᵗᵘʳⁿᶦⁿ, ⁿᵉᵛᵉʳ ᵐᶦⁿᵈ ᶜᵃʳʳʸ ᵒⁿ"

"ᴸᶦᵗᵗˡᵉ ᵀᵘʳˡᵉˢ ⁿ' ˢˡᵘᵍ ᴶᵘⁿᶦᵒʳˢ ᶦⁿ ᵗʰᵉ ᵐᵃᵏᶦⁿᵍ, ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ..."

"(... and I'm the only one here that knows that.)" Kazikum could care less, as per usual, but his apathy hadn't managed to rub off onto Wabi. Not completely, at least.

Before he could delve any further into his thoughts, a mug of glinting, savory Miso slammed onto the table before him.

"This one's on me, sport!" said the guy behind the stand. "My protégé ain't clocked in yet, so I'll give ya a freebie!"

"Wait, I'm not- I mean I couldn't-"

"Drink it, already," said Kazikum, too preoccupied with visual consumption to heed proper food terms. "It's a gift."

"Yeah, that runt knows all about gifts, doesn't he?" the short, stocky verdant musai laughed.

"Fuck off, Pops." Even his insults seemed half-hearted.

The musai shopkeep noticed. "The kid's slowed down since you've started poppin' up 'round him, Wabbs. 'N you've stopped lookin' so lost, yourself. Makes me happy to've stuck with this dingy-lil' stand for so long," he said before getting into Kaz's face with a leer, "Gettin' to live to see this jackass pay a tab…!"

Kazikum's clawed, veined-to-shit hand struck out at the short, stocky and deceptively nimble frost demon over and over, the boy himself unmoved from his aloof daze.

"Hey, Pops…" Wabi asked out of curiosity — that was the shopkeep's name, by sheer cosmic coincidence. "Were there… and I know this is a stretch… demons on our side, at some point in the past?"

The shopkeep veered away. "Huh? Like, what, demon patrollers? Sure."

Kazikum's eyebrow nudged up.

"Really!?" Wabi exclaimed.

A nod sealed it. "Durin' Operation Shimenawa, a few worked with us to make sure their home was closed back up, far away from those gross traces of order we've got floatin' round in the livin' realm. Beside that, there've been a handful'a demons that turned over new leaves in distant timelines pulled here in the past, and some are still here! Just, y'know, more fit livin' by 'emselves or conduction' missions nonstop. Y'know, Chaos, n'stuff. They're few an' far between, but you've seen where the best of 'em are capable of goin' in Conton."

"Don't we all…"

Pops got to washing out a bowl. "Can't say I blame some folk for bein' spooked 'round the boy, but in my time in Conton, people've said worse to better. Hell if I don't know some of that 'worse' myself… I'll put it like this, hasn't been a long while since people like me were known as 'Frieza's Race'. Besides, I saw his fight with the girl."

Kazikum's fingers rapped faster.

It didn't slip past the keep's blue eyes. "Y'know, you were eatin' yourself up out there…"

Kazikum's hand started singing in morse.

"Really pulled out all the stops with that speech in the middle, too… your first opponent sure's hell never got that treatment…"

Kazikum provided background growling.

"Especially that finale, sport. What, couldn't stand the thought'a hurtin' your baby any longer?"

Kazikum got up and left.

"... eh?"

Wabi sighed. "Wasn't too long ago where he would've just hit you with your own stand… still, what was that for!?"

Pops nervously scratched his crest jewel. "Saw a bit too much'a me in the kid. Made me pugnacious. Sorry."

"Well… he'll come back to pay. Hopefully."

"Oh. Speak of the lil' devil."

"Huh- OH SHYORCH-"

Kazikum charged the stand with the side of a glacier he got from a place very, very far from where he started, with the most contorted grin and ghastly cackle he could concoct.

It suddenly shattered from the top.

With anger he refocused his attention, and suddenly, his attitude changed. The woman of the hour looked back down.

[ BGM: skankfunk – Chain (Underwater Mix) ]

The ice crystals of the steaming monolith clashed against the sun's waning bursts, creating a halo of sun dogs off to her left — the heavens weren't giving Dina Spaurk something as picture-perfect as making her their center.

"Kazi-" Dina flipped her sneakers off and on, redirecting herself toward him in a slow, smooth sail. "Sorry 'bout tha', luv! Came outta nowhere, saw a massive hunk of airtime, leapt to it 'fore I could think things out! Just, uh, how I'm wired or…"

"Stop."

She came to a halt, literally dragging her heels until in front of him. "... c'mon, you're not ACTUALLY mad about the icicle, right?"

"Tch… why the fuck would I care…?"

"Then…" Dina's ruby eye darted between her destination and her deary. "What's up?"

Kazikum opened his fanged mouth.

"..."

And then it closed.

He grit, trying again, only to receive the same result. The half-spawn's fists balled as he tried to get something out, agitated by his own lack of an idea.

"(This tournament is fucking stupid. Stop hurting yourself and drop it.)"

— she'd smack his block off and add "to spite you" to her motives. Happened once already.

"(Kick her fucking ass.)"

— he didn't even want her to fight. There was no shit-for-brains egging his owner on to spur any kneejerk encouragement, this time.

"(Don't go out and die, dumbass.)"

— she was very good at doing the opposite of whatever he told her to. She'd already died more than once. He couldn't risk anything like jinxing her. And… it felt weak.

"(...)"

— he had to say something. He wanted to, needed to. The thought of saying nothing was already eating him alive. If the moment slipped, he wouldn't be able to sleep.

"Oy…"

Kazikum withdrew from himself.

Dina's arms were folded, her foot rapped along the deck… but her face was warm. "I've got places to be, big guy," she smiled. "C'mon. You're right there."

Kazikum gave an odd grimace before yielding to the first thing that came to mind. "Good luck, or whatever the fuck."

Dina grinned. "You're missin' something, luv." Her boyfriend's brow cocked, and she giggled, fully expecting the reaction. She pointed to her cheek. "If you mean it…!" she purred, adding a "mwah!"

The grey-haired boy quietly groaned. "Aren't you still sick?"

Her demeanor crashed. "Eh?"

"That Hocus Pokitus bullshit. Aren't you still sick?"

"Hoc… what are you on abOU-"

Kazikum pulled her in.

Time stood still. Space vanished. It was just them.

They slowly split, drawing out every moment in-between, and eyed each other, yellow into red, black into white.

Dina touched her lips. "... oh."

"Good luck," Kazikum muttered.

Dina gave a fanged smile, her hands around his neck. "Yeah."

Both the shopkeep and Wabi's eyes widened. "Wasn't a year ago when he was threatenin' to eat her…"

"... wha-... mh."

Dina released. "There's all the luck I'll need for the next hundred years…" She tried thinking of any parting words, failed, dismissed the desire with a squee and head shake, thumped her lover in the heart with a fist before racing off again.

Wabi watched them both. "(You know, I think they'd be horrible people, if they'd wound up anywhere else…)"

Kazikum thumped back into his seat and started scoffing tataki.

"Oh, yeah! Hey, brat, what was with the icicle just now!?"

The demidevil sneered. "Aren't you the lucky fuck who gets to sit on that? I'll put it this way, Pops, if I still had it, you'd be a splatter on the sun's ass!"

"Keh!" Pops heated up. "The punk kisses one girl an' all of a sudden, his balls drop again? I can push 'em back up yer candy ass if ya wanna go!"

"Go on and try it, midget! You'd need a fucking STEPPY STOOL just to REACH them, and that's if the swing doesn't knock your FUCKING HEAD clean off!"

"Kaaaaz…!"

"Sir!"

Both tensed as two equally-sharp fingers tacked on their napes.

"Kh…" Kazikum whipped out the zeni and slammed it onto the table, staring off in disgust the entire time.

"Gh…!" the shopkeep moped, snatching it off the table and stuffing it into the register, staring off in disgust the entire time.

Wabi and Euu sighed in exasperated relief. The former took a moment to reflect, all the while.

Sailing off the wind on tails of spirit, as she made off to her own pre-game rehearsal, Spaurk howled in a frazzled high.

"(Still pains me to say, but... but thanks a bunch, you absolute lunatic.)"

Pan climbed to the top of this sectio- WAIT WHAT'RE YOU DOING HERE-

| 10 MINUTES LEFT |

Renchiru bowed, tail firmly cinched to his body all the while. "It's an honor to meet you face-to-face, 'Screaming Oozaru Exceeding Eyesight' Captain Tarubei."

Tarubei knelt to collect him. "Please, 'Pocket Oozaru' is mine epithet in Conton, Gallant Renchiru. Rise."

The trident-banged young man did as such. "(How can she still talk like that after being here for so long?) Your reputation precedes you, Captain. For someone with such accolades across Sadala, I'd expected an aged warrior… but you don't seem beyond your twenties."

"Thine eyes do not deceive. In stalwart defense of the Three Caverns, I was slew at the seasoned age of 17."

She caught saucer eyes. "SEVENTEEN!?"

A giggle escaped her. "Surely, thou seekest not flattery, young man?"

"(The hearsay of a tiny Oozaru fighting in the northern front insisted that it was a savage hellbreather with a greater battlelust than even the WICKED saiyans…! Could it really have been all HER?)"

The sound of bounding footsteps turned both their heads, and sure enough…

"Huh? Captain?" Kora noted in surprise, leaping up the last three steps. Her eyes switched. "You?"

"I have a name."

"... Tor… um…"

"Renchiru…!" he twitched.

Kora's brow shot past three atmospheric layers. "... Oh, of course! (No wonder 'Torutsu' felt off…!) But why here?"

Toruutsu bitterly folded his arms. "I wanted to pay respects to Captain Tarubei. After all, she wore a title brandished by weathered warriors as a teenager for a very good reason."

He continued to sing her small mentor's praises as Kora noticed her uncharacteristically-withdrawn expression, avoiding eye contact as she seemed to struggle thinking of something to say — just seeing such an expression from Tarubei always brought down her own mood, never mind always knowing the reason why she held it.

The instances where the two could truly resonate with each other were few and far in between. When they did… well, 'Surpassing a Super Saiyan' was once something Kora could comprehend on her own, and it had gotten her here. Those sparse moments probably kept Tarubei trying with her.

"Hhn…"

So now…

"RUOOOOOOAAA—!"

She'd show their worth.

"CAPTAIN TARUBEI, IN NO SMALL PART DUE TO YOUR ENDLESS TUTELAGE AND HEL-... TRAINING BLEAKER THAN THE DEEPEST PITS OF HELL, I… THIS KORA WILL… THIS KORA HAS ABSOLUTELY CONQUERED THE NEED FOR SUPER SAIYAAAAN!" Kora screamed. "WITHOUT FAIL, I WILL USE ALL THAT I'VE GATHERED, AND COMBINE IT INTO ARMS CAPABLE OF TEARING APART ALL THAT WHICH STANDS IN MY WAY, AND BECOME A PATROLLER MORE THAN FIT TO FIGHT ALONGSIDE YOU AND MAKE YOU UNWAVERINGLY PROOOOUD! UPON HER LIFE, THIS KORA SWEARS IIIIIIT!"

At first, Kora wanted to drop dead.

THAT loud, completely unprompted, and in front of someone else — it felt the same as when she'd first met Tarubei, or whenever Archi did anything ever in her proximity. Even beneath her caramel skin, a blush burned fiercely.

But…

Screaming something felt good. Sharing one's all felt good. In bits and pieces, she'd already exp"YOU IMBECILE!"

[ BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano – Fist~ From The Worthy Tiger With Love ]

Propelled by a fist, Kora followed the path her surprised eyebrow had once blazed.

"THE GALL, THE IMMEASURABLE DISSONANCE YOU SO BRAZENLY CARRY, TO PRESUME IN ANY MEASURE THAT I, TARUBEI, HAVE NOT HARBORED ERE THIS BATTLE OF YOURS, THIS DAY, THIS INSTANCE IN TIME, A FATHOMLESS COSMOS OF PRIDE FOR THY DISPLAYED EFFORTS!"

"EVEN STILL…!"

Kora charged Tarubei like a missile. Renchiru watched in a trance.

"YOU HAVE YET TO BEAR WITNESS TO THIS KORA'S CURRENT PROWESS, THAT WHICH DESTROYS EVERY AND ANY PRECONCEIVED NOTION OF MY OWN CAPABILITIES! HOW COULD ONE CALL THEMSELVES PROUD OF AN INCOMPLETE SCULPTURE WHEN ITS FINISHED FORM IS ONLY MOMENTS-"

"YOU UTTER, ABSOLUTE CRETIN!" Tarubei thwacked Kora into the ground; if there was a center, she was going to find it. IF I, TARUBEI, HAD SUCH DULL EYES WHICH SAW NAUGHT THE SPLENDOR WHICH LAY DORMANT WITHIN THE HEART OF SUCH PASSIONATE WARRIORS AS THYSELF, THEN I WOULD MOST-CERTAINLY BE THIRD-RATE!"

Tarubei feverishly shook in place. "SUCH AN UNBRIDLED ARROGANCE… SUCH AN UNTAMPERED INSOLENCE…! 'TIS UNQUESTIONABLY…!"

Her aura shot into the sky as a burning light helix.

"THE GOODLY QUALITY OF MY FIERCE ENEMIES, HARMONIZED WITHIN THIS TARUBEI'S PROUD CUB!"

Kora suddenly shot out of the ground and prepared to punch Tarubei in the face. "CAPTAIN TARUBEIII—!"

Tarubei prepared to punch Kora in the face. "KORAAA—!"

They successfully punched each other in the face.

Just her face muscles were able to push away a punch. Just her idea of play fighting could draw blood. As expected of her master.

Kora loved it. Kora had always loved it.

"(And suddenly…)" Renchiru felt in a moment of bliss, "(Everything is clear... to me…)"

"Might I ask, o' proud cub of mine…" asked a gleaming Tarubei, "What invoked this change within you? Ah… Nay."

[ BGM: Hiroyuki Sawano ‒ The War God Conqueror (0:28) ]

Kora's eyes gleamed just as fiercely.

"Those eyne speaketh for thee a greater volume than any tongue."

"Thank you, captain. For everything."

They both stood from their lunged posture, recalling fists.

"Hie, Kora!" Tarubei demanded. "Awaitest you fierce battle with my proud rival's cub!"

"Mh!"

The saiyaness rushed off, to her teacher's delight. All the while…

"(I cannot, for the life of me, understand that… specimen,)" a floating visor notated from behind a corner. It slipped behind its hiding spot, and its owner redonned them as he turned. "(You find out that MAYBE you're not a snowballing of cogs beyond your control for hardly a day, and all of a sudden, you decide you're unchained from even yourself…)" He mused as he navigated the crowd, back to his home. "(Well, you have fun with that. In the meantime, I've still got a metric shit ton of clients from the paydays that were my own fights, so from here, I will also be severing our ties and living the first day of the rest of my…)"

"..."

"..."

"You think if I shot you, it would be self-defense?" Akaki asked as Archi wordlessly dragged him by the scruff of his big dumb collar.

"Shaddap," he tiredly replied.

It would've been self-defense.

"... hhh…"

He knew it would've been self-defense.

"HOW MUCH LONGER!?" Trunks asked the best and brightest of Conton's currently available mages, magicians, sorcerers, and, like, other stupid-ass synonyms for magic people, I dunno.

"Iunnuh," Dumdum replied, putting it better than I could. Bitch. "Like two hours?"

"YOU SAID THAT SIX HOURS AGO YOU BIG BLOATED BITCH!" Son screamed back, again, better than I could. "WE HAVE…"

.

"Where did she…?"

.

Pan climbed back down.

"What-"

"TEN MINUTES UNTIL WE HAVE TO KICK THIS THING, FIGURE IT THE HELL OUT ALREADY!"

"Ok," Dumdum replied.

"Dᴏɴ'ᴛ ʟɪsᴛᴇɴ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ʙʀᴜᴛɪsʜ ᴄʟᴏᴅ, ʜᴏɴᴇʏ, ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ᴅᴏɪɴɢ ᴘʜᴇɴᴏᴍᴇɴᴀʟ!"

"I ᴀᴍ ᴍᴇʀᴇʟʏ ᴅᴏɪɴɢ ᴍʏ ʙᴇsᴛ."

"Aɴᴅ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʙᴇsᴛ ɪs ᴘʜᴇɴᴏᴍᴇɴᴀʟ, ᴏғ ᴄᴏᴜʀsᴇ! Tʜᴀᴛ ʟᴏᴏɴ ᴄᴀɴ'ᴛ ᴀᴘᴘʀᴇᴄɪᴀᴛᴇ ᴛʜɪs sᴏʀᴛ ᴏғ ᴘʀᴏᴄᴇss, ᴀғᴛᴇʀ ᴀʟʟ!"

Son swayed her head toward Trunks with a small, unhinged smile. "If I start blasting them," she asked with a twitching palm of electric ki, "Will they move faster?"

"That's definitely negative karma, Pan…"

The aforementioned daughter of Gohan chewed her knuckle as if set to gnaw straight through it. "Dragons screw me over and now there's a hole between this life and the next…! I swear, it's like history keeps repeating itself…!"

Trunks stared off into nothing in particular. "(Gee, someone could really center a story around a theme like that...)"

Unbeknownst to her, she'd momentarily gained a small audience in front of schedule.

"Woooow~, Pan can be mean…" Dina nervously laughed to herself, now for more reasons than one. She shook the thought out of her head and refocused.

In front of her, drifting in and out of form, was her opponent. One year and change prior to that day, she'd physically humiliated her in front of a crowd and, from there, set her on this winding path of victory and strife. She'd made her doubt her strength, stripped her of the super saiyan ego she paraded for all of a day, insulted her without fear of what meager retribution she could throw at her, and most of all, forced her to look at herself. Pathetically, relentlessly, mercilessly, mournfully, triumphantly. Sincerely.

Overbearingly strong-willed in her own right, with her own share of agonies, who'd pushed herself just as much if not – and God help her if so – more than she had, in rebellion of something she'd sworn off starting from the day she discovered that Dina Spaurk was worth jack shit without it…

…

…

Her?

There she walked, as if on cue; Dina took a double take, to ensure this wasn't an early case of CTE.

No, there walked Kora. In the flesh.

"Why the-"

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ"Hell-"

ㅤ"Bleedin' shit-"

"Are you here?" they asked in almost-unison, with varying degrees of hostility.

In the ensuing cloud of confusion, Kora struck first with as much sass as she could put out in one go. "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know you apparently owned the arena. I hate to break it to you, but that won't be the case, no matter how much you bury yourself into it."

"Ah, yeah, brilliant, comin' from the broad who slobbered all over it like a twelve year-old girl in fronna, what, hundreds? Class, that."

"... You're one to talk."

"Because I actu-"

"With that temper tantrum you threw because you were so weak, all it took was one punch to knock you flat on your ass."

"... Are you or are you not the silly bitch who got used as a mophead by an effeminate dork who SELAINE could probably toss about with brute strength alone?"

"The same Selaine that-"

"That I defeated, yes. Wonderful chat. Now kindly wait your ten soddin' minutes in the cuckold corner, please and thank you, I need to envision bashing you in your your fat fucking cockhole- sorry, 'mouth', in the meantime."

"... why wait?"

Dina smushed her face with a palm. "Oh my God…"

"That's 'Gods' and you know it."

"-h my Father, Christ, and the Holy FUCKING Spirit, are you thick!? Thanks for the offer, but I'd rather not blow my fast track to Patroller on…" She groaned in pain — it was like she was looking at saiyan garbage. "The… unsightly creature… currently wasting what frugal decades of eyesight I've left in me, because there happen to be people out there with burdens in need of easing, much more than what exciting 'new' point you're tryin' to prove to yourself today."

Kora sucked her teeth. "What? I thought all you wanted was to beat me without Super Saiyan? When did you get self-righteous enough to think anyone could find use from… YOU?"

Dina returned to her shadowboxing with a newfound fervor. "If I were still 16 and a clueless muppet without anything better to do than hyperfixate on the first person to fulfill their God, I say again, GOD-given duty to place a prick in her place, then yes, I guess you'd still have some small spot in the back of my thoughts and curses but, sorry mate, I'm a big girl now."

Kora stopped a cross with a teisho-uke. "... I'm not your damn mate."

Dina's head slowly turned as she pulled back. "... I haven't thrown a single punch your way and you have somehow already exhausted me… was… were you…!"

Kora smiled.

Dina stared.

Dina frowned.

Dina grimaced. "THINK YOU'RE FUCKIN' SLICK AY, YA FUCKIN' MONG!?"

Kora grinned.

"AUGH, YOU SNEAKY CROCK'A SHITE, I'D CLOCK YOUR SNUFFIN' JAW CLEAN OFF YA YAP IF I WAS ANYWHERE ELSE YOU FFFUCKING WAFFLE! AND-AN- ARE YOU HAV-"

Kora struggled to keep a straight grin as Dina suffered a psychotic breakdown of some kind.

"-CKIN' LAUGH DICKHEAD!? LIKE I WON'T RIP THE LIFE FROM YOU BY THE TONSILS YEAH, YOU WILL KNOW ONCE I SOCK YA TEETH STRAIGHT OUTT' YAS AN' BEAT 'EM BACK IN, YOU-"

"Hey."

"OY STUFF IT YOU, I'M 'AVIN' A-"

"HEY."

Both shut up.

"The tournament doesn't start for five minutes, you two."

Two kittens beneath a phoenix's gaze.

"Who said you could start so soon?"

Dina dropped any semblance of toughness. "HEY NOW, WE WERE JUST HAVIN' A GO AT EACH OTHER, NO FIGHTS DOWN HERE!" she swore with bouts of nervous laughter. "WE'RE NOT CHILDREN!"

For a reason Kora would never remember, she made a different choice.

"Ms. Son… with all due respect…" Her eyes steeled. "... this is between me and her. Please don't interfere."

Her rival looked at her like one would a corpse.

Son turned to her.

Kora maintained her steeled frown.

"I'll use every last crack on this tile floor as a You grater if you don't step off it."

Kora maintained her steeled frown, even in the dark hallway a hundred meters out.

Pan turned to-

"NO MAS~!" Dina happily yelled from the same new setting.

"(That's what I thought…)" Pan snarled, having successfully staked her status as Queen of Gorilla Margin. To further lay out her territory, she began pacing around the arena in an increasingly anxious, finger-biting fit. "(Shit, there's still five minutes until this thing kicks off… I just wanna kill time until then, but if we call everyone in, then we all look like idiots that don't know how to do our jobs…)"

"Plan, change of Pan, we're starting eight minutes early."

Son slowly turned her head to the sky.

"I mean… you know what I mean."

"But we'll look stupid!"

"... it's eight minutes early."

"Exactly!"

"... both students are literally right here, right now."

"They can wait."

"You're also partly responsible for the short deadline in the first place."

"... you coulda… you…" Pan gave up and frowned. "Fine! Whatever! Let's just make ourselves look like bumbling idiots! See if I care!"

Trunks gave her a mean side-eye. "(Oh but when it's MY deadline…)" As he made the announcement with the push of his gauntlet, he sighed. "(Then again, pushed deadlines and changing plans are a key part of adulthood… can't say it's not refreshing to see her take this so seriously while on the other end of the spectrum, especially at her age. It's rough, but this is growing up…)"

"(THE MATCH'S GONE TO THE DOGS AT THIS RATE!)" Pan twitched. "(THAT DUMBASS DINA MET WITH KORA TOO EARLY AND WASTED ALL HER PRE-GAME TRASH TALK, I HAD NO TIME TO COME UP WITH ANYTHING FOR A COOL INTRO THANKS TO THIS STUPID HOLE IN LIVINGLAND TAKING UP ALL MY TIME, AND NOW EVERYONE'S JUST GONNA BE ANNOYED AND ANTSY ONCE THEY GET HERE! HOW'M I SUPPOSED TO KICK THIS OFF NOW, YOU SHITTY OLD MAN!? HUH!?)"

Pan glared down at the evening sun-painted ground while weaving her elaborate revenge scheme, only to notice the direction of her shadow. She then paid the sun – right under the hole in the heavens – a glance, and then at the moon, in full view and not far off.

"(... actually I dunno… Is this really the way I should use this incredible power I've been granted at birth and honing since I was a kid, linking me to the energies of the cosmos and pursued by sages across all spacetime since life became aware of it?)"

Pan's chance idea slowly became a visual in her head.

"(... are you kidding me?)" She grinned maniacally, taking out a black and white capsule. "(That shit's awesome!)"

Trunks lunged down, popping a capsule of the same design, and touched onto the ground in a full tux, slick hair, aviators and a mic that sailed to the sky. ALRIGHT FOLKS, I KNOW WE'VE… Been… keep…

Trunks watched Pan, standing still save her arms, drag the moon over the sun and force an eclipse over the hole in the sky.

Beloved audience, welcome back. You can see we've undergone a change of scenery since last we met.

"(I don't think I've ever seen her take… ANYTHING this seriously outside of a mission…!)"

[ Hiroyuki Sawano – aLIEz ]

As day invites night, and the sun dances with the moon, so too must the second half of the tournament commence. Pan willed an aura around two monoliths — one weeping, one cackling. She then emptily looked at the microphone for an uncomfortable amount of time, her tensed eyes hidden by her sunglasses.

Trunks swooped in for the save. AnD DESPITE THE DARKENED SKIES AND TIME ELAPSED, THIS BATTLEGROUND MAINTAINS ITS SWORN DUTY…!

A lightbulb seemed to explode in Son's head. A WORLD WHERE FIGHTERS ARE FREE TO "SEARCH!"

IS IT THE KEY TO STAND AMONGST THOSE WHO PROTECT HISTORY, AND THE SACRED FLOW OF SPACETIME, FROM THOSE WITHOUT REGARD FOR ITS FRAGILITY!?

OR IS IT THE ANSWER FOR THE BATTLE WITHIN!? AN ANSWER AS TO WHY THEY SHOULD FORCE THEIR HAND INTO A FIST IN THE FIRST PLACE!?

YOU'VE SEEN IT HERE, TIME AND TIME AGAIN, ON THIS FLOOR STAINED AND BOLSTERED BY BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS! THERE IS NO BETTER PLACE TO WITNESS THAT STRUGGLE, TO FIND THAT ANSWER!

WITH THAT SAID…!

SO BEGINS THE CONCLUSION TO THE RESET-MET SEMIFINALS!

Son inhaled.

OOOOOOOOOOON ZA HEADEEEEEEEEEEND!

Trunks jumped. Again.

Beneath the screaming monolith, wooden doors slammed open. "(bloody christ, finally…)"

AT 174CM AND 72KG, WITH A STARTING MAX POWER OUTPUT OF 3,307,770! THIS GODDESS OF UPSETS HAS SNATCHED VICTORY FROM THE ENDS OF REALITY, THE GATES OF HELL, AND THE JAWS OF DEATH ITSELF – WITHOUT EXAGGERATION – WITH A DOWNRIGHT TERRIFYING AMOUNT OF GRIT THAT'S GONE UNMATCHED BY ANY BEFORE OR AFTER HER! WITH A HEART AS GOLDEN AS HER LOCKS, IN SPITE OF HER CRAZED MANNER IN THE HEAT OF BATTLE, SHE'S ONE OF THE FEW ACROSS HISTORY ABLE TO BLEND THE OUTER PULL OF MAGIC WITH THE INNER PUSH OF KI, TO CREATE AN ABSOLUTELY "SPAURKING" ABILITY! IN HER THIRD TOURNAMENT OUTING…!

Blood rubies broke the dark, ingrained within the eyes of a girl with a scarlet, white and gold-highlighted leather jacket, over a monochromatic shirt depicting a smilodon's lashing skull; draped over it, a chain ending with a 'YPD' badge. Flowing behind her in spikes, a shoulder-length bob of balayage hair – a design courtesy of golden lightning.

IT'S THE "SUPER SAIYAN SHOUJO," SPAURK…! DIIIIIINAAAAAAAAAA!

"(I swear, you an' theatrics…)" Dina glanced off, sweeping her bangs, wiping off sweat from her shadowboxing. "(BRILLIANT epithet by the by, ya twit…!)"

Trunks lamented how a not-even 18 year-old girl could dwarf his volume, but decided not to challenge her at her own game. AND IN THIS CORNER…!

Beneath the weeping monolith, one final gate would burst forth.

AT 182CM AND 80KG, WITH A STARTING MAX POWER OUTPUT OF 5,604,430! THIS LEVEL-HEADED FEMME FATALE HAILING FROM THEN-PLANET VEGETA – IN HER FIRST MATCH – COMPLETED THE EQUIVALENT OF A PATROL MISSION, SAVING HER FELLOW STUDENT AND EVEN PULLING HERSELF FROM OF THE CLUTCHES OF DARK MAGIC'S POSSESSION! NOT EVEN THE SHIFTING OF SPACE AND TIME CAN STOP HER ADVANCE! WITH A PENCHANT FOR SPEEDY MIND-BATTLE ADAPTATION THAT LEAVES MOST SAIYANS IN THE DUST, AND A NIGH-UNMATCHED MARTIAL PROWESS THAT SHOULD ALMOST BE EXPECTED FROM THOSE WITH AN APATHY FOR COMBAT AT THIS RATE, IN HER THIRD DEBUT…!

The whites of her eyes seemed to make the twofold abyss in their center darker than black. Spikes from her dark and low hair flowed behind her, herself dressed in a modified saiyan forager's skirt and an odd Sadala and RIT-fused chassis, rocking the same scheme of icy blue and graphite, over a black compression suit.

…

…

KOOOOORAAAAAAAA!

"(I'm not angry that I didn't get an epithet, I'm not angry that I didn't get an epithet, I'm not angry that I didn't get an epithet…!)" Kora reassured herself, her face in a determined calm and her fists apparently hiding one unstable reactor each.

THE FLOOR IS READY, THE SKY IS… GOOD ENOUGH, AND THERE IS NO…

Both stopped. Their blood had gone completely cold.

They'd been caught in the middle of two encroaching monsoons. The two's glares could kill – without exaggeration, the raw pressure would crush any ordinary man's heart, then and there.

Uh… just a split reminder, but… killing's still off the table. Would really suck if we lost a great future patroller or… two…

Both participants, give a nod in response.

With an unchanged intensity in their eyes, they did so.

Allll—righty then, NO NEED FOR ANY MORE DELAY! THUS, WITHOUT FURTHER ADIEU, FIGHTERS…!

Words were no longer needed. The two, from the moment they'd met, to the point they now found themselves, had said all they needed to.

Only one gesture was needed henceforth.

BEGIN!

Two gestures.

[ BGM: Yuki Kajiura – She Holds The Black Holy Sword (0:35) ]

The ground beneath the two abruptly cracked, as a hurricane of pressure rattled the entirety of the arena. The storm grew dark and blinding in rapid intervals, enveloping the fighters and tattering the stage.

Thus, Kora began to roar.

"Haaaaa—!"

— A prolonged roar. One made to signal an apex predator's territory without question. It rang for miles, sending tremors throughout the earth, rattling the bones of all within its massive earshot. Such was a lion's roar, as a matter of course.

"—AAAAA—"

She silently stared down the rival as her power sent chunks of the stage up into the sky, steadily reaching the point of its foretold "max output." She then took a breath.

Thus, Dina roared.

"gRAAA!"

— A spontaneous roar. One fit to invoke an immediate terror within the heart of prey. It shot outward like a cannon, practically ionizing the air, rooting its victims in place with no hope of fleeing. Such was a tiger's roar, as a matter of course.

Nearly her full power rocketed outward, tossing chunks of the stage as if shrapnel in a grenade's wake.

"AAAA…!"

"AAAA…!"

Amid the tempest surpassing all planets' winds, a flash burst within their eyes.

"HA!"

At long last, they'd reached their respective zenith. Beneath her jacket's buttoned collar, Dina's chain burned.

They both silently sized each other.

"..."

"..."

And then, the second gesture.

Dina disappeared. Kora faded.

[ BGM: Yuki Kajiura – The Four Rings (0:11) ]

Each's fist slammed into the other's palm, deadening both their charges and leaving them in a brief state of inertia as shockwaves rang out like their liquid namesakes, tearing apart the stage in moments.

In that moment, both acknowledged the sheer intensity streaming off the other, constricting their pupils and frizzling their hair, and desperately tried to outmatch it. The falling rubble felt like silence, no different from the clashing strands of ki and the plasma coinciding.

In a blink, they faded once more.

Spaurk Dina and the Saiyaness would, for five seconds, try to end the battle with their full power.

They rocked the turbulent eclipse-laden skies, Dina using everything she had for the sole purpose of speed, for the one before her dwarfed her in all regard otherwise. Overpowering her would be akin to a senior citizen fighting against the current — a single well-placed strike would, without fail, end her time in battle. The lights that flooded the sky spoke for Kora that she would not waste energy in a pursuit — the sheer focus within each blast and beam within the maelstrom, however, was set to kill. She would use every iota of her power to eliminate the vexation before her.

The sheer will behind which Dina propelled herself, risking perhaps her life with direct contact with a stray blast, forfeiting all counterattack in the process sans shots at the ground to serve as both suppression and ways of summoning more single-use cover, nullified the strategy. Kora would have to pursue after all. The saiyaness was not-yet at the level of feeling the shifts of the air itself, Dina's sole salvation as she jet through a slab and barreled two-fisted into Kora's liver, then shot her weight in spirit directly into the struck section, blasting them both in opposing directions. A brief stunned moment translated to immediate fury as she erupted into an omnidirectional wave — had Dina any more faith that her attack would lead to any great offensive opening, she would've been finished.

Instead, after channeling her ki into naught but defense, she bore the excruciating, scream-worthy pain of ground zero — there was no small increase, however, for such waves reserved focus for area of effect, not damage. Her own could form a barrier to weather the attack, in spite of pain.

Kora whirred around to finish her, but found nothing — sprinting across rising debris, formulating another movement, Dina Spaurk. She shot forward once her opponent tracked the bare minimum ki the half-breed was giving off, given no reprieve as her sanctuary of shrapnelized stage, not before kicking one full-force ineffectively into the saiyaness, enough to send it burning against friction even while encased in her own ki. Kora blasted it and its brethren into molten pieces before, with an enraged roar, forming one massive ki sphere and dragging it across the sky, atomizing the debris above and below as she set a 'floor', continuously undoing any debris that could rise in response to the clashing powers. Her eyes darted to the half-breed whose fist shot past her temple with double the force of what Dina Spaurk should've been capable.

However, all it would end with was a cut across the forehead, before Kora's knee shot into her abdomen. The whitening impact didn't stop there, as Kora proceeded to send her foot into Dina's temple in return with a reverse crescent that transitioned into a literal flying roll kick straight into the mass of ki below them, only to finish with a downward fist imbued with all of her strength directed into what she was almost certain was her solar plexus, sending the mass into a columned eruption accompanied by Dina's screaming. The effect violently demolished the arena with hundredfold a fusion warhead's savagery before sucking all debris back in and scattering it in a volcanic plume, resembling a grand, otherwise-extinction event.

The blast worked. The final punch hit something, shouldn't've needed to hit regardless, on account of the prior hit to the head. It was just insurance.

As the blast's blinding aftermath simmered off, in its blinding red-white flash, Kora watched within the massive blackened crater for movement.

Was she even alive?

Whatever the case, her victory was already assured by the difference in power-

"Gngh…!" She cradled the wound taken to her liver before finally taking note of the blood constantly streaming down her face, all thanks to the cut above her forehead. Even so, she'd keep constant note of her opponent's ki signature, but she still began to work on her latter wound by-

The air ionized unnaturally.

"...!?"

Ah.

Dina could resuscitate herse-

The red lightning overtook the light in the surrounding area, suddenly empowered by the inner universe, stunning Kora for a nanosecond.

One nanosecond. A meaningless construct of measurement.

In spacetime's fickle, fluid, relative eyes, it was slow motion.

Red eyes flaring, Dina silently, intensely roared to attention, two other spokes of lightning ripping across the arena to her opponent's sides, setting the domain parameters for her death charge.

Her entire body rippled with a mystic voltage, reforming her natural electric signals to shape her physical structure as she gave herself to her mind for a full-power strike in her battered, lucid condition. A humanoid railgun, beyond any railgun.

And…

Once again, the numbers had been deceitful. Then again, magic lent itself to surpassing numbers.

Kora's maw streamed life essence and steam, her fabrics mangled.

Dina smoked as red trailed from her entire body, her jacket obliterated.

Both's hardened, exhausted, angry gazes confirmed but one thing:

They had failed.

The fight had only just begun.

[ ED: 黒咲ルシア / LUCIA – Imaginary Like The Justice ]

"Konus-dear and I's lovely craftsmanship aside," Selaine fumed, "Why in God's name hasn't that numbskull Spaurk used more magicks!? It's her best option as it stands and she's SQUANDERING it save ONE instance, despite the fact I KNOW she's improved substantially since her last outing! What's her malfunction, blast it!?"

"I think…" Baubi suggested, "She's hiding her 'hand'. After all, I have like NO idea what you're talking about right now, but, like… maybe that's her point."

"Well her point serves little if the daft girl goes 'n gets clobbered before she can make any strides forward, just note the difference in power!"

"OH MY GAWDS, I KNOW RIGHT!?" Devine squealed. "TOTALLY. KICK. ASS! POWER GAPS ARE JUST, LIKE, THE BEST, LIKE I CAN'T FREAKING EVEN START! IT'S LIKE, THERE'S, LIKE, THERE'S THIS WALL, AND YOU, LIKE, PUNCH IT A BUNCH, BUT IT'S NOT BREAKING? BUT THEN IT HITS YOU AND, JUST… AAAAAAAA! I TOTES CAN'T EVEN SAY, LIKE NOT EVEN!"

"..."

Baubi visually directed Selaine to Devine. "Dina also gets like that."

"Aaaaa~ah." Her brow raised, thanks to a peripheral glance. "Wait… back on the topic of craftsmanship, just where oh where were YOU TWO these past eight hours!?"

Kaza nervously laughed.

"It is none of your concern!" Mei responded, vigorously wiping the corner of her mouth with a handkerchief.

"So magic's the only way Dina can close the gap…" Mashii asked, tense.

Katlij nodded. "I'm with you. I can only hope she's made strides forward this past week, or her resolve may just kill her for good…"

"You two have no need for concern." The two turned to a smiling Renchiru. "She won't last very long, even with her witchcraft. The Saiyans grow as they fight, and with the caliber of one Kora happens to be, the match will end before the halfling can throw her life away."

Katlij and Mashii looked at each other, and soon smiled.

"You said it yourself, right?"

"What makes you think DINA doesn't grow as she fights?" Mashii belligerently nodded. "Thanks, Torutsu! You really helped me ease up!"

"(IT'S… RENCHIRU…!)"

Zinco watched the screen with concern. "This is awful… With the way she is, and who she's fighting, Dina might die…!"

His former opponent scoffed.

"Ah just shut up! Don't act like you know her just cause you got a name."

"I'm just worried…!"

Inside his head, Neoru sang a different tune. "(I ain't sayin' 'Don't give her Hell', Dina, but… try not to die out there, alright?)" He gave a tense smile as his fist clenched. "(Just burn yourself into that bitch. Show her punk ass just how far you've come.)"

"BURN! BURN! BURN, O' HEART OF MINE! HOWL WITH SHEER JOY IN THE SEARING FRAY WITHIN WHICH KORA NOW FINDS HERSELF EMBROILED! OH, ODE TO CATHARSIS! OH, ODE TO CONCLUSION! OH, ODE TO THE SPLENDORS OF FRENZIED FISTS AND THE GUIDANCE THE BLOOD THEY SPILL GRANT SUCH SPLENDID WARRI-"

Ayeva watched Tarubei spill her radically-disproportionate heart out with a quiet, nostalgic whimsy. "(Both of them are different beasts, now. That kid crying in an alley that I almost convinced myself to walk right past is standing right there, next to a student that she trained, as an equal… it's unthinkable.)"

"Ay yo Ayv, can I leave now?"

The android playfully raised her chain cuffed hand, realized there was no weight attached to it, and gave it a death stare.

Kaset massaged his wrist. "Yeah I just wanted to ask, get that confirmation. See there are so fine-ass five star patrols callin' my name, and-"

"Leave now and you'll BEG me for a mouth to scream with."

With a pout, Kaset dropped into crisscross. "Swear I can't have shit…"

Ayeva dropped her terrifying demeanor as if closing an app, and pecked him on the cheek. "It's only fair… Trust me. You'll see something that blows last match out of the water."

Kaset scoffed as loud as humanly possible. Ayeva shin-checked him.

"(Is that…?)" Voshyo's neck craned, he himself pushing back a vague feeling of familiarity with compounding effort. "(The same brat from back then…? Zinco I understand, but that sniveling waste of Saiyan blood?)"

"Something perplexing about this, boy?" asked Ceushius.

"Merely a passing curiosity. How one so pathetic could take up such power in but a year's time…"

Wabi glanced over.

Somehow, Kazikum had nothing to say to him, or seemingly anyone. Not even a half-hearted curse.

"Kaz…?"

To the left, Archi's tired gaze hadn't so much as shaken, even as Akaki not-far-off grew crowded by a female-majority crowd of curious tech savants.

Both seemingly only saw one thing.

And despite their own woes and reservations,

The smirks creeping up each boy's face couldn't be helped, looking upon that sight.

"I'm… back from… Hell…" Dina grinned through her pain and exhaustion.

"I… noticed…" Kora wiped blood, concealing her smirk. "Now I'll make you wish you stayed there."

Dina bared fangs. "Not if I make you first."

The tiger pounced. The lioness lied in wait.

DON'T YOU SCREW THIS UP!

A FIST FROM DINA SENDS KORA ON THE DEFENSE!

7/10/2024 PATCH NOTES: Raised both Kora and Dina's power levels. Lowered gap between Kora and Dina. Spruced up and unfucked dialogue. Minor tweaks to the fight before the fight.

Yo! OP Here!

I'm... actually not gonna talk a whole lot this time, this has gotta be the biggest chapter yet.

The big thing is that I've actually started getting into "The Tao of Physics" by Fritjof Capra. I'm pretty shit at asking the "right" questions, yeah, but this book, man. It's answering damn-near everything for me and giving me the tools to dig deeper on my own. Shit like the intuitive mind vs rational knowledge, deeper insights on eastern mystic concepts, and how subatomic/quantum physics draws a clearer and clearer parallel to these concepts like universal oneness and a primordial cosmic energy that all things stem from (See: Brahman, The Tao, Dharmakaya), the more it's updated. Also it got me up to date on quantum tendencies and other super cool shit. Very cool shit that benefits both me and the story as a whole, idea-wise. Akaki's rambling was my way of throwing a lot of it into the story.

Also if you're wondering why he didn't already know that shit, he's 16. He thought he was right about everything until he thought about something for more than ten seconds. Hyperbole, of course, but still. Smart teenage ego.

Ah, one more thing. The Dina VS Kora match opener has been in my head for more than 3 fucking years now. And now it's finally free.

Next chapter: Kora bullies Dina with sideways human face magnet punch, Dina throws a supercell at Kora, Dina WANTS THIS ONLYYYY, Kora takes her top off and then continues to bully Dina until Dina becomes The Honored One for a second.

No bullshit, that's about it.

See ya.