Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was a relatively fair spring day, a young woman by the name of Mitoko Hitori walked down the pavement as she carried with her a copy of Dragon Ball FighterZ [1] , said copy of which she managed to get for a surprisingly low cost considering the large prices that most Switch games went for these days.

Mitoko was what you would call a “NEET”, she had no job so she had to draw for a living to at least get by in life. Not forgetting to mention she was a huge Dragon Ball fan, much like anyone else.

That... and the only fighting game she really played in her life was Super Smash Bros.

“..I only got it because it was on sale...”

The black-haired girl felt a wave of guilt wash over her brain, sure she could try playing against her older brother... but she couldn’t fathom the idea of him finding out that she really did just suck at fighting games! The most she knew was spam buttons repeatedly until something worked !

Although, as she walked down the road, she failed to realize there was an open manhole right in front of-

Mitoko’s screams could barely be registered as she fell down into the hole, panic quickly setting in as she dropped down into an impossibly deep void. “Somebody!! Somebody help meeaaa AAAA AGHHHH --!!!”

And then, 

Everything stopped.

The girl’s feet landed on the ground like a cat , which only left Mitoko even more confused than ever before. Looking around after managing to find her glasses on the ground, she seemed to be in some kind of purple starry space . Her head felt light as she took a couple steps forward, disheveled and scared, as she watched two figures walk toward her.

“No... no way...”

Before her was the Supreme Kai Shin and God of Destruction, Beerus !

“I-- This has to be a dream!”

Beerus rolled his eyes as he bit down into a chocolate bar he had in his paws. 

“No, you’re not dreaming. Far from it actually, right now you just died from a severe concussion and subsequent blood loss. It’s hilarious, actually.”

Shin pouted as he looked up at the God, “You’re not supposed to tell her that!”

“I DIED ?!”

Mitoko covered her mouth in shock as the two of them nodded, although Beerus had a noticeable grin on his face. Her olivine pupils shrunk down as she took several shaky steps back, questioning if this was the afterlife or just some kind of hallucination before the endless oblivion of absolute death.

“Although it is true that you’ve met a terrible end , we’ve decided to give you a second chance at li--”

“Oh, suck it! What I want is a game! It’s no fun to send some random human back to their world without a bit of action! I’ve seen enough anime to understand that!” Beerus yelled, folding his arms.

“Listen up, whatever your name is!”

“M-My name is Mitoko Hitor--”

“I’ll give you a choice. That game [1] you’ve got in your bag. Hand it over.”

Confused, Mitoko shuffled through her bag... before Beerus immediately lost his patience and snapped his fingers: A couple of digitized cards appeared before the girl as if it were some kind of... game .

“Hey, aren’t these--”

Beerus nodded, “Characters from that Dragon Ball anime you really like? Sure are.”

Of course, the option for Beerus himself was crossed out. Fitting .

There were options like Goku, Vegeta, even other even wackier characters like Broly and Majin Buu. So many to choose from, but Mitoko had no idea what it could mean! “..so uhh--”

Beerus metaphorically tapped at an imaginary watch on his wrist. “Tick tock, make your choice! We don’t have all day!”

Growing more panicked by the second, Mitoko trusted her instincts and made her choice; 

Cell .

Shin’s eyes went wide as he looked at the girl in concern, while Beerus seemed genuinely interested. “..umm.. are you sure that’s your final decision ? You don’t want to pick Goku or-”

The purple cat of a Destruction God whipped his tail. “I beg to differ, this could actually be interesting for once! Mitoko Hidori-”

“Hitori.”

“Rghh... human! Your goal is to make it to the end and find the one named “ Android 21 ”. Defeat her and you’ll return to your world. If not? Well, we’ll see what happens.”

“Wait! You didn’t tell me what this was about--”

In a flash of light, the girl as she knew herself was gone.

I’m afraid. 

It is hungry. It is immortal.

Worse, It knows nothing of a whim.

After what felt like ages, Mitoko opened her eyes. Looking around, the world was... different. Everything seemed more “ animated ” compared to her old life, not to mention the weird taste in her mouth...

Pressing her fingers up against her... lips... before pulling back, her eyes widened in horror.

Those weren’t her hands .

Seeing her appendages twitch as she took in what had happened, poor Mitoko was left aghast at her fate. Pressing her hand up against the wall, she came to realize that when she chose her option back in that glistening violet void... that was the character she would be reborn as in this new world.

Worse yet, she was in Cell’s Imperfect form. [2]

Seeing the ruby globes of her new body quivering in terror within the reflection of glass beside her. It was like a nightmare, she was that nightmare.

Mitoko recognized the scenery now. It was the town that Cell had attacked prior to Piccolo’s discovery ; the girl-turned-bugman’s tail moved around slightly as she took in the horror. What was her purpose here? 

The most she was given in terms of instructions was to find someone named “ Android 21 ”.

“What... no... this has to be a dream...”

Not even her own voice came out of that beak mouth, but Cell ’s.

Although it was a given, it still took Mitoko by surprise. 

The most she had left was her own mind .

Of course, she was left with more questions than answers. How much could she alter the storyline in terms of her knowledge of the Cell Saga’s progression? Wouldn’t it be easier to just go after the androids directly and become perfect sooner? Would--

“Monster!”

Mitoko was snapped out of her thoughts as she turned to face a man, a seemingly very rich man... who was terrified of the massive, freaky bug in front of him.

“H-Hey, don’t get the wrong idea! I’m not gonna hurt you! I’m just looking for the androi--”

Seemingly out of an unconscious whim, the syringe of a tail that made Cell infamous attacked, stabbing into the frightened man’s chest and sucking out his insides, leaving behind nothing but clothes. Mitoko covered her mouth- beak- whatever- in agape horror. Did she do that? Or was it something else entirely?

Either way, she felt stronger .

“..The more I consume, the stronger I...”

Mitoko shook her head, holding it in her hands as she struggled to keep her humanity from being corrupted by the influence of Cell’s own body.

“No! I’m not gonna kill people! I’m not, I’m not, I’m not!!”

Wait.

The girl had an idea, one that may save her life and make more allies than enemies in the long run.

Jumping up into the air, she headed over to Kami’s Lookout.

Stepping down onto the fine marble flooring of the hovering lookout, Mitoko looked around for any people she recog-

“You!”

And here was one of them, Piccolo .

“It’s Piccolo! I-I mean.. ”

From the namekian’s perspective, what he was witnessing was the bio-android creation of Dr. Gero... stumbling over his own words and covering his face like some kind of shy high school girl. 

“What the Hell are you, and why do you know my name?”

Mitoko spoke, although what Piccolo heard was anything but what he was expecting;

“My name is Cell, I’m the creation of Dr. Gero made to absorb the androi... cyborgs named 17 and 18 so I can become perfect and kill Son Goku.”

Her breath hitched slightly, “Although, I don’t think the latter part will be necessary anymore. Since the doctor’s death, I have decided to go against his orders to an extent.”

Piccolo was suspicious, but intrigued by what the bio-android had to say. For some reason, he felt like something was... off.

“I will still need to absorb 17 and 18, but that’s the most I will do. For now, I am after a new target: Android 21 .”

The bugman’s tail swished around before he kneeled down and bowed his head.

The Namekian continued to question why a creation of Dr. Gero, one made for the sole purpose of killing Goku, would suddenly go against his orders without any warning in the slightest. It seemed unlike the old rat to load a shotgun with fake bullets.

“And why should we trust you? You did say you were created by Dr. Gero.”

“Well, more specifically Dr. Gero’s supercomputer in the future but I digress-” Mitoko looked down at her hands, three fingers on each which freaked her out the longer she stared. 

“..I want redemption.”

“...pardon?”

Standing back up straight, Mitoko dusted herself off. “In another life, I would’ve been one of your worst enemies. I would’ve almost destroyed the world in an event called the ‘Cell Games’. I would’ve left a legacy that would last decades after my death.”

Piccolo’s brow twitched as he glared at the android as he rambled on, specifically about events that hadn’t even happened yet. “..how do you know all this?”

And here it comes.

“..please don’t tell anyone this, but I’m not of this world.”

“Yeah, you’re from the future, I already know-”

Mitoko shook her head, “No! I mean I’m not from this universe , I’m literally a highschooler who was reincarnated into the body of Cell!”

Okay, now this was getting absolutely ridiculous.

“... what .”

" As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect . "

-     Franz Kafka [2] , “ The Metamorphosis ” (1915)

“..so you’re actually a girl named...?”

“ Mitoko Hitori . 12th Grade. I was chosen by Beerus to be his ‘champion’ in some kind of game so I could return back to my world; back to my body . I already know most of the events that are gonna take place... 

...or should have .”

The once-girl-turned-android waved her hand around as she rolled her slitted pupils, having sat down next to the caped Namekian.

“By now we should’ve been fighting long after you found me absorbing someo-” Mitoko covered her weird beak mouth, pulling back to see a blotch of thick saliva. “ Gross .”

Piccolo was still confused, but hearing that (at least in his mind) she knew future events could mean some kind of good.

“...like I said earlier, I need to find and absorb the androids so I can become perfect and be strong enough to fight Android 21 ... at least before I starve to death...”

Piccolo’s brow was raised in confusion, before remembering something that she mentioned earlier. 

“...yeah, I uhh... I need to eat people in order to survive. I’m already feeling lightheaded, even after one person... ughh..”

“Then why don’t you-?”

At first, Mitoko was appalled that Piccolo would say such a thing... before remembering what had transpired in the Buu Saga.

She hugged her insectoid legs close, looking down at the cities and towns below Kami’s Lookout. “...I don’t know. I just... it just feels wrong ! I don’t wanna kill people! I’m a person too !... technically!” Her tail flicked and swished around, seeming to have a mind of its own. 

“It feels wrong to kill people when I’m a human trapped in the body of.. of THIS !”

Mitoko sobbed into her knees, although Piccolo was weirded out by the image of a tall, green bugman crying like a gossip girl that got dumped on prom night.

Clasping his hand onto her shoulder, Piccolo at least had one idea on what to do with her.

“Okay, I’ll let you train with the others and absorb some humans in secret, we can just wish them back with the Dragon Balls so you can become stronger.”

Mitoko’s cherry red eyes sparkled with joy before she hugged him close, “Thank you so much!!”

*stab*

“ AAGHH!! ”

The girl’s eyes shot open, seeing her tail jabbed into Piccolo’s arm and quickly sucking out his fluids, panicking, Mitoko grabbed at her lengthy appendage and tried to pull it out. “ Shit! No no no no I’m sorry! I’m sorry I didn’t mean toooooooooo...!! ”

• END of Chapter 1    -

Chapter Text

It had been several days since the game began.

Or at least, that’s how Mitoko felt like it was.

For some reason, inexplicable to her, she managed to reach her Perfect form without the need of finding the androids. Gazing into a mirror that was in the home of Bulma Briefs, who thankfully understood her plight, Mitoko felt her porcelain white face. Her peridot-colored eyes gazing back into hers from the reflection, quivering slightly.

Her hands, once dainty and frail as a human, were now clawed with black nails and similarly stark white in color, knuckles carved out like the perfect sculpture.

Her skin felt cold.

So cold.

Knock knock .

“Eh? Umm.. come in?”

Opening the door was Bulma herself, checking in on the poor girl.

“Piccolo told me everything, it’s so weird to be talking to someone who used to work for the Red Ribbon Army!”

“Yeah... it’s.. it’s complicated.”

“ Not to mention weirdly cute too. ”

Overhearing Bulma muttering under her breath, Mitoko’s face turned a bright violet as she covered it with her hands. “I-I-I think I should get going...”

The teal-haired woman gave a mild chuckle before patting her on her bicep, “You have to prepare first! Piccolo said you looked on the verge of death back then, at least you look a lot better now!”

Sure, even though she doesn’t need to absorb people anymore to gain power, the urge to cannibalize the innocent still lingered in Mitoko’s head... as much as she hated it. It was such a horrifying concept, to consume other people.

It was like a voice in her head trying to convince her.

“Could you imagine how boring it would be to retread the same plot again!? Oh, just throw her at the androids and see what happens, maybe she’ll try to kick that weeb boy in the balls before giving him the suck and I don’t mean that in the porn variety!”

Beerus complained as he and Champa were arguing over what they officially named the “ After-Death Tournament ”.

“Oh, quit your bitching, brother! We just need to let them thin themselves out before we find the right warrior to fight Android 21.” Champa responded, shoving some Twinkies into his mouth.

“If I can ask, why Android 21 specifically?” Shin asked as he sat next to Beerus, across from Universe 6’s Supreme Kai Fuwa, who I had to look up the name for.

Beerus squinted at the much smaller Kai before whacking him from behind the head with his paw. “Don’t you get it!? For some reason she’s been receiving more and more power, trying to play GOD by creating clones of fighters from across history! Any more and the Supreme Kai of Time herself will have an aneurysm!”

Shin coughed into his fist, “Why can’t we just do this normally and let Goku and his allies settle it? It seems we’re just complicating things by starting an entire tournament just so we can see who can handle this single enemy.”

“And make this scene exploitable? Hell no!”

Stepping outside of the building, Mitoko held her hand up and over her eyes as she gazed up at the blue sky. It was a brand new day. Eventually, she would have to find and confront Android 21 so the girl could have a chance at being revived back in her old life.

It felt weirdly fitting for the girl to die and be reincarnated in the form of an insect. Well, ‘insect’ wouldn’t be the right word for it; an insect has six legs while she only had two, or maybe her arms count as well since it was less legs per say and more so limbs in general. Regardless, the basic idea for an ‘insect’ would be to have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body, three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes and one pair of antennae.

Mitoko looked down at her lithe body, quickly realizing that this perfect body was the closest she could ever get to having a bigger bust.

Unfortunate that it’s not her body.

“..what do I do now?...”

She looked around before jumping into the air, flying over the tall cityscape as she looked for someone to talk to. Maybe someone who could help her understand her situation just a tiny bit better.

Wasn’t this a game? That’s what it sounded like when Beerus and Shin explained things. 

“Maybe there’s other players? H-how would I know though…?”

Maybe it’d be best and see if anybody stood out.

She continued her flight across the country, noticing several frightened bystanders down below staring up at the tall cicada-like android looking for other players, people who she could potentially ally with to escape this presumably digital hell.

Eventually, after a while, she stopped.

Mitoko sighed as she laid up against a tall tree in a forest, already exhausted after thirty minutes of nonstop flight. For a world with so many heroes, it was pretty hard to find them! Though maybe she wasn’t looking in the right places…

Flying back up, she spotted a very familiar looking ship not very far from her; like mere meters from where she was! The massive UFO flattened trees around it– no mistake, that was Frieza’s ship!

Frieza would have to be inhabited by the soul of a human too, right?

Making her way closer to it as it landed down to the earth below, Mitoko tried to think of a good way to introduce herself that wouldn’t immediately make herself sound insane. After all, her soul inhabited the body of a 7’0” bugman, so her trying anything to explain that she used to be a human girl would still sound absolutely crazy.

Then again, knowing how the whole soul transfer thing was explained, whoever was in the galactic tyrant’s body was in a similar boat to hers. Her new problem was figuring out how to approach this Frieza player. She was always shit at social interactions, and being a seven foot tall bug robot didn’t make that any better.

Mitoko watched as a short and white lizard man stepped out of his ship, alongside a group of rainbow-colored strippers and a bald man.

“...what.”

She could only stare as Frieza looked around, before he locked eyes with hers. Funnily enough, she quickly came to notice that Frieza’s eyes were purple instead of red like they usually were.

The Frieza player stared at her for a bit, before awkwardly saying: “Do you want to fight me like the other players in this game, or can I go back to what I was doing?” 

His tone made him sound exactly like Frieza, which was fairly uncanny to the bug girl.

Stumbling out from where she hid, the Frieza player immediately took note that this wasn’t Perfect Cell but rather another combatant in the tournament. “U-Umm.. I’m... I’m Mitoko Hitori!”

She walked a little closer to him, awkwardly holding out her hand.

In fitting fashion, the Frieza player didn’t shake it. “Samael. Suppose it was a matter of time before I crossed paths with a Cell player… I was expecting somebody more… confident .”

“Hey! I- I didn’t really mean to choose Cell! I was just curious- you expect me to know how this whole thing works!? I died earlier today!... I think.”

Samael raised an eyebrow; “And? You expect me to care or something? ‘Cuz I don’t." From the looks of it, this player was by far the most pathetic, they didn’t even bother getting into character! “Anyways, I have clones to grind, I can’t be bothered to handle a player who hasn’t even gotten into character yet; Zeke, Jerry… and the rest of you– get rid of him for me. I don’t fight low levels.”

Mitoko was at first going to comment about what he meant by ‘clones’... but then snapped at the wrong statement.

“I’m a girl, motherfucker!”

Samael didn’t even look at her as he responded, already flying off. “Whatever, don’t care.”

Mitoko was now faced with a group of surly men, and Guldo. 

“Wish he’d at least be nice when he ordered us around. I’d hate to meet the people who raised him to not have any manners like that..” the Ginyu player commented. He looked back at Mitoko, “Sorry if this seems unfair, six on one is a bit of a lop-sided match-up. But if it's any consolation, we won’t kill you or anything.”

The Cell player stepped back nervously, eyes wide as she looked at her opponents. “N-none taken..??”

It was at this moment that Mitoko realized; she had no idea how to fight! Not in this ‘game’ and certainly not in real life! 

Unlike the real Cell, who could've easily handled all of them, Mitoko was not a pro at martial arts in the slightest. You could even say she had glass bones and paper skin.

“W-wait! Can’t we talk about this?!” Mitoko shouted.

“This ain’t no bloomin’ Undertale pacifist run, Sheila!” The Jeice player responded mockingly, only to be teased by the Burter player.

“Your Ausstralian accent is sstill horrible, Zach–I mean, Jeice.”

“Shut it.” 

Were... was the entire Ginyu Force composed of players!?

“I... I have to get going, sorry!” Mitoko shouted as she immediately tried to make a “tactical” retreat, for lack of better wording. Unfortunately, she was blocked by the Nappa player, of all characters.

“Not letting you leave, we may not like Samael; but we’re kinda obligated to listen to him.”

Mitoko stuttered and whined; “C-c’mon! Be nice, I’m a girl! You can’t beat up a girl!”

The Jeice player, Zach apparently, nudged the Recoome player with his elbow. “Hehe, let’s check and make sure they’re tellin’ the truth! Kinda hard to tell when they’re in a male character’s body!”

“What, you think she’s got some kind of hidden vag or something?”

A vibrant purple fluster appeared on Mitoko’s porcelain white face as she covered her chest with her arms, realizing how much of a mistake it was to admit that she was a girl. She quickly felt her limbs get seized by the Ginyu Force barring Ginyu himself, unable to flee as she didn’t know how to properly use Cell’s moveset.

“You boys don’t go too far, in character or not, we’re still all human souls.” 

Mitoko was then beaten up by the four of them, it was like a gang bang! 

“C’mon! Itss not as fun when you don’t fight back!”

“Yeah! We don’t even need Guldo to keep you still-- Not bein’ mean when I say that, Henry, jus’ stayin’ in character .”

“ It's fine .”

Just as she thought it was going to be over, Mitoko felt a heavy foot land directly on her back, splotches of saliva spurting out from her mouth and onto the ground. “I think I found her hole, guys!” The Recoome player, Raphael, yelled as he looked over at the others. “M-my hole...? Oh no. Please! Don’t try it!”

Yep, he was grabbing her tail. 

Not just grabbing it, but stretching it. And boy, did it feel weird for Mitoko, is this what sex was like? She died before she got to experience it! 

The Nappa player, Jerry, leaned over to Zeke, the Ginyu player.

“You uhh, gonna stop this?”

“Nope, not yet. Gotta stay in character if you wanna keep the connection strong, remember?”

Tears gushed out of poor Mitoko’s eyes as the other soldiers cheered Raphael on to see how far he could stick his arm down her tail, wanting to see if there was something on the inside. It was such a weird experience, “P-please stop!!”

Unable to fight back or even run, something snapped in Mitoko’s mind; and soon she felt herself black out as she was.. transported somewhere .

In a blue void she realized she was human again! Human and face to face with… him .

Cell.

“Well well well, finally got through to you. You’ve got quite the thick skull, don’t you?~”

Mitoko looked down at her hands, which were thankfully her own hands for once... but she was still stuck in a dark metaphorical room with Cell. “..uhh.. ummm... I’m just going to assume that-”

“Yes, indeed. This is all real. I’m just as real as you yourself are. For as much of a wet mutt you are, I can still see... some potential in you.”

“How is this happening? Why is it happening?!” Mitoko groaned.

“You think whatever ‘gods’ put you in this body made it from scratch? Don’t be stupid, girl! You are a guest in my body for whatever purpose they have in store for us, and if you want to stay around in it for any longer, you’re going to have to fight better than this.”

“B-but I can’t fight! Can’t you take over and do it for me?!”

“If I could, do you think I’d let you stay conscious in my body?!” Cell responded in anger, clearly not happy about his arrangement. “Whether we like it or not, we’re going to have to work together to pilot my body. If I’m to understand it, we need to form a ‘connection’ between our souls, or whatever I have for a ‘soul’.”

He squished the girl’s cheeks tightly, cupping her chin as he looked down at her much more lithe body. A pink, rosy blush appeared on poor Mitoko’s face. “From what I can gather, we’re both after this Android 21 woman, correct? If we’re going to find her, we’ll both need to up our game. And that means you doing better.”

“S-so you’re gonna do that connection thing, r-right?” Mitoko asked, her face still squished up in Cell’s cold, robotic hands. Cell smirked as he looked down at her blushing face.

“I already have as soon as I got through to you. I just wanted to make sure you knew your place as my unwilling tenant.~ Now make sure you really do my form justice or you’re going to regret it.”

Cell’s body laid on the ground, having gone completely limp and unresponsive after Mitoko tapped out. The Ginyus, and Jerry, all standing around her in confusion.

“Ya don’t think Recoome accidentally hit some kinda off switch in there, right?” Zach asked.

“You can stop the accent for now, Zach. You boys may have actually hurt her badly.” Zeke responded; “I should have stopped you all sooner, when she wakes up, you’re all going to apologize.”

“What!? Why should I!?” Zachary responded, furrowing his bushy brows as he faced Zeke, not realizing that Mitoko was getting up.

“When we rough up other players, it’s not with the intention to kill or traumatize them!” Zeke argued with his teammate; also not noticing Mitoko stand back up on her feet and prepare to retaliate. “Our connections are strong enough to where we don’t need to totally act like the characters we’re inhabiting, that stunt was your idea, so you’ll be apologiz--Oh shoot, she’s awake-”

Somehow, unlike the absolutely baffling display before, Mitoko managed to slam her fist into the Burter player’s chest before kicking him away, right into Raphael before she went to face the remaining three.

“..uhh... permission to leave, boss?” Henry asked, sweating like crazy.

“It’s only fair that she defends herself, but that doesn’t mean we’re gonna take it. Back in character, boys! Time to show this one how the Ginyu Force fights! Fight HO!”

Picked up by Zach, Henry was thrown right at Mitoko, who promptly throat chopped him in midair, sending the poor guy hurling into a tree.

“Bweh- aghh! I don’t even HAVE a throat!”

“Jesus- I didn’t think she’d ‘ave it in ‘er!” Zach shouted as he retreated back to give his ‘captain’ fighting space. They were a team, yes, but Zeke was the main component, they all kinda worked at his beck and call in battle; ironically they were more strategic than the actual Ginyu Force.

“We are ssoooo gonna worksshop your accent after thiss.” 

“If the crazy cunt doesn’t kill us, Kaiman!” 

The left side of Zeke’s jaw clenched at that comment; “Nobody’s dying! I’ve got this, boys! Let me handle this little fight!” 

Zeke shoulder-tackled Mitoko, only to get socked in the gut by her, “ Ouch-- Actually felt that one! Haha…” he joked, trying to hide that he was in an incredible amount of pain from that one hit. 

“You alright, kep’n?” Zach shouted, seeing Zeke hunched over slightly hugging his gut.

“I-I’m fine! She hits a little harder than I thought she would!”

Zeke stepped back slowly before chuckling deeply to himself, “Never thought I’d see the day where I’d have to use my true power..”

Zach gasped, covering his mouth with his hands. “Ya wouldn’t, kep’n!”

Zeke held up his arms and faced Mitoko; “I would! To be honest though, I don’t know if it would work. ” Zeke thought, not once in the time he was in Ginyu’s body did he try using his host’s Body Change ability, would it transfer his soul into the body, or Ginyu’s?

Seeing Zeke strike that pose, Mitoko returned to her usual flighty self. 

“H-huh?! Wait! You can’t body swap with me! I-I don’t want to body swap with some gross old man! I’m too young to be in a nasty body like that!!” she shouted, holding up her hands. Hearing that, Zeke paused his Body Change ability; “Wait, how old are you?”

“...Sixteen... pweeh…”

Zeke, and the rest of the team froze up, skeezed out. He immediately got out of body swapping pose and bowed, apologizing profusely.

“I cannot possibly say how sorry I am for almost invading your body, young lady! Me and my men would like to formally apologize for how we treated you!”

Mitoko was confused by that reaction, to say the least.
“U-uuh.. you’re… forgiven?”

She looked around, confused for a brief moment. “..where’s that ‘Jerry’ guy? Wasn’t he here a couple minutes ago?”

Zeke and the others looked around, yeah he was nowhere to be seen.

“I uhhh… I think he left again, kep’n.” Zach commented.

“He always does this.” Raphael added, “Think it’s because we never give him time to fight anytime Samael makes us ‘get rid’ of people..”

“G-G-G-Get rid of!?”

“Four G’s, counted. And yep, as the Ginyu Force...’s players, we basically gotta follow Sammy’s orders.” Zach explained, although he seemed a little more casual about it, especially with the nickname. “Then again, there’s also his big brother Virgil to worry about.”

“And don’t let our wording scare you, we don’t kill any players; unlike a few others in the game. There’s more than one way to knock somebody out of this game.” Zeke explained; “But Zach’s right, Sammy--I mean, Lord Frieza, isn’t much to worry about; at least compared to Virgil. Take my advice, most players here will just ‘ring out’ you, but ‘villains’ are usually controlled by people willing to permanently take people out of the game.”

“And the ‘Legendary’ players, them too. They’re pretty dangerous…” Henry added, his voice hoarse from.. y’know.

“S-sorry about that whole, throat punching you.” Mitoko mumbled.

“None taken..” Henry wheezed.

Mitoko looked up at the group, tapping her fingers together nervously.

 “..You know, maybe we could convince Samael to let you join our guild? From the look of things, we seem to all have a similar goal.”

Kaiman shook his head; “Asss if. Ssammy’s a borderline missogynisst, no way he’d let a girl be a part of our little guild. He didn’t let in the Vegeta player.”

“Which one?” Zach asked, getting a look from Kaiman; “O-oh right.. the one that’sa girl.. hehe..” his face got slightly redder as he rubbed the back of his head.

“Wait, there’s multiple Vegeta players?!” Mitoko asked, shocked at the revelation.

“There’s the normal Vegeta, the Super Saiyan Vegeta, and the Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta!” Zeke replied, counting off each one on his fingers. “Don’t get me started on how many Goku players there are!”

“ Oh my god, this is literally just FighterZ… ” 

She shook her head, before remembering vague plot points from the game. “..Android 21’s gonna eat us if we don’t work together!”

“ Gross. ”

Mitoko grasped Zeke’s hand, a determined look in her shining peridot eyes. “If it means getting out of here and back home, I’ll join your guild!”

“We’d be happy to have you as a teammate! Even if Samael won’t exactly like it…” Zeke paused, “I’m sure the kid will get over it! He’s bratty no matter what.”

Speaking of Samael, he had finally returned; and covered in blood.

“EEEEEK!!!” Mitoko screamed at the sight of his pristine white body coated in red. Samael was not happy to see she was still here.

“What is she doing here? I told you to get rid of her! …and where the hell is Jerry?”

“Can’t say for sure, Lord Samael... umm..”

Samael flicked some blood off his wrist, “I had to handle some ‘private business’.”

“The Cell Player has proven herself to be a qualifying member for the Frieza Force!”

Mitoko rubbed the back of her head, laughing awkwardly as Samael simply squinted at her in annoyance. “..really now?... fine. Whatever.”

“R-really? It was that easy? B-but I’m a girl! They said you wouldn’t let me in because I’m a girl!” Mitoko stammered.

“I mean… I don’t like that you’re a girl in Cell’s body… but if you can beat up my Ginyu Force, then I guess you’re allowed in my Frieza Force..” Samael crossed his arms and pouted. “I didn’t let that one Vegeta player in because she was a girl and a pretty shitty fighter. And even if she were a good fighter, I don’t like Vegeta.” he further explained, Mitoko pretty confused by his method of thinking.

He stomped his foot in annoyance; “You just gonna stand there looking like a dope, you stupid roach?! I’m covered in the blood of a bunch of stupid clones, and I didn’t even know they HAD blood! Just nod your head, say thank you, and get on my ship so I can stop talking to you and get in the shower!”

Taken aback by his sudden shouting, Mitoko nodded as she was more or less dragged onto his ship, still wondering about Jerry’s whereabouts.

While they were talking, another player was watching from the darkness. Their vibrant scarlet eyes pierced through the shadows as they watched Mitoko leave with the Frieza Force.

“ ...maybe she does have potential after all. ”

Chapter Text

It had been around over 24 hours since Mitoko had died and entered as a contestant in the After-Death Tournament.

She wasn’t exactly taking it well.

Hanging out on Frieza’s --or rather-- Samael ’s ship with the Ginyu Force LARPers… and Jerry; she had nothing but questions. Like how this game worked, or why Samael came back covered in blood! Walking around the cold halls of the craft, Mitoko looked down at her hands as she struggled to come to terms with what literally just happened.

Was Cell her conscience? Is this some sort of isekai thing?

Why did she- no, she and Cell need to fight Android 21 anyway? She spotted Zeke and approached him for answers, lightly jogging toward him as he quickly took notice of her appearance.

“What was up with Sammy?” she asked, having already given the Frieza player a nickname. “The whole ‘covered in blood’ thing, I mean…”

“Oh, that! Don’t worry, we don’t kill innocent people or anything! It's just standard practice to go clone hunting in the game.” when Mitoko gave him a confused look, he elaborated further; “Clones are… well clones of characters! I got no idea where they come from or how they work, but they make great test dummies for when you want to get better at fighting! They just bleed like normal beings though, you can usually tell they’re clones because they’re monotone and don’t talk.”

“And clones don’t have souls, unlike us.”

Mitoko jumped at the sudden sound of Samael’s voice, which was similar to Frieza’s... albeit with a much less “professional” manner of speech.

“Oh, greetings Samael! How was your coffee today?”

Samael rolled his violet eyes as he sipped his drink, his tail swaying back and forth behind him as he glared at Mitoko. “..as I was saying, clones are just a mockery of the real players we could be fighting. This ‘Android 21’ woman is clearly mocking us, and most importantly me .”

“You’re saying she’s the one making them?” Mitoko asked, tilting her head. She hadn’t played FighterZ before she died, if at all, so she didn’t know much of anything about Android 21.

Samael rolled his eyes again, Mitoko really was new here; “It's one of the reasons why we’re in this dumb game. It's those gods’ way of finding a fighter strong enough to beat her! Why they need to rely on people like us is beyond me, though.” 

“My only idea is that they needed some human souls to wrangle these villains' bodies!” Zeke responded, with Samael scowling in response.

“That sounds stupid.”

“I mean… why else would we be in their bodies? Are there any players who aren’t inhabiting bad guys?” Mitoko asked.

“Oh yeah, sure! They’re around, but they’re preoccupied with clone hunting.” Zeke responded, “Plus they don’t really like associating with us.. not sure why though! I mean we’re not evil people or anything..”

Samael remained silent while Mitoko’s eyes darted around occasionally. Zeke coughed into his fist, “..anyway! Since she’s an android and androids are associated with the Red Ribbon Army, my idea is-”

He pointed at Mitoko, “You could go and try to confront her!”

“Me!?” Mitoko whined, pointing at herself; “Wh-why me?!”

“Because, Cell is a product of the Red Ribbon Army, so of course she’d take you in, then you can absorb her or whatever.”

“L-let’s not do anything drastic, Samael!” Zeke interjected, “She’s still a person! I’d be a horrible person if I let you put her in danger!”

The poor girl covered her mouth as Samael continuously referred to one of Cell’s more... interesting habits, of which made her a little bit violently ill.

“Why not? Cell is a perfect being, isn’t he?~” Samael said smugly, which Zeke was not having.

“Don’t you use that tone, young man! She’s new to this, and even if she wasn’t, we’d need a better plan than what you’re suggesting! We need to approach this as a team with more allies.”

The lizard-like man huffed before folding his arms, “ Fine. We’ll land on Earth to try and find more “allies”, if it’ll make you feel better, dad .”

As Samael walked away with quite the attitude, Zeke tapped Mitoko on her shoulder.

“Truth be told... I had a wife and children before I ended up here. The reason why I wanted the chance to come back at all is to see them again.”

“Oh.. I’m so sorry…” Mitoko said quietly.

“I just don’t want anybody to get killed, it's not what anybody wants. Don’t mind Samael either, the power he has being in Frieza’s body tends to go to his head sometimes. Not to be nosy, but I don’t think he’s got much badness in ‘im. But that’s enough of that, how about we get something to eat, you look a little… uhh, pale.”

The girl in the bugman’s body just stared at him silently, before chuckling awkwardly. “..yeah... yeah... anything but people.”

After a less than stellar landing back on Earth, the players of the Frieza Guild were ready to go out and hopefully find more allies to recruit.. even if it meant they had to fight first.

“So what are we uhh… expecting to do?” Mitoko asked as they stepped out on the outskirts of what looked like West City.

Samael flicked his tail, “We find a pocket of clones, find other players who would be fighting them, fight them, and then give them a simple ultimatum; Either join our team, or be taken out of the game!”

“Really? We’re just going to do it like that?” Mitoko asked, less out of annoyance and more out of confusion.

“Its ‘ow things work ‘round ‘ere!” Zach commented; “Kinda like it is in the anime now that I think about it..”

“..well, to be fair, to be ‘taken out of the game’ is uhh ..” Henry glanced to the side, already feeling Samael’s hateful stare directed at him.

Mitoko glanced at the Guldo player; “L-like what?”

“It’s not really killing them, that’s all that matters.” Zeke answered, “I think we might have some luck today!”

“Long as the clones aren’t in the city.” Raphael added, “We kinda scare people.”

“W-we might have to just waltz into a city?! I-I’m in the body of Cell!! People might think I’m gonna eat them!”

“Haha! Would you though?~” Samael commented. “Cuz ya look like ya do~”

The poor girl immediately covered her flushed face, whining loudly as she turned away, with Samael having a smug look knowing how easily she could be manipulated. “You’re such a doormat, Mitoko.~”

The crew flew off to search for clones, and hopefully, other players. Stopping just outside of the city, they spotted a small band of clones wandering about.

“Wh-what if they attack the city?!” Mitoko shouted, “We gotta stop them!”

“Oooorrr~” Samael cooed; “We could let them attack a little, then wait for the goody-goodies to show up.”

“But we’re gonna fight them, right?”

“If we help and pretend that was our plan the whole time, maybe they’ll join~”

Mitoko was already growing concerned for Samael’s mental state, if she was as young as she assumed from how Zeke talks to him... yikes.

“What if they’re sstronger than uss? What if itss a legendary fighter or ssomething?” Kaiman asked.

“Please! With my immense fighting power, there’s nothing we need to fear!” Samael responded egotistically.

“What fighting power?” Mitoko asked, to which the Frieza player scoffed.

“ I can go golden~”

“Really?! That’s so cool, Sammy!” 

“Course the kid’s never done it before, but that’s no big deal!” Zeke absentmindedly commented, making Samael’s face turn purple in embarrassment.

“Q-quiet!! I can go golden whenever I want, it just takes a lot of energy is all!”

Pointing his finger to one of the clones, Samael smirked as he fired a quick and sudden Death Beam, splattering the clone’s monochromatic brains across the ground as it stumbled and expired. He blew on his finger lightly before looking back at the others.

Mitoko was, unsurprisingly, horrified. These guys looked like characters she’d come to love, and their mission was to kill them! It was stomach turning!

Zeke noticed this as they landed down; “If it makes you feel better, these clones tend to attack anybody they see, even innocent people. Don’t feel too bad for killing them.. it's kinda like killing Saibamen!”

The girl’s legs shook as she started to grow emotional, covering her face as Samael looked up at her with annoyance and disinterest. “If you’re such a baby about it, you can go back to the ship. For the ‘perfect lifeform’, you can be a real coward.”

Maybe it was the fact that her soul was bonded with Cell’s, or maybe Samael’s taunting finally got to her, but Mitoko was starting to get angry.

“I AM NOT A COWARD !!!” she screamed as she let out an explosion of pure ki energy, which pushed everybody back and heavily damaged a few of the nearest clones.

Panting heavily, the girl gritted her teeth as she looked back at Samael and company, her peridot pupils shrunken down in anger. “I’m just as capable as any one of you!”

“Samael.” Zeke bluntly said, glaring at the boy.

“What? It got her to toughen up and fight, didn’t it?” Samael responded, crossing his arms before prodding Mitoko more. “And if you want to prove it, you can take out a few clones, just saying..”

Him saying that only made Mitoko more upset, as she went out of her way to target multitudes of clones, it seemed like her meek nature was put on the backburner in favor of Cell’s innate desire for perfection.

“How interesting.~”

Mitoko attacked clones one after the other, though she didn’t use special attacks, being too inexperienced to do anything besides melee-ing them into a state of total cell death, no pun intended.

As she did, everybody else felt two power levels come towards them. Well Samael sensed it, the Ginyu Force had to use their scouters.

“Well well well, it appears we have company on its way~” Samael smugly stated.

Seeing two figures drop down, Mitoko briefly stopped her blinding rage to see that it was an adult Gohan and Gotenks player.

She didn’t remember much from the Buu Saga, since she only watched it half-way through last year, but she certainly remembered that gremlin fusion.

“Huh. I was expecting a Goku player.” Samael commented as he turned around to greet them. “Fancy meeting you boys here.”

The Gohan player, Gabriel, or just Gabe for short, responded with a: “Cut the crap, Sam. You’re here causing trouble again, aren’t you? And is that a Cell player?”

Mitoko was about to respond but her voice was cut short, before she nodded, tapping her fingers together.

“And she’s a real Sheila!” Zach responded, looking out from behind her thighs.

“what does that mean, gabe?” the Gotenks player, named Lyle, asked.

“It's just what Australians call girls sometimes..” 

“you mean you’re a girl? :v? wouldn’t you have to be in the body of a girl character??” 

“Wouldn’t you have to be in the body of a kid?” Mitoko shot back.

Lyle stuck out his tongue and folded his little arms, “duh! we are kids!”

“ Wait what? ”

Lyle posed with a confident look on his tiny face, “i’m the fusion of liam and kyle! i’m lyle and i’m gonna kick your meanie butts!! >:)”

“Hold on, fusions are in the after death game? How does that work?? Are you two souls in one body??? Do you unfuse???? I never finished the Buu Saga!!”

“Ugh, I liked you better when you were enraged!” Samael groaned as the bug girl let off loads of questions. “If you’re going to try and fight us, best do it now, before she loses her will to fight seriously.”

“I-I can fight just fine!” Mitoko responded, looking back at Samael with an angry look on her face, rendering Gabriel and Lyle more confused if anything.

“She’s new here, just dropped in today.” Samael bluntly explained; “Don’t damage her too much, I haven’t put her on my team’s insurance policy yet.”

“ We have insurance? ” Henry asked from the back row.

“That was a joke, I think.” Raphael commented.

“Oh..”

The bug girl dusted herself off before approaching the two half-Saiyans, clearly very nervous from both lack of combat experience and Samael’s unrealistic expectations placed onto her. She really wished that he’d stop throwing her into combat like this.

She already began to doubt herself, however; “W-we don’t have to do this! I mean I can practice on the clones!”

Samael gritted his teeth, his brow furrowing as he immediately threw his hands down in agitation. “Are you THAT pathetic!? The one time you actually seem like you can fight, you go back to being a pathetic insect! No wonder why Cell’s your avatar, you both are worthless!”

Mitoko felt a tinge of rage in her host body, “Fine! You want me to fight?! I’ll show you what happens when I fight as a character I’ve never played before!!”

Mitoko rushed Gabe and decked him square in the face, sending the Gohan player flying. 

Lyle stood there with wide eyes, looking up at the enraged Cell player with fear clouding his sense of ego. “o-ohh crap..” Stepping back, the fusion hoped he could get away before he was next in her one-woman rampage!

Gabe stumbled to his feet, “You hit just as hard as I expected you to! But I’m not gonna give up and let you go on a killing spree!” he said, charging up his ki to Super Saiyan 2 level. “Get ready!”

Charging her back, he let off a flurry of punches and kicks, each one landing perfectly, staggering Mitoko slightly. The green bug girl held her arms up, managing to keep herself from losing too much of her balance as she went in for a left hook, which Gabriel managed to grab with relative ease. “I can tell you’re not a terrible person, even with that avatar of yours. You got a good heart, it’s just that a certain someone seems to be using you for his own gain.”

Mitoko gritted her bottom jaw, Gabe was right. “That’s true… but I have nowhere else to go, so I’m just gonna have to put up with him for now!” she responded before punching Gabe in the stomach. “ B-but that doesn’t mean I like it ..” she thought as her fist dug into his gut.

She didn’t want to fight Gabe! She only did because she had to, and she could tell Gabe was in the same boat.

As they were fighting, Zeke was clearly upset at the fact that Samael was using Mitoko’s stress to his advantage. Sure, he was a Frieza player, but she was still human just like the rest of them! It was messed up!

“Samael.”

Samael, who was watching the fight, looked back at Zeke in annoyance. “What now?”

“You’re going to take it easy with Mitoko from now on after this. She’s a part of this team, and a person . Get me?” His tone was firm, like a father disciplining his kid, which wasn’t far off.

Samael dug his feet in on the issue; “If she does well I will, I’m testing her. She needs to fight well to stay on this team, I don’t coddle dead-weight.” He stuck out his bottom lip and squinted, with Zeke similarly taking his own stance. “Well- she clearly isn’t mentally well, especially with how you’ve been treating the poor girl!”

“Frieza never liked girls, why should I?”

“That’s no excuse and you know it.”

“Hmph… you’re too soft. She’s not your kid.”

That comment dug deep, and Samael knew it would. 

Mitoko and Gabe still fought, but as they kept going, Mitoko began to get tired. Her body has unlimited stamina, but she couldn’t access it! 

“ Is this because I don’t have a good connection to Cell?! Why am I tiring? ”

Her legs began to quiver as she struggled to keep steady, her breaths growing faster and more exhausted as she verged on the brink of complete collapse from how much she was tiring herself out. And just as she was about to tap out, Gabe stopped.

“No. No more of this. I’m done.” he said, powering down. “I’m not gonna fight you when you’re about to pass out.”

Which is exactly what she did, falling down and onto the ground with white eyes and a gaping mouth.

“...she’ll be fine.” Samael commented. 

“Sam, you knew I’d show up, didn’t you?” Gabe asked.

“I knew somebody would, not necessarily you .” Samael responded, flicking his tail.

“Either way, you showed up to cause a fight. I’m not taking your new teammate out of the game, but if I catch you doing something like this again I’m taking you out.” Gabe threatened, pointing at the Frieza player.

“Ohhhh I’m sure, and I’m sooo terrified~” Samael rolled his eyes and waved his hands mockingly, but otherwise capitulated. “One of you Ginyus haul the bug back to our ship, we’re clearly not getting anything we came here to get..”

Zach grunted as he threw a ki blast at one of the remaining clones, blasting a hole through its chest as it mindlessly wandered around. Raphael and Kaiman helped bring the unconscious Mitoko inside as she was completely limp, unable to move or speak up in such a state.

“She’d be cute if she wasn’t... you know... a 7’0” tall bug.” Raphael commented as he helped bring Mitoko back to the ship. 

“Hmm, so they finally have a Cell for this silly tournament, hmm?” An auburn-haired woman tapped a pen against her lips as she stared up at numerous computer screens. “They think they can avert fate by making this one much more meek. How silly!~”

She flung a bunch of papers off the table behind her, the woman’s face barely visible from the hanging lamp above.

“She’ll make for a perfectly sweet delight!”

-END-

Chapter Text

“ Earth to Hitori, calling Hitori... ”

Mitoko opened her eyes, it looked like she was back in that weird mental space she found herself in during the fight with the Ginyu Force. “Oh good, you haven’t died yet. As expected, as someone using my body.”

Getting up, it seemed like Cell was slowly warming up to the girl, even if he was still not pleased about having to share his glorious form with an anxious teenager.

Mitoko rubbed her eyes “Am I asleep…?”

“More like unconscious, your last little battle left you unable to stay awake.” Cell responded, more than just a hint of irritation; “A fight against Gohan , no less.”

“I’m still getting used to your powers! I mean I did my best, didn’t I?”

“Not good enough.” Cell said bluntly before pivoting slightly; “But I will admit… you’re not as bad as you were when you first entered my body.”

Mitoko inhaled sharply as she glanced around frantically, adjusting the glasses on her face. “W-well.. I mean... T-this is a game, right? Maybe I could memorize some of the button combos, and-”

The mean green bug gazed down at her with pale pink eyes, “Game? How many times do I have to tell you? This is no game, and what you’re experiencing is all real. The most you would have to do is somehow find a way,” he pressed his fingers up against her chest. “To get your potential out of your fragile little soul so you can actually put up a good fight!”

Mitoko kept trying to deny it, telling herself this was a game, that it was the same as pressing buttons and moving analog sticks, and even now she was trying to keep up the facade.

“I-I’ll try…” she mumbled. 

“You’d better. Now wake up.”

“...what’s weird is that I’ve never seen such technology in a supposed androi- oh! She’s awake!... He?”

“Yes, Zarbon. That’s a girl.”

Mitoko rubbed her head as she was released from the healing pod she was in, feeling a little bit more revitalized than before. Samael coughed into his fist. “Don’t bother asking Zarbon anything, not only is he not a player like us, he’s a complete nincompoop.” 

“O-okay? I didn’t know there were NPCs here..” Mitoko mumbled as she awkwardly stumbled out of the pod. 

“Hah! I never even thought about them that way. Anyways, we’re going out to fight other players again.” Samael said, “Zeke and his team are staying here to practice their poses, so it’ll just be me and you~ Oh, and Jerry too, I guess.”

Jerry was there too.

“Hi.”

Mitoko squinted as she watched Jerry hold out his hand, “Jeremiah Chandler, but I’m also known as NappaFan111!” It was clear that he really liked Nappa, down to getting his mannerisms down to a T!

“..let me guess, you-”

“Used to date the Vegeta player? Sure have! She’s not as good at getting into character like me and Sammy, but she has a strong heart! You should meet her sometime!”

“..not my question, but okay?” Mitoko raised her brow, at least she got a little bit more info about the Vegeta player. “..what was her name?”

“Cleo! I think she’s still around!”

“That’s the base Vegeta player, right? I can’t be arsed to remember.” Samael commented.

“Think she was the Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta player, dude.”

“H-how many Vegeta players are there?!” Mitoko asked, very confused. “I thought there was only one of each character!”

“Maybe for antagonist players like us, but if you want to play one of the many monkeys in this game, you have plenty of options to choose from.” Samael explained in his usual dickish way. With how he phrased it, it was a mystery how much of him was Samael or Frieza. Although Mitoko was thankful there was only one Cell in the game.

“..why didn’t anybody choose Cell besides me?”

“Pfft! Nobody really plays Cell! Not unless they’re vore-obsessed weirdos!” Samael responded; “Either that or they wanted a much stronger character~” 

The girl quickly came to regret her character choice as soon as she heard those words come out of Samael’s mouth.

“..i-is there any way to... you know... change my character?”

“If there was, people would’ve taken advantage of it by now.” Samael replied, “Now c’mon, we got training to do. Maybe we’ll find you a weak opponent, Mitoko~!”

“Y-yeah… maybe..”

Coming across an abandoned city, Mitoko and Samael wandered around looking for any fighters. “..hm. This reminds me of that one scene from GT, with Cell and Frieza.”

“You watched GT?” Mitoko asked, with noticeable concern in her phrasing of the question.

“Yeah? It's what you watch after you finish Z.” Samael responded.

“Or Super??” Mitoko responded.

“I guess, I think there’s a few GT players.” 

“Uhhh.. guys? Not to break up your conversation, but isn’t it a bit weird that there’s nobody around?” Jerry interjected, “Usually when we come into the city, people run and hide. But it's a ghost town here.”

Samael sniffed the air, “Dammit, that pink gummy bitch isn’t here either. Usually she’d come out and spout some generic vore one-liners, that’s how she gets you. Hate people like that...”

Jerry rolled his eyes as he leaned over to Mitoko. “Just as a head’s up, the reason why Sammy is.. less than kind toward girls like you is because he got dumped by one when he was still alive-”

“ JERRY!! ”

“Whoops!”

“And she did not dump me, it was mutual!” Samael shouted.

“C-can we go back to the fact that there’s no people here?!” Mitoko shouted, catching their attention. 

“Hmm.. maybe it was that Cain guy!” Jerry suggested. “He’s the Z Broly player, he’s freaking terrifying!”

“No, if it were him, the city would be leveled.” Samael responded.

“There’s a Z Broly player?! A-are we in danger staying here?!”

“You have ki tracking don’t you? Do you sense him?” Samael asked sarcastically, with Mitoko realizing that she did have the ability to use it... she just never did for some reason. “..give me a sec...”

Pressing her fingers up against her temples, what she saw wasn’t a massive hulking embodiment of destruction, but... two other players?

“There’s two people–err.. players!” she shouted.

“Two players who cleared out a whole city… you don’t think it's them , do you, boss?” Jerry asked Samael, who was unsure.

“If it's who I think you mean, then it's possible. But that also means we may need to be prepared to leave and fast.” Samael responded, which only served to further confuse and frighten Mitoko.

“Wh-who? Who should we be worried about??” she asked.

“Remember when we talked about Legendary Fighters?” Samael asked the bug girl. “There’s a fifty percent chance we might be encountering one today. The worst part is that he’s not alone.”

A massive dust cloud appeared in front of the trio, with the appearance of their opponent. One whose name sparked terror in the tournament fighters, Janemba...

Or, his human name, Dante .

“Eeek!! Is it too late to say that I’ve never watched Fusion Reborn?”

“NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR JOSS WHEDON ONE-LINERS, YOU ROACH!”

But Dante wasn’t alone, just as Samael said, alongside the red demon was a Kid Buu player; a fittingly silent and destructive boy named Kavin .

They stood there, staring the trio down, their gaze freezing them in their tracks.

“ Wh-what do we do? ” Mitoko whispered to Samael.

“ We slowly back away and hope to god they don’t chase us .” he whispered back, sweat rolling down his pale face as he was just as terrified of them as anyone else, despite his high ego just a couple minutes ago.

Although Kavin stared at them with hateful eyes, Dante... not so much. In fact, the Janemba player seemed fixated on.. Mitoko?

He was utterly entranced by her, not once breaking eye contact, slowly approaching her. This, of course, terrified the whole group; especially Mitoko.

“Wh-what do you want with me? Back off! I’m w-warning you!” she mumbled and whined. If Dante was a Legendary Fighter, there was no way she could even stand up to him! When he refused to back off, Mitoko took a couple more steps back.. before breaking into a mad sprint behind her, leaving Samael and Jerry behind out of fear for what Dante wanted with her.

Of course, Dante followed suit, chasing after the poor girl like a starving tiger, leaving Samael and Jerry alone with Kavin.

“DID THAT OVERGROWN CICADA DITCH US?!” Samael screamed as he stood beside Jerry. “If we make it through this, I’m taking her out of the game myself!!”

“C-can we focus on the part where we get through this alive?!” Jerry asked, worried about the homicidal tween they were now alone with. 

Kavin smiled maliciously before cackling, he was going to have fun with them.

Poor Mitoko continued to run for her life, the squeaky footsteps she made did not help in the slightest in hiding her from her vicious stalker as she looked around for somewhere to hide. It really did feel like a horror movie!

She had no idea what he of all players wanted with her, and his red presence struck fear into her heart! 

“L-leave me alone!” she whined as he caught up to her, the frightened bug stumbling and falling onto her own wings. 

Getting on top of her, Dante… hugged her? 

“E-ehh??” Mitoko whimpered as the demon rubbed against her like a colossal cat, mumbling in what sounded like gibberish. His voice was at least somewhat intelligible compared to someone like Kavin, if you could understand reversed... Spanish...? “..u-uhh... do you... understand English?”

From his mannerisms, it seemed like Dante really liked Cell. Nobody would ever know it, but when Dante was alive, he ran a website dedicated to Cell. To say he was a little obsessed was an understatement. It would make somebody wonder why he chose Janemba and not Cell when he entered the game. 

Ever since he was a child, Dante had a deep fascination with Cell as a character, with and without the vore aspect involved. Something about him sparked something in his soul, and it made him want to seek out the green bug for himself.

And sure enough, after some waiting, he finally found his Holy Grail. If Dante knew the soul inside was female, he wouldn’t even care.

“U-uuhhmm.. I’m happy you’re not killing me, but I really need to get back to my teammates!” Mitoko said, trying to get out of his grip. She completely forgot she left Samael and Jerry behind! And with the Kid Buu player no less!

Dante’s tail wrapped firmly around her legs, preventing her from escaping his grasp.

It really did feel like one of those Yandere fanfictions Mitoko used to read online as a kid, and as a teenager.

“Please! My friends are in danger! Plus you’re kinda crushing me!!” she struggled like a weakened animal in his grasp, even with her size as Cell! 

Dante licked and kissed her, refusing to let her go. He wasn’t going to let somebody like her go! It was the only time he could ever see and feel Cell in the flesh, licking her pale face and even reaching over to touch the tip of her syringe-like tail, hearing her squeak in embarrassment.

“Eep! Leggo!!” Mitoko whined as her tail tip was toyed with, it was still extremely sensitive! Feeling a twinge go up her spine, she reflexively punched Dante in the face, giving her a chance to escape and fly back to the others.

“Hopefully I’m not too late!”

Jerry was forced to take the full-front of everything Kavin threw at him and Samael, waiting for their third party member to come back so they could abscond from the battle.

“He’s just a kid, why is he so strong!?” Samael shouted, he had heard of Kavin and Dante, but this was the first time he was fighting them! Lucky him.

“T-tag me out! He’s kicking my ass, boss!” Jerry shouted, “At least help a little more! Go golden or something!”

“I will! Just give me a minute–” Samael replied, before seeing Mitoko return; “Where have you been?! This pink twerp is destroying us! We need to get out of here!”

The bug girl nodded, “Sorry! I was just caught up with some demon guy who has a serious thing with me! Let's get out of here and fast!”

But before they could fly off, Dante returned, cutting off their escape. 

“A pincer attack! Dammit, I knew I should have brought the Ginyus, at least then we’d have numbers!” Samael muttered to himself. 

It seemed like this was the end, until Dante stepped aside to let them leave; which shocked everybody–especially Kavin.

“ehrgeehe?!” The Kid Buu player grumbled as his prey were allowed to escape. 

“Hyeah!” Dante grunted back, patting his partner’s antennaed head. Kavin responded by biting his hand and screeching. As the guild went their separate ways, Mitoko looked back to see Dante waving to her, a slight blush on his crimson-colored cheeks as Kavin continued to bite his arm.

“..so... when are we gonna see that Android 21 woman? I mean, she must be pretty strong if she-”

“Oh, she’s just Majin Buu with boobs. Nothing to note about. Also apparently she’s like you where she has the DNA of the greatest warriors, but it’s been done already, so she’s like- a Mary Sue I guess. You know what that is, right?”

“Yeah, I do.” Mitoko groaned.

“As ridiculous as she is, she’s still a pain to fight, at least that's what the gods told me before I got put into Frieza.” Samael added, “I’ll be surprised if we ever have to deal with her.” he said, shuddering. “By the way, I’m surprised you’re still alive after being near a Legendary Fighter one on one. Perhaps you’re not as terrible as I thought~”

“Haha yeah I guess so..” Mitoko didn’t feel like telling him she didn’t actually fight Dante. He was actually being nice to her for once!

“...so... uhh... just curious but... how did you die, Sammy?”

“Well it's a long story. I’m sure I’ll find the time to tell you the full story–”

“He fell off a building while recording a Tiktok!” Jerry interjected. 

“JERRY!!!”

-END-

Chapter Text

Mitoko Hitori pressed her hand up against the mirror within Samael’s ship. Like always, her skin was a stark porcelain white, her eyes whilst familiar with that lime green color, belonged to a body that wasn’t hers.

She was an insect.

No matter how many times she saw herself, she never got used to it. It was surreal, every time she expected to see her own face, but each time was met with Cell’s smug visage.

“ Perfect, isn’t it? ” Cell asked from inside her mind, that smarmy tone in his voice perpetuating as he poked at her insecurities. “ You were weak as a human, a cowardly girl who couldn’t throw a punch for the life of her, but now you can do so much more. All you have to do is complete our connection.~ ”

“How do we do that?” Mitoko asked, confused by the whole process. Nobody talked about it before, so she didn’t know what it meant to fully connect to a host body. The most she knew was that you had to pretty much roleplay as the avatar you chose, for someone like Zeke and the Ginyu Force it seemed fine... but she chose Cell of all characters.

She was afraid of what would happen to her if she did.

“There you are.” Samael broke her train of thought, “C’mon, we’re going clone hunting.”

“W-with the Ginyus or Jerry?” Mitoko asked.

Samael sneered, “They’re training on their own. Besides, not even you would need help going after a couple of clones.”

Mitoko looked down at Samael as they went around looking for clones, the insectoid girl tapping her fingers together as she glanced around. “..so.. uhhh... Sammy? I was gonna ask- do you know anything about this ‘Android 21’ lady?”

“All I know is that she’s a Majin Buu wannabe and the one making all these clones. But I’ve never fought or really seen her.” Samael explained. “Don’t think that you can take her~”

Yep, he was mocking her.

“I don’t plan to...” Mitoko sighed as she stopped in her tracks, her pupils shrinking and expanding as she felt... something . It was different.

“Huh? What’s with the weird look, bug girl?”

“I-I don’t know! I’ve never felt this in Cell’s body before!” she whined, losing control of her host body, barely able to stay in the air.

“ That’s because I’m trying to take back control! I can sense them! ” Cell shouted from inside her mind.

“Wh-who?!” Mitoko said out loud, which weirded Samael out.

“ The androids! Now give me back CONTROL!! ” Cell jerked control away of his body from Mitoko, which caused her to plummet as he wrestled for dominance.

Like a shot plane, she fell down, down, down, down and to the ground.

Of course, from an outside perspective like Samael, it appeared more like the poor woman was having some kind of seizure than an internal struggle with the original soul that inhabited the avatar.

On the grassy ground below, Cell laid motionless on the floor, trying to get back up. But now matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t move his own body. “Dammit! Why can’t I move?! This is my body!”

He was realizing that his body no longer belonged to him, a numbness coursing through his whole body. “When I find those so-called Gods who did this to me, I’m tearing them limb from limb!”

“ C-can I have control back? ” Mitoko whined.

“Fine! It seems you own my body for now.” he groaned, clearly not thrilled about the revelation that this timid highschooler was in near complete control... but.

“.. although, maybe I could use this to my advantage .”

“What the hell was that?! ” Samael shouted as he landed down next to Mitoko, his long white tail poking her in the chest.

Mitoko stumbled back to her feet; “C-cell took control of my body!--Well… his body, I guess…” she dusted herself off. “He said he could sense the androids..”

“Oh yeah, there are android players. For 16, 17…”

“And 18?”

“Yeah, her too.”

For some reason, probably because of Cell trying to forcibly regain control from her, Mitoko felt a small impulse to seek out the androids and see who their players were. “...well, c-curiosity killed the cat...”

Using Cell’s ki sense as a GPS, they managed to track down the two androids. The 17 and 18 players relaxing on a short cliff.

Weird, androids can’t normally be tracked down with ki sense... maybe it was through the human souls in their bodies?

“Hey! Are you players too?” Mitoko exclaimed, although she immediately regretted it as she covered her mouth in shock. The 17 player nodded in response, “Yep. You’re a Cell player, I was starting to think Dante and Kavin got to you first.”

“Who?” Mitoko asked, “Wait, you don’t mean those Janemba and Kid Buu players, do you?”

The 17 player laughed, “And you’re dense too! This could be fun~” He then felt himself get elbow-nudged by the 18 player. “Shut it, Raiden. We need to get some info out of this guy first before we do anything drastic. He seems mostly harmless.”

“Actually, I-I’m a girl... my name is Mitoko Hitori!”

That name was very familiar to the 18 player. “M-mitoko?”

Mitoko tilted her head; “Do I… know you?”

“It's me, Chisa! From school!” the 18 player responded, running over to grasp her hand before pulling away. “I’m- I’m sorry. I was just a little emotional, I thought I wouldn’t have any regrets when I died.. but... in my mind, I... I guess I missed you more than anything.”

The Cell Player was surprised as she came to realize the circumstances of the situation. Her old classmate, Chisa Hatoda, lost her life in an event that Mitoko herself never got the full context of, but now here she was.

Samael leaned over to Raiden; “What’s this all about?”

Raiden shrugged; “Dunno, she’s never told me about anybody from when she was alive. I just wanna start fighting.”

Chisa was surprised that the usually introverted and shy Mitoko was in the body of Cell, which also gave her a strong sense of unease knowing how events would unfold for her avatar.

Mitoko felt the same feeling, that feeling that something could go terribly wrong any minute now. She could feel Cell’s soul writhing inside of her, wanting to take control of her.

“Well, this is lame.” Raiden commented, taking all the tension out of the moment. “What? We not gonna fight now because you guys are friends?”

Samael, of course, agreed. “Indeed. I was looking forward to this. But once again, getting into a fight is a hassle.”

The blonde-haired android stepped back, her grey eyes quivering slightly as she knew that there was something going on with Mitoko, something that she struggled to keep back so she wouldn’t hurt one of her closest friends.

“Never thought you’d pussy out of a fight, Chisa.” Raiden coldly commented, “More for me then!” he took a familiar fighting stance; “C’mon you pathetic cockroach, I bet a sick freak like you wants to ‘absorb’ me, huh? Why else would anybody pick Cell?”

“N-No.. I-I don’t.. that’s gross..” She stuttered much more than usual, hyperventilating slightly as she watched Raiden approach her with a smug look on his face.

“I’m surprised you’re a girl. I was expecting a horny dude who wanted to get his rocks off. But then I remembered there’s so few female characters in this game that you’d probably starve!” he continued to push her buttons. “You gonna cry? C’mon, fight me, I’ll give you the first hit for free~”

Chisa grabbed his shoulder, “Raiden. Stop.”

He rolled his eyes as he pressed on.

“Just one punch, c’mon. Bug girl’s gotta eat, right?~” he teased Mitoko more, pressing his fingers against her chitinous chest, before pulling back after she didn’t so much as throw a punch. “Hmph, I guess you’re just nothing but hot air. Shame. No idea why 21 is so interested in you, you’re a total pushover.”

Mitoko’s fist tightened, her jaw clamped tight as she stared down at the android as she was on the verge of snapping completely. Didn’t help that Cell was also taunting her, egging her soul on to attack the 17 player.

“ Wipe that smug look off his face! Come on! Do it! ” Cell shouted from inside her mind. “ He’s begging you to fight him! If you want to get through this game and connect with me, then kill him!! ”

At that moment, the poor girl finally lost it.

“FINE!”

And punched Raiden in the face, sending him flying and onto the ground below.

“Here we go~” Samael commented as he observed from a safe distance. This was beginning to become prime entertainment for him. 

Raiden wiped blood from his mouth and stood up; “Not bad… lucky shot at best..” he joked, but he was in quite a lot of pain. “But you’re gonna have to be quicker if you wanna actually beat me!”

Raiden rushed forward at blinding speeds, landing a solid blow on Mitoko’s chest, leaping back before she could retaliate, striking again in a touch-and-go method.

“He’s quite fast isn’t he?” Samael asked a concerned and stunned Chisa. “I don’t remember Android 17 being this quick. Is there something you two are hiding from us?” he asked.

Chisa blinked a few times in awe before answering Samael’s question. “He isn’t the Android 17 from Z. His avatar is the one from Super.”

“And yet he dresses like his Z counterpart, I can hazard a guess why.” Samael said, knowing that they were hiding information from him.

“It’s because we’re a pair, he has to match me.”

Samael’s tail flicked in annoyance at her persistence; “Tut-tut, it's not becoming of a young lady like you to lie~ ”

Chisa squinted as she glared at the Frieza player, “And it’s not becoming of you to be a snitch.”

“Hoho~! Then you must not know me or my host very well.”

Raiden and Mitoko continued to fight, Mitoko swiping at him in a blind rage, and Raiden dodging her attacks; rushing back in to make a quick jab at her before pulling away.

“C’mon! Can’t you do better than that?! I’m getting bored here!” Raiden taunted.

“ At this point, he’s right. If you don’t have anything up your sleeve, then you’re nothing but a sitting duck! Come on! ” Cell edged Mitoko on, provoking more of her anger as she tried to think of something to get him down a peg.

“ I got an idea on what you could do. ” Cell said, “ You know what I mean, too. ”

“ No! I won’t! ” Mitoko thought as she continued to fight Raiden, “ He’s still human, I’m still a human! ”

“ Not anymore, you’re not. You want to form a connection with me? Then shed that pathetic ‘humanity’ of yours. You’re mine. ”

Mitoko could already feel Cell’s tail- her tail- slip out from her back, ready to strike as Chisa quickly came to realize what she planned on doing. “MITOKO! STOP!”

But it was too late, Cell had taken over, forming that connection between his soul and his player’s; giving him the control he so desperately wanted. 

“You want a real fight, boy? Allow me to oblige~” Cell said, his tone making it clear that it wasn’t Mitoko talking anymore, if the return of his rose quartz pink eyes weren’t already an indicator. “But you’d better not bore me!”

Repeatedly dodging out of the way of Cell’s increasingly dangerous attacks, Raiden never knew that the original soul could take over the body, and it seemed like even more of a threat than ever before!... not to mention that he seemed keen on absorbing him again .

“Hah! My host isn’t the same 17 you sucked up before, I can still kick your ass!” Raiden shouted, continuing to strike him and dodge Cell’s whipping tail and it lunged at him. 

“You could have fooled me, you’re just as cocky as he was. And when I’m done with you, you’ll end up just like him as well.~” Cell commented, “You’re not as swift as you think you are.”

Coiling his long tail around 17, he constricted the young man. Cell brought him close to his body; “While you were oh so confident in your speed and strength, you didn’t notice that you were weaving yourself into my little web~ But don’t feel too bad, I am the perfect lifeform.”

A smirk grew on the bugman’s face as the syringe-esque tip opened up into a funnel.

Bwooorrpp!

“And who wouldn’t want to be part of perfection?~”

“Stop!!!” Chisa yelled, “Samael! Can’t you stop her?!” she shouted at the Frieza player.

Samael shrugged in apathy. “As long as I don’t get hurt, I couldn’t care less what that overgrown roach does. Besides, she isn’t in control anymore it seems.”

“You mean..”

“Cell is the one running the show now~”

Mitoko could only watch from a mental scale as Cell went to absorb Raiden, the girl struggling to regain control even with her relatively weak willpower in contrast. She didn’t want this! It was technically her body too! 

“ Cell stop! You’ll kill him! ” she shouted as Cell’s tail suctioned onto Raiden’s head and shoulders, slowly pulling him deeper; the 17 player struggling and kicking his feet. Against her better judgment, Chisa raced out into the field and grabbed her friend’s legs, trying to pull him out of his tail.

“Well, this is a surprise. You’re actually trying to save your brother.~”

“We’re not related, jackass!”

Even as she tugged with all her strength, she couldn’t get Raiden free. Cell found this rather amusing, “Do try as long as you want, or at least until there’s nothing to hold onto~”

“ Please, Cell! Give me back control! ” Mitoko continued to yell, fighting to get control back of the body before he could absorb Raiden fully. Sure, he seemed like a bit of a dickhead, but he was probably friends with Chisa! “Please, Hitori. You’re already being absorbed into my identity, eventually this’ll be almost gratifying for you.~”

“ Let him go!! Please!! ” 

Finally able to regain control of her host, Mitoko spat Raiden out before Cell could absorb him completely. Raiden was unconscious and very wet, but alive.

“I’m so sorry! Cell took over and I couldn’t stop him!”

The blonde-haired android player looked down at the unconscious Raiden, seeing him covered head to toe in bug spit. “...gross... but I’m glad you got back control... what even was that, anyway?”

“I don’t know! Cell said that we were forming a connection, am I going to become some monster now?” she asked, scared. “What if I start hurting people?!”

She felt Chisa pat her on the back, helping the poor bug girl calm down slightly. “It’ll be okay... we just need to find a way to help you keep a stable connection, it seems like you disconnected there, leading to Cell taking control over his body.”

“S-so if I have a good connection.. he won’t take over..?” Mitoko whined.

“My my, you really are dense.” Samael said, having watched the whole thing.

“Nice of you to help, brat.” Chisa commented as he walked over.

Samael rolled his eyes; “And what would my assistance have done? But back on topic; of course having a good connection helps keep your host in line. A connection is nothing more than appeasing the soul inside enough for them to put up with an invader in their body. Play by their rules just enough, and they may not feel the urge to take things into their own hands. You think Zeke and his little DnD group roleplay just because they like to? Haha, no! They do it so the souls they’re bonded with don’t take over!”

“So.. so I have to do what Cell wants so he doesn’t take over the body?! I have to hurt people, absorb people even?!” Mitoko stammered.

“Surely you knew the dangers that came with your avatar before you chose them, no?”

The girl shook her head, “I don’t even remember why I chose Cell! Maybe it was curiosity? I definitely know it isn’t lust... euugh...”

“Well you’ll have plenty of time to work it out, we still have clones to hunt. Unlike our friend here, you don’t have to fear absorbing them.” Samael was as cold as ever.

“Lay off, she’s been through a lot.” Chisa said, Samael’s treatment of Mitoko was beginning to piss her off. “Mitoko.” she put her hands on the blackened shoulders of Mitoko’s host; “You don’t have to put up with him, Mitoko. Stay with us, please!”

“I-I…” Mitoko mumbled and stammered as she thought about it. That’s when Samael butted in.

“Oh, I’m sure you’d love it if Mitoko ran off with you two.” he commented. 

Mitoko looked over at him; “What do you mean, Sammy..?” 

“Isn’t it obvious? They work for Android 21! No doubt this is a ploy to get you back to her, and if you think I’m going to let that happen then you’re as dumb as your hair color implies.” 

“Chisa! Is that true?” Mitoko asked, utterly betrayed.

Chisa looked away, “Well… it's complicated! But I’d never do something so horrible to you!”

“Hmph, I bet~” Samael responded, “How can we be so sure? Even if you’re such good friends .”

“Oh I’m sure you care so much about her!” Chisa yelled angrily at the Icejinn emperor.

“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t. But I’ll be going against the very point of this tournament to let you have her.”

A light blush covered Mitoko’s cheeks as she watched Chisa begrudgingly pick up Raiden’s body. “..see you soon, Hitori.”

And there she went.

“Sammy… I don’t know if she was going to betray me.. Chisa is a good person..” 

“She was a good person. Everybody changes when they enter this game. In the time she’s been here, she could have changed, especially if she's working for Android 21. Like it or not, I’m the best person for you!~”

Mitoko could only hope that she could escape this hellhole with her mind intact.

-END-

Chapter Text

It had been a day after the incident with Mitoko and her soul connection with Cell, which ended… not great to say the least. Ever since then, she had closed herself in her room; much to Samael’s annoyance.

Pounding on her door, he demanded she come out.

“Come on, you overgrown cockroach! We have training to do!” Samael shouted, but got no answer in response. “...fine! Be that way! I can train all on my own!”

Samael grumbled to himself as he stomped away, unaware of the mental turmoil the girl was going through as he thought about who he should try to find and pummel.

“Stupid bug girl… my connection wasn’t that terrible, so what’s her problem?!” he went through the halls of his ship, walking by Zach.

“Headin’, somewhere, Sam–I mean, Lord Frieza?” the Jeice player asked.

“I’m going out to train, alone .” Samael responded, clearly angry.

“O-okay sir! Stay safe!”

Samael rolled his eyes as he walked away, “As if I need to be safe. There’s few fighters who can defeat me .”

Sent down to the ground harshly was a Krillin player, holding his arm in pain as he looked over at his opponent. “ Dammit, why didn’t I choose a better character!? And of all the people I could fight.. ”

In front of him was Cooler, or rather, his player Virgil .

“Done already, weakling?”

Virgil, like many players, was very good at being in character. He embodied the maybe not-so canon brother of Frieza, which cemented him as a strong enough threat among many. 

“You’ll regret choosing to enter this tournament, runt–” Virgil stopped mid sentence and mid-beating, feeling a familiar aura not far from where he was. “ It's him! ” 

Turning away from his opponent, he laughed and powered up; “Consider yourself lucky, it just so happens I found a better opponent to destroy.” 

With that he flew off in the direction of the aura, leaving the other player to question what–or who , could make Virgil drop a fight like that.

“Whoever they are, they’re one unlucky son of a bitch, that’s for sure!”

Blowing up a bunch of clones into smoking black stains on the ground, Samael groaned as he sat down, his palm pressed up against his pale cheek as he wanted something to happen. Maybe if he were lucky, Android 21 would coincidentally come around and he’ll be the one to splay her guts everywhere.

Do androids have guts?

Just as he was about to look for another cluster of clones, he felt a chill go down his spine. Somebody was coming, and he knew exactly who it was.

“N-no… that’s not possible! He can’t be here, not with me!” If Samael still had hair, it’d be standing on end. Deep down, even Frieza’s soul felt the same distasteful cocktail of dread and hate.

It couldn’t be! But it was. Landing behind Samael was Virgil. Feeling a shadow over him, he turned around to see the Cooler player.

“Hello… brother .”

Samael was speechless, “..y-you chose that avatar to fuck with me.. didn’t you!?”

“Ever since your funeral? Hah! It was never a coincidence.”

Samael clenched his jaw; “You… you didn’t kill yourself just so you could continue to torment me, did you?!”

Virgil laughed in response; “Pfft! Self centered as always. No, my death was unintended, but if I knew I’d end up here with you? I would’ve jumped off the nearest building in a heartbeat! There’s no way I could have left my precious little brother all alone~”

The pale white Frieza player felt his skin tingle, he was unsure about whether or not he should ask how his asshole of an elder brother died... he did anyway.

“Alright, I’ll bite. How did you die!? I bet it was something stupid like getting in a car accident!”

Walking over to where they were barely a foot from each other, Virgil bent down to look at Samael in the eyes, a bright crimson glow emanating from within the dark confines of his mask.

“Accident at the plant.” Virgil responded bluntly. “Explosion too, gruesome. Doubt that father cared about my death as much he did about yours .” 

Foolishly, Samael felt a sense of smug superiority; “That’s what you get! Now go away before I shut you down for good!”

“Hah! You couldn’t pick a more fitting character, Samael.” Virgil responded, “Daddy won’t be here to save you from me this time.” Before his brother could respond with his usual bratty snark, Virgil choke-slammed him to the ground, overwhelming the much smaller lizardman with his size.

“Rghh.. b-barely giving me a chance to fight, are you!?”

“Why would I? This isn’t a game! You’re naive for thinking I’m gonna give you a chance!” Virgil laughed, “You shouldn’t have left your little hiding spot, Samael. But I won’t kill you yet, I wouldn’t just do that to my little brother. I’m gonna have fun with you first, just like when we were children!”

In his new body, Virgil towered over Samael, his hands wrapping around the Frieza player’s whole torso with ease; preventing Samael from wriggling free of his brother’s grasp. 

“L-let go of me, brother!! I refuse to be a part of your bullshit!!”

The more he struggled, the more Virgil’s grip on his body tightened, especially when he started to bear-hug him like Bojack in that one movie.

Samael cried out in pain as he was slowly crushed by Virgil, who was enjoying this whole thing way too much. 

“What’s wrong?! Can’t fight? Pathetic! You’re making this too easy for me!” Virgil threw Samael on the ground and began to power up a Supernova. “Maybe I’ll just destroy you if you’re so insistent on being difficult– HRK!! ”

A beam shot into Virgil’s chest, Samael–or rather, Frieza, had fired it in a moment of desperation.

“Nobody makes a fool of the Great Lord Frieza! It is you who shall die by my hand!”

Virgil, although staggered briefly, laughed in return. “Resorting to hiding back in that tiny body, brother!? I wouldn’t expect less from you! Come on!”

Frieza scoffed; “Unfortunately for you, that was purely my doing. I don’t know the earthling soul inside of my wretched brother’s body, and frankly I don’t care. All that matters is that I get to wipe you off the face of this miserable planet!”

Rushing forward, Frieza elbowed Virgil in the chest hard, hard enough to crack the bio-armor protecting his chest. Virgil staggered, giving Frieza time to lay into him. The difference between him and his player was massive, with a far greater knowledge on the extent of his own powers.

“ He’s faster than I expected! ” Virgil thought before he eventually gained back enough room to retaliate, grabbing Frieza and slamming him into the ground. 

“Hmph! You and my brother are one in the same!” Virgil said before wrapping his tail around Frieza and throwing him into a wall. “So short sighted. I’ll give you credit though, for a second you had me scared. But my host knows your weaknesses as well, and our mutual hatred of you and my brother makes us far stronger.”

Virgil cracked his knuckles, a vibrant violet energy engulfing his body as he sprinted toward the tyrant.

“Bring it on, Frieza!”

Frieza scoffed, “As you wish.~”

Despite his better strength and skill over Samael, Frieza was in fact weaker than Virgil in this situation. His connection to Cooler was stronger, and as much as he wanted to go golden and end this farce for good, he… couldn’t. 

Why not? Because his ability to achieve his strongest form was locked behind his connection with Samael. It was something both of them hated, and something they kept secret from everybody else. 

“I don’t need something as ridiculous as a connection to win! I am Frieza, there is no one in this universe stronger than me!” 

The two continued to wail on each other, both trading fists and ki-based attacks. Exhausted, the two had reached a stand-still. 

“I’m going to… rip my brother’s soul from your body and.. crush it with my bare hands!” Virgil shouted through heavy breaths.

“As much as I’d like for you to remove him from my body, I’m not dumb enough to believe you’ll stop at killing just him.” Frieza responded before throwing a Death Slicer at Virgil. 

Easily dodging the attack, Virgil laughed. “I was expecting more for your last attack.”

A pyrrhic smile came across Frieza’s face “Oh, they’ll come back~”

“What?--”

Looping back around, the Death Slicers cleaved into Virgil's legs, causing him to fall to his knees. Looking up, he saw Frieza charging a Death Ball.

“You have the esteemed privilege of being destroyed by me! Now DIE!!!”

What Virgil would receive was an endless amount of pain, even more so than the original death he had...

...but it didn’t kill him.

“What?! You’re still alive?!” Frieza was surprised, surprised and enraged .

“Enjoy this victory while you two can, because the next time we meet, I’ll be tearing your fucking head off.” Virgil threatened before blinding Frieza with a fake blast and escaping as fast as he could.

“Dammit! Whatever, I still won over Cooler… in a way.” Frieza looked down at his chest, “I suppose you want control after I did all the hard work?”

“ Thank you. ” Samael said quietly.

“Hmph, don’t think I did this for you. If my body dies, we both die. I couldn’t care less about whatever drama you and your brother have going on.” Frieza responded, as dickish as ever.

“I wouldn’t tell you even if you did. The things he did to me… even you’d find them abhorrent. But it doesn’t matter, we’ll kill both of them sooner or later, and I’m going to enjoy every second of it.”

That made Frieza smile, “Then at least we’re on the same page. Perhaps being stuck with you won’t be as terrible as I expected.” 

After that, Samael regained control. “That’s enough fighting for now. Why is it that I also feel exhausted when I didn’t do anything?”

“ The price to pay for being in a body as excellent as mine~ ”

Rolling his violet-colored eyes, Samael made his way back to the ship. “..I wonder how Hitori is doing.”

Back on the ship, Mitoko was doing slightly better, having spent the whole day silently training in her room. Well, mental image training, but it still counted.

Still she had several questions about this world, its players, and just how everybody got along–or didn’t. 

She paced around the room nervously; “I could ask Zeke… no. I can’t rely on the people here forever, if I wanna learn more about the people here, I gotta find them and talk to them myself! I just hope that they don’t think I’m evil and attack me!”

Cell, of course, made a smug comment.

“ Probably .”

“I still have to try! Maybe that Gabe guy would be willing to help…”

She felt a sharp pain at the back of her head, the force making her hold her temples like she’s having a migraine. “ The day you try to get his help is the day we get eaten by Android 21, you flea! ”

“What? Is it because he’s the Gohan player? He seems like a nice guy–Oowww!! Stop with the headaches, they huurrtt!!”

“ Good! We’re not getting help from a freaking Gohan player! ” 

“W-well I’m in control of the body, so no amount of migraines is gonna make me not ask for his help! Myehh!!”

-END-

Chapter Text

Reincarnation.

To be placed into the body of another for a second chance at life, it’s a double-edged sword for most and a common theme in most light novels. Unsurprisingly, it’s very popular because it allows nerds to potentially live out their greatest fantasies in another world whereas in reality they couldn’t.

One of these people was Dante Hosef Hetfield , a young man who lived alone with nothing to live for outside of his greatest interest: Dragon Ball Z.

Ever since he was a young boy, he was bewitched by the series, following the life of Son Goku and friends that seemed like a dream come true for Dante. Even when he was reaching adulthood, Dante wished he could just reach through the screen and into their world.

If only he could.

And when he watched the Cell Saga for the first time, he found the love of his life. Not through Android 18 like expected, but Cell . Something about his charisma sparked within the boy.

His power, confidence, it was enthralling; it didn’t matter to Dante that Cell was a guy. He was in love. He even had a site dedicated to Dragon Ball, with a whole page dedicated to Cell. 

But he always wished he could just live in that world. Just for a day.

Death was his wish granter. 

Nobody knows how Dante died. And nobody will know.

Getting up from seemingly ethereal ground, Dante looked around in curiosity. It looked... animated. The grassy field beneath him felt real, but it didn’t look realistic, more like it was drawn.

Before him stood two figures: The Supreme Kai and his God of Destruction, Beerus.

It worked.

The deities gave him the explanation of the game and gave him a spread of characters to choose from. 

For a moment, Dante hesitated. Cell was there, right for the choosing. But he went against his greatest desire, and chose one of the Legendary Fighters, Janemba . In both his youth and growing up, Dante always thought of himself as good at fighting games, and it seemed like choosing one of the obvious “broken fighters” would aid him in what the gods had planned for him.

So he did.

He didn’t regret the choice one bit in hindsight. Forming the connection was easy, unlike other ‘hosts’, Janemba immediately bonded to Dante’s soul; fitting with his background as a possessor who could only truly exist with a host. Everything Dante did was done in sync with Janemba. It was like Dante was the host, rather than Janemba.

With power like that, it was no surprise that he was the most feared, even among Legendary Fighters.

It wouldn’t be long until he came across another one.

“Seriously? Your host is Baby ?”

A Fighter by the name of Cleo Lyre, a Vegeta player, commented bitterly as she glared knives at the player of Super Baby 2: Ellis Bar-Johnson.

“Don’t hate on me for my avatar! I’m a Legendary Fighter after all!” he laughed; “Besides, you chose a Vegeta! Wouldn’t say you’re original~”

Cleo folded her arms and rolled her eyes in response, “Whatever, Baby.”

Dante peeked out from behind a corner as he eavesdropped on the conversation, seeing a Baby player filled him with some kind of rage . He hated watching Dragon Ball GT, especially since it was a horrible replica of the anime he loved as a young boy.

Not to mention, he thought Baby was a stupid name too. A guy like that was a Legendary Fighter? It was insulting and annoying to him.

Leaping out, Dante wasted no time slashing at Ellis, which the Baby player barely dodged. 

“You?!” Ellis shouted, jumping back; “Butt out, Dante! She’s mine!” He wasn’t scared of Dante, being overconfident in his own power as a Legendary Fighter. 

Dante didn’t budge, he wasn’t here for Cleo, he was here for Ellis .

Cleo stepped back as she watched the Janemba player slice at Ellis with his blood-red blade, trying to cut him into pieces as he laughed maniacally.

Caught off guard, Ellis took a few heavy hits from the demonic swordsman, cutting into his bodysuit and exposing his skin underneath.

“My turn, Dante!” Ellis shouted before throwing a volley of ki blasts at him, using the distraction as his chance to rush forward and attack. Vanishing into a collection of pastel-colored cubes, Dante appeared right behind Ellis and kicked him into a nearby wall, leaving behind a Baby-shaped crater in its wake. 

“Erghh… you think you’re strong, don’t you?! Stronger than me?!” Ellis yelled as he stumbled out from his crater, charging up a massive death ball. “I’ll destroy you and everything else around you!”

Cleo, realizing she’d be dead if she stayed here, flew off as fast as she could. “ Ellis is so fucked… ”

Of course, the Janemba player didn’t care and only grinned in anticipation. Staring at the ball of black death as it slowly descended near him, unmoving.

“You fool! You have a death wish or something?!” 

A massive explosion consumed the area. Ellis, staring down at the colossal crater left behind, didn’t see Dante in the aftermath.

“Hah! He must’ve been atomized! I thought somebody with such a reputation would stand more of a chance against me!” 

Unfortunately for him, it wasn’t the case..

“Hyehheh..” Dante laughed from behind Ellis, causing the Baby player to turn around and inadvertently catch himself on the receiving end of a Raksha’s Claw. 

Ellis staggered in the air, “Wh-what?! How are you still alive?!”

Coated in gashes and dripping blood, Ellis stepped back in fear. Dante attacked so fast! It was terrifying! But he wasn’t done yet, as Dante slammed him with a horizontal column and back into the rocky walls around him. 

Before Ellis could counter him with another attack, he screamed as his arm was impaled by Dante’s blade, pinning it down as Dante closed in on the trapped Machine Mutant.

“ Nghgh.. what are you?!” Ellis muttered as pain rocketed through his body. 

Dante, of course, didn’t say anything; only laughing maniacally at the tuffle’s pain. He had one more thing he wanted to do with Ellis. Something befitting of his most favorite Dragon Ball antagonists.

It was an oddly fitting fate that he had for the screechy bastard.

Being eaten alive.

“Wh-what are you doing?! Get away from me!! No!! NOOOOO!!!! ”

Ellis’s screams could be heard across miles.

Ellis Bar-Johnson was ‘disqualified’ from the game. 

Done with his fun, Dante was about to leave when he sensed an extremely strong power level nearby, as in really nearby. Turning to find it, he saw a new face: a Kid Buu player. 

The small Majin sat on one of the rocks, gazing at Dante. 

“...”

Dante stared back, it was like they could read one another’s minds and souls; and they liked what they saw. Dante could tell this kid was like him, somebody who wanted to have good destructive fun.

“Eyahaha! >:)”

“hyohoho! (:<”

The two laughed and beat their chests like the monsters they were, they didn’t need to speak to understand one another. 

“Etnad!” Dante said in backwards Spanish, holding his hand out.

The Kid Buu player, unable to speak full words, spelled his name out in the dirt. His name was Kavin.

For the first time, Dante had made a friend.

-END-

Chapter Text

“I’m in control of my body, so I get to decide where we go!!” Mitoko shouted as she struggled to get Cell’s body out of her room on Samael’s ship. After grappling with her humanity for a few hours, she decided to go out and find other fighters to help explain how this whole game worked.

Cell, on the other hand, hated the idea.

“ With how little you understand fighting unless you’re under significant stress? I would be surprised if you survived more than thirty minutes out there! ” 

“B-but I’m not going to fight anyone! I just want some answers! Maybe we could get some allies too!” 

“ Not if one of them is in the body of Gohan !” Cell shouted, making it very obvious how much resentment he still held towards the half-Saiyan.

“But Gabe seemed like a nice guy, I’m sure he’d be happy to help!”

Mitoko wanted to ask why he had such a disdain toward Gabriel... until she remembered that Gohan was the reason for Cell’s death. “ That’s what I thought, now do you see why I don’t want you being around him? ”

“..you were killed by a 9 year old?”

“ Shut up! ”

But Mitoko was in control, so beyond arguing and a lot of complaining, there wasn’t much Cell could do to stop her. Heading out, Mitoko flew out of the ship and towards the last place she saw Gabe; Orange City.

“Feels weirdly nostalgic going through here, kind of like home.. if it were more animated and... y-y’know...” Mitoko talked to herself as she looked around for the orange-clad hero, she knew vaguely that he also had an alter ego called the Great Saiyaman.. but would Gabe go through with it for a stronger bond with his soul?

She wasn’t sure.

Mitoko looked around a bit high above the city to avoid being spotted, but stopped and realized something: “Wait, do I have ki tracking?” 

It was a sort of ‘duh’ moment, of course Cell would have ki tracking, so why didn’t she use it?

“ Seriously? Do you even know how to use it? ” Cell commented snidely.

“I-I can try…” Mitoko tried to find Gabe’s energy among the hundreds of life signatures in the city. It had to be different... right? Or else it would be kind of useless for her, and that would sure suck.

What she got were the signatures of.. three people? They were much stronger than who she could only presume were civilians, so maybe they were players like her?

Flying towards it, she ended up near Capsule Corp; and there Gabe was at the front yard, along with the Gotenks player, Lyle, and a Krillin player she hadn’t seen before. 

Nervously, she floated a few feet out of sight while she figured out a way to approach them without coming off as a seven foot tall threatening bugman. Of course, this would be for naught as Lyle quickly caught sight of the flighty cicada.

But unfortunately for her, Lyle had spotted her; “hey! aren’t you that bug guy from before?”

“Eep!” With no point in hiding, Mitoko floated down to the group, still very anxious. She nervously waved at the Gohan player, “H-hi, Gabe…”

“Oh hey, Mitoko. Didn’t think I’d see you again so soon, where’s Samael and the rest of his team?” Gabe asked.

“Sammy went out to train, and everybody else is on the ship. I just dropped by for a little help on… everything about the tournament! I have no idea how this works!”

Lyle looked over at the Krillin player, named Mike, who immediately shook his head and raised up his hands. “Don’t ask me! I barely survived a fight against Virgil!”

“Virgil?” Mitoko tilted her head, “Is that another player?” 

“He’s one of the strongest out there, I’m only still in the game because he sensed somebody else to fight!” 

Gabe agreed; “Virgil’s one hell of a player, I’m surprised you haven’t encountered him. Then again, antagonist players don’t usually fight one another.” 

Already, Mitoko was a little nervous about the idea of coming face to face with Virgil, he sounded like a real threat! “..anyway, is there anything specific you’d like to know?”

“How many other players are there?” Mitoko asked.

Gabe rubbed the back of his head; “That’s a hard one… it seems everyday I meet a new player or find out somebody got taken out of the game. I think there’s at least fifteen players, maybe more. The tournament’s only been going on for a week and a half.”

“Sounds like everybody is staying by themselves or making small teams..” Mitoko responded.

“That’s about the long and short of it. Me, Mike, and Lyle are a team. Speaking of which, I’d still be happy to let you join.”

“Y-you sure about this, Gabe?” Mike asked, “I mean this guy is still a Cell player, what if he’s bad news?”

“I-I’m a girl actually, and I’m not trying to trick you guys or anything!”

“Oh, okay.” Mike nodded, before immediately being taken aback. “WH-WH-WHAT!? YOU’RE A GIRL!? I thought you were a guy from the succulent tone of your voice!”

“Eh? : D ”

“I-I mean–anyways, if Gabe trusts you, then I guess I gotta too.. now what?”

Gabe crossed his arms and thought. “I just remembered! Earlier today I was approached by Piccolo, he warned me about there being android activity in the north mountains.”

“Piccolo’s still an NPC right? I’m surprised he hasn’t gotten a soul put in him yet.” Mike commented.

“That means non-player character, right?” Mitoko asked, “ Now that I think about it, when I first got here, he didn’t act like a player… he was actually confused when I explained my situation to him. ”

It was kind of unnerving for the girl, although her train of thought stopped when Bulma stepped out of the building. “Alright everyone! I found a way to reprogram these scouters to help you with- oh, hey Cell!”

“I-it’s.. it’s Mitoko..” the girl nervously mumbled.

Bulma giggled; “Oh, right, sorry! Still not used to all that!”

“What was that about the scouters, Bulma?” Gabe asked.

“Right! I managed to reprogram these scouters to hone in on the life signature of androids, or rather the souls inside them!”

Gabe grabbed on and put it on; “Meaning we can finally track down players who are in the bodies of android characters.”

Mitoko, of course, was confused. “Is that a problem?”

“Android players still have no detectable ki, which is kind of annoying when they’re working for Android 21.” Mike explained, which Mitoko immediately took notice of. Her closest friend from highschool, Chisa.. she was Android 18’s player! So that meant... 

“..oh my god.” 

“Something wrong, Mitoko?” Gabe asked.

“My best friend Chisa is Android 18’s player! I fought her and Raiden a while ago! We have to find them!” Mitoko whined, “Please!! QvQ”

Mike sighed as he looked up to Gabriel. “..well, can’t say no to that.. handsome face. Seriously, were there that little female characters to choose from?”

“Well, we were going to head up there eventually, might as well do it now.” Gabe replied, “Lyle!” 

The Gotenks player flew out of the Capsule Corp building, holding a bunch of snacks. “yeah?”

“We’re heading out to the mountains, c’mon.”

“YAY!! :D!!”

Carrying the Gotenks player in her buggy arms after a long trek up, Mitoko looked down at Lyle. He was so small compared to her, which made her wonder.. since everyone in the tournament are (or rather, were) human souls that have passed into this world... how did he...?

“ Poor kids… ” 

“hey mitoko.” the boy said.

“Yeah?”

“you’re cell right? can you make cell jrs like cell? :3c”

“I mean.. probably? I’ve never, like.. tried it..”

“ I can, but you are not showing a brat like him how it’s done. ” Cell commented from inside Mitoko’s mind. “ Didn’t think you were the type to care about kids .” The girl responded internally, a slight smug tone to her voice as she was earning tiny trickles of confidence through being in the tournament.

“ I don’t, it just costs a lot of energy to produce a junior. If things get that desperate then you can make some. ”

Using the scouter on his head, Gabe searched for the androids’ energy, before sensing somebody else’s. It was a normal player from the feeling of it.

“You guys feel that too, right?” he asked.

“Yep.”

“U-uh huh..”

“no, are they strong?”

Mitoko looked back down at Lyle; “You can’t sense ki, Lyle?”

The Gotenks player crossed their arms and pouted. “no. >:I we haven’t figured it out yet.” 

“Either way, it’d be best to investigate, if the androids are here, we don’t want a player getting attacked and taken to 21.” Gabe commented. The bug girl felt a chill go up her spine, “..so.. like Houseki no Kuni?”

“Oh yeah, Land of the Lustrous. I remember that anime.” Gabriel nodded, “It’s like that. Makes me feel bad for the one Yamcha player who tried to take her on... I don’t think he ever came back. Really nice guy too.”

Landing where the energy signature was, the group looked around, not really seeing anybody.

“Huh… that’s odd.. I thought I sensed someone.” Gabe commented. 

Mitoko, or rather Cell, felt a familiar presence; and looking up at a cliff, they both spotted him .

“ First Gohan and now him?! ” Cell shouted from inside Mitoko’s mind.

Mitoko gasped and shouted: “G-guys! It's Trunks!” 

Up above on the snowy rockface was the lavender-haired swordsman, staring down at the group before moving away and out of sight.

“..Felix.”

“Eh?”

The Future Trunks player leapt down from the cliff and onto the ground in front of them; “I said, my name is Felix.”

“So you’re a player..” Gabe said, “Figured there’d be one here. Let me guess, you’re here to fight the androids.”

Mitoko, being the Cell player, couldn’t help but interject; “I’m not a bad guy or evil! And neither are Chisa and Raiden!”

Shaking his head, Felix responded; “I’m not here to fight them, actually. The android players are the least of my worries right now, in fact.”

“Then why are you all the way out here?” Mike asked.

Felix answered bluntly; “I’m looking for Android 21’s lab. I’m positive it has information on all the players in the game so far, I’m looking for another player, but he’s been eluding me at every turn and I think he has help. I don’t want to fight the android players, but if they try to stop me I will take them out of the game.”

Curious, the group of fighters talked amongst themselves while Mitoko stared at Felix’s chest, a faint fluster on her cheeks.

“ Elope with him and I’ll make you wish you were dead, again . ”

“ I-I wasn’t thinking of anything like that! ” Mitoko thought back.

“ Yes you were, I’m literally in your mind, girl! ”

“Uhhh, Mitoko? Ya there?” Mike asked, waving his hand in front of her face, or at least tried to at his height.

“H-huh? Sorry! Just… uhh.. talking to my avatar.. So is Felix gonna help us, or vice versa?”

“We’re going to find 21’s lab.” Felix said, answering Mitoko directly; “It should be up in the mountains like Gero’s lab was.”

“..well, guess we’re tagging along! Guess we’re.. uhh.. Team Five Star now!”

“Don’t push it.”

The interior of the hidden laboratory was claustrophobic and dark, the unseen sound of something dripping from the ceiling emanating from within as the group moved in and through the steel corridors. “If we somehow come across her ..” Felix inhaled, “Run away as fast as you can.”

“What if we try to fight her?” Mitoko asked, with Lyle joining in on that thought.
“yeah! >:)”

“No. You can’t defeat her, none of us can, not yet.” Felix bluntly responded, “Our best hope is to run and hope we can get out alive.”

Exploring the hidden laboratory, Mitoko felt that strange sense of nostalgia again; but this time it was Cell’s nostalgia. This was the lab where he was first developed and created… and that feeling was just as connected with Mitoko as their souls were. 

“ ... ”

“ Cell? ”

“ Just keep going, I’ve got nothing to say. ”

Gabe walked beside Felix, looking at the straight-faced expression he had; “How come we’re just meeting you?” he asked.

“I’m not here to really compete in the tournament. I’m just here to find him , what happens to me after that is not important.” Felix responded, “I only really joined you guys because it was convenient, no offense.”

“None taken, whoever you’re after must be pretty important then. Though I gotta ask, how do you know he’s here? Most of us are unaware if family or friends are in the After-Death Game until we meet them.” 

“It’s a long and complicated story… do you believe in the concept of fate and reincarnation?”

“Well.. eheh..” Gabe awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, “Not really, but I guess I believe in reincarnation now.”

Felix clenched his fist tightly; “I’ll just say that I’ve been through this game before, and I know he’s here and that I have to stop him.”

Mitoko blinked, the implication that Felix had played this game repeatedly... It made her feel a little shaken. “..are we ever gonna get out of here? This game, I mean.”

“One of you will get out, there’s only one winner in this game. Or at least I thought that.” Felix responded, sighing.

“W… were you the winner of the last game?” Mike asked, “What character did you choose last time?”

Felix got flustered at his question, turning his head to the side as he mumbled; “I-it's not that important..” very briefly he glanced at Mitoko, which she noticed but didn’t comment on. “..okay, so.. what happens to the players who aren’t reincarnated? Are we just... stuck here?”

“When a player is taken out of the game, their soul goes to the afterlife like every other soul in this world, I don’t know if they all go to either heaven or hell, or if they get reincarnated in the Dragon Ball world, but I do know that the winner is reborn in the ‘real’ world--again, until now.” Felix clenched his fist again, even tighter this time; “He… he shouldn’t have ended up back in the real world, he should be rotting in Hell! ” 

“Who?” Gabe asked.

“Lee Bao.” 

Taking out a flash drive from his pocket, Felix placed it into the computer console, overriding any password command in favor of getting straight into it. “I knew him once, too well.”

The computer screen was filled with tabs of info on all the players in the game, their avatars, and their status in the game. Glancing at the screen, Mike elbowed Gabe; “Check it out, Sweet Baby Ellis got taken out after all.”

“Good riddance, honestly.” Gabe responded. Mitoko squinted at the tab with a status reading ‘Ellis - TERMINATED ’, the use of the word ‘terminated’ sending a chill down her spine, metaphorically speaking.

Felix searched through tabs, feverishly looking for the only info file that mattered to him; “Where is it… I know it’s here…”

Suddenly, Gabe’s scouter picked up an energy signal, and it was right behind them. 

“Guys!” 

Everybody turned around to see Raiden and Android 16 blocking the way out of the computer room, but Chisa was nowhere to be seen.

“Should have figured you guys would show up here!” Felix said, getting up from the computer and taking out his sword.

“Nice of you to do all the hard computer work for me, dude. Now if you could make this even easier for me and put all that info on that handy-dandy flash drive and hand it over, that’d be great.~” Raiden said smugly.

“Over my dead body! You’re not getting this information!” Felix shouted, gripping the hilt of his sword.

“You think that’s gonna intimidate me, a five-on-two? You must be really stupid.”

“Wh-where’s Chisa-chan?! She’s not hurt, is she?!” Mitoko shouted, more scared than angry.

Raiden sneered; “Pfft, no. She wimped out and escaped, your guess on where she is right now is as good as mine.”

It was even more claustrophobic than before, with everyone pretty much packed in such a small space. “..you want it? Fine.” Felix said before slicing into the monitor with his sword, sparks of cut wire sending the lab into a blaze. “But you’ll have to survive first!”

Raiden began to laugh, “Ahaha! You, I like you! 16, kick their asses, but leave the Trunks player to me.”

16 nodded, “As you wish.” 

Rushing ahead with no hesitation, 16 sped forward to grab Gabe; pushing aside the others as they went in to attack him.

“Shit!” Gabe didn’t have any time to react as he was grappled and slam dunked into the ground. 

“Wh-what do we do?!” Mitoko yelled.

“There’s four of us, and one of him, we just gotta swarm him and hope for the best!” Mike responded.

“yippie! dogpile time!! :3!!” Lyle shouted before rushing in, “we were getting so bored!! >v<”

Running up to the android boy, Lyle swiftly kicked Raiden in his shins.

“The hell--Get off me!” Raiden shouted, kicking Lyle to the side.

“hey! you’re gonna kick kids? >:I what’s wrong with you?!”

“Go handle 16, Lyle!” Felix shouted angrily, “I’ll handle Raiden!”

“o-okay! sorry! <:3”

Meanwhile, Mitoko tried to stagger 16 with melee attacks, but the massive android was rather unphased.

“You don’t have to follow 21! Chisa left, you can do it too!” she said as she continued to try to attack him.

“I am not a player, my purpose is to assist Android 21.” 16 responded in total deadpan, Mitoko wasn’t even surprised that he wasn’t a player. Especially when Cell, of course, piped in with his spiteful commentary toward the ginger-haired android.

“Remember me, you worthless heap of scrap?” Cell said, momentarily taking control of Mitoko before she took it back; “I-I didn’t say that! That was Cell!”

“I am not insulted either way.”

“Yeah, he’s definitely 16 alright..” Mike said, firmly under 16’s foot.

Felix slashed at Raiden, who nimbly dodged his blade; the black haired android sticking his tongue out at Felix and taunting him.

“You’re not half bad at this, you know.~ You must have a pretty good connection to your avatar.”

“I do, and I’m going to use that connection to beat you! No matter what, this drive is not falling into 21’s hands!” Felix shouted before making a deep cut into Raiden’s chest. “Why does she even want it?!”

Raiden briefly stared at his cut up shirt, “Hmph, she left it behind when moving from this stupid hidden lab to the new one she has; not like I’m telling you where it is.” Raiden explained in his usual cocky manner.

“That doesn’t answer my question!” Felixed yelled, before he was swiftly kicked in the chest by Raiden, the 17 player snatching the flash drive out of Felix’s jacket pocket before kicking him in the jaw, sending him back.

“C’mon, 16! We’re out of here!” 

“ No!! ” Felix shouted as he tried to get up, only for his vision to blur slightly and cause him to stumble back again. “They can’t get away with that!I can’t find out what Lee’s avatar is without it!”

Helping the Trunks player up, Gabriel grunted. “Well, we better get outside fast so we can catch up. This place is about to blow!”

Running out of the laboratory just as it was about to detonate, the team tried to catch up with the two androids as they flew off, but they couldn’t catch up; with 16 and 17 getting away.

“Dammit! No!” Felix yelled, grasping his stomach. “All the data was on the drive… I won’t be able to find Lee in time without it!” he coughed into his fist, specks of blood splattering onto his palm.

“Easy there.. we gotta get you fixed up back at Capsule Corp before we do anything else.” Mike said, also helping Gabe keep Felix up. 

“Who knows what 21 is planning to do with all that info, info on us… ” Mitoko said, feeling a dreadful feeling in the pit of her stomach. 

“I should have killed Raiden… I held back, I didn’t want to kill him, but I should have!” Felix said between coughs, he could feel that a few ribs were cracked. As everyone tried to help the injured hero up, Mitoko continued to wonder about Lee . Who was he? And why was Felix so obsessed with him?

Felix awoke back at Capsule Corp, he sat up in a bed, only to feel his chest ache and send him back down. Looking to the side, he spotted Mitoko peek in before walking into the room.

“Heeyyy… how are you feeling..?” she anxiously asked.

“Like I got kicked in the ribs..” Felix responded with slight humor. 

“I brought you a senzu bean, to make you feel better..” Mitoko held out a bean in her pale chitinous hand.

Felix slowly sat up and ate it, feeling his body rapidly heal, if not slightly painfully. “ Mm.. the anime never told you how much getting healed with these hurt… thanks. Sorry if I dragged you into this, my business I meant.”

“N-no... it’s alright...” Mitoko looked away, blushing slightly like last time. “I was just really worried for you, especially with what you mentioned earlier. Y-you seem like a nice guy, is all...”

“There’s good people here, people like you and the others, I can’t let Lee take away somebody’s chance at a new life.” Felix responded.

“Who is Lee? You keep mentioning him, but you didn’t tell us who that is.”

Felix stood up from the bed and slipped his jacket back on; “Lee was somebody from a previous game. He’s a bastard, in the previous game he was the Goku player, I… I was the Cell player.”

Mitoko gasped; “Really? Please, I need insight on how to be Cell! How do I connect better with him?”

“You’ll have to figure that out on your own, things were done differently in the game I was in. There were no connections or anything, the characters were more like… dolls or actual vessels. This connection stuff is as new to me as it is for you.” Felix explained. “As I was saying, Lee and I were players in the previous game, he was an absolute monster . We were actually friends… for a time, and in the end, I beat him and was able to be reborn. It's kind of funny, he did the ‘Goku Black’ thing before it actually became a thing…” 

Felix then paused, his face shifting to an expression of frightening realization .

“No… he has to be, he has to be the Goku Black player! We just have to find the Goku Black player!”

“..I mean... that’s also an option-”

“It's the only option we have currently. If you don’t want to help me, that’s fine. But I will find Lee and I will kill him, even if I have to do it alone.” Felix slung his sword over his shoulder, “Thanks for helping me, without your help… I’d probably be dead, again. If you want to help me then say so now, I won’t wait and you probably won’t see me a lot after I go if you don’t.”

Mitoko was silent, before nodding with a smile.

“I’ll do it.”

Felix smiled softly, “You’re a good person, Mitoko. Let’s go.” 

-END-

Chapter Text

“S-stupid Virgil… how dare he be here! Ugh… I need to get to a healing tank..”

Samael limped through his ship; after surviving a fight with his brother, and the Cooler player, his avatar’s body was in a state of disrepair. As he made his way to the infirmary, Kaiman was heading down the opposite way.

“Welcome back Lord–Whoa, what happened to you?!” 

“Got into a fight with my brother, who of course is a player here. Now make yourself useful and help me into the healing tank!”

The Burter player rubbed the back of his head, “Unrelated note, but it’s.. uhh.. it’s about Mitoko. She wanted me to give you this.” He handed the Frieza player a note, it seemed to be written very hastily.

“ ..she wouldn’t. ”

“She left?!” 

The Ginyu Force, and Jerry, all sat around in the infirmary while Samael healed up.

“Can we do that?” Jerry asked, “Can I do that?”

“Mmrrphh!” Samael shouted back from inside the tank, the oxygen mask muffling his voice.

“I’m sure she had her reasons, Samael.” Zeke said, “The best thing we can do is support her and not be hostile towards her if we see her.”

Samael couldn’t articulate it in his current position, but he had so many feelings on the matter, and none of them good. He didn’t know what to think, he didn’t know what to think. Was he angry? Was he sad? He was antagonistic to Mitoko, but he didn’t hate her, and he didn’t want her to leave! 

“ Stupid girl… the moment I actually need you and your stupid, stupid emotions… ” he thought as he sat balled up in the healing tank. “ What does the guy you’re with now have that I don’t?! ”

“I never watched Future of Trunks, why does he have a sword?” Mitoko asked as she walked beside Felix, who she decided to join on his quest to stop the androids and a man by the name of “Lee Bao”.

“I think he got it from a guy named Taipon, I.. uhhh… never watched it either.” Felix responded. “I guess I could ask Trunks, but I’m not really used to the soulspace..”

Mitoko chuckled, “M-me neither, but Cell’s pretty talkable anyways. Ehehe..”

“ I heard that. ” Cell responded.

“So if–or when , we find Lee, what’s the plan?” Mitoko asked Felix.

“I’ve been training for a while now, if Lee is in Goku Black’s body, then my best plan is to rush him before he can pull any of his tricks and fancy ki attacks. But I doubt we’ll find him so soon, while we search we need to train, and hopefully find a third fighter to help.” Felix explained, looking around as he stayed close to Mitoko’s side.

“..have you... have you ever watched Super?”

Felix shrugged in response, “Only maybe a couple clips and the movies. I know enough to know who Goku Black is, and know that Lee would choose him. He was always theatrical like that, why do you ask?”

“No reason, I just... I just thought it was funny that you chose Trunks is all, knowing how he is with Black.”

“I guess so. It was the same back in the last game, Goku vs Cell… I can’t let him ruin somebody’s chance at a new start. He can’t be reborn again! I guess that’s why I feel so much stronger when I think about beating him, it's something me and my avatar both feel conviction over.” Felix exposited before sighing, “Sorry for talking so much about myself, what about you? What are your stakes in this game?”

For a moment, Mitoko was silent.

“..I think I would be lying if I said I only wanted to go back home. To tell you the truth, I don’t have much left waiting for me. My parents are rarely ever home and I graduated from high school a few years ago, I don’t even have a job and... my only actual friend... she...”

Silence reigned.

“It’s okay, I’m sorry I asked. I guess it's to be expected that it would be a sore spot for you..” Felix responded. “If we find Chisa.. I’ll do my best to resolve any conflicts with her peacefully. I realize how much she means to you.” 

Mitoko smiled, reaching over and gently grasping Felix’s hand as she could already hear Cell yelling at her for forming a genuine bond with the swordsman.

They traveled through the mountains as they headed back down to civilization, or the closest thing to it. Trekking through the woods, Mitoko felt a cluster of strong power levels nearby.

“Those have to be clones!” the Cell player shouted. But that wasn’t all she sensed, as she could sense something–or someone way stronger too.”Stay on your guard, it could be another player!”

Sneaking as quickly as they could, they got a good look at the fight going on. A horde of clones were attacking a lone fighter, who was kind of hard to see in the crowd.

“What if they’re in trouble?! We have to help, Felix!” Mitoko shouted before rushing in.

“We have to be careful though, we don’t know how many of them there are!” 

Mitoko blasted through the horde and got to the center to help the lone fighter, and what she saw was extremely strange. The player was a Saiyan from the tail he had, but he didn’t look like any Saiyan character she was familiar with. He was covered in red fur, with his buff chest being bare. 

“He’s... handsome?”

“ He looks like a complete freak. ” Cell piped in, with his ever so valuable commentary.

“Do you know him?”

The mean green bugman laughed, “ Don’t be ridiculous, I’ve never seen that thing before in my life! Although it seems to bear the features of Son Goku.. ”

“He kinda looks like Vegeta too… maybe he’s a fusion!” Mitoko shouted to the mystery Saiyan; “Hey! Who are you?!”

The player stopped his assault on the clone horde briefly; “Our name is Anton and Andrio! But you can call us Antonio!”

“So you are a fusion! My name is Mitoko, and this is my friend Felix!” 

Felix sliced through a few clones before looking back at them; “Uhh… hey!”

With some help, they were able to clear out the clones. But Mitoko and Felix still had questions.

“Just who are you, Antonio?” Mitoko asked, utterly taken aback by his looks.

“We’re Gogeta! Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta, of course!” the red haired Saiyan responded. Mitoko was no less confused. “...you’ve never seen this form before?” He asked again, before blasting the rest of the clones to smithereens.

“No! Is this a new form I’ve never seen before??” Mitoko asked, thinking it was some obscure form, and she wasn’t wrong.

“Not really ‘new’, you ever watch GT? :3c” Antonio asked, tilting their head. 

“No.. I heard it's bad though.”

Felix chuckled, “Yeah it kinda was, but Antonio here is the fusion of Super Saiyan 4 Goku and Vegeta. The after death game I was in had them as a fusion too, but I didn’t think they’d be a fusion here too.” 

“Yep, we’re a Legendary Fighter! Pretty cool huh?” Antonio commented, flexing and showing off.

“L-Legendary Fighter?! Like Dante?” Mitoko asked, shocked she was talking to another Legendary Fighter. Though Felix was a bit confused.

“What’s that?” he asked, to which Antonio explained to the best of his ability.

“Weelll..” he reclined back in the air; “That Beerus guy said Legendary Fighters are the peak of the peak, and that if we form a good enough bond that we’d be the toughest players in the game!”

“Sounds a bit unfair and unbalanced to me…” Felix commented in response.

Mitoko tapped her chin; “Does that mean you’re composed of four souls?”

“Yeah, we guess so! We talk to the fused souls in our body, as well as each other, guess that helps explain why we’re so strong! Haha!” Antonio laughed, his power level was something so casual to him.

“So how long until you unfuse?” Felix asked.

“Whadduya mean? . 3.”

“When do you unfuse back into Anton and Andrio, I mean.” Felix clarified.

Antonio replied bluntly; “We don’t!” 

“H-huh?!”

“Eh?!?! Y-you mean you two are stuck like that forever?!”

Antonio shrugged; “That’s what the purple cutie kai Shin said when he asked us if we were sure we wanted to choose this character! Been like this for a few days, so he wasn’t lying! Feels weird when eating though, haha!”

Mitoko then thought of Lyle; the Gotenks player, “Does that mean all fusions are like that?”

“Probably!” Antonio shrugged again. “I haven’t met a ton of other fusions though, just one. Man, I won’t forget her! Hope she’s doing well. ://3”

“A-anyways, you said you were one of the strongest fighters here.” Felix said, “We need help, a fighter named Lee is also playing to be reborn, and I can’t let him do that! If you’re as strong as you say you are, then I have to ask you to join us!”

Antonio scratched his chest, “Hmmm… is he strong? I don’t like fighting people unless they’re strong . 3.”

“He’s one of the strongest players I’ve met, and he’s probably getting stronger by the day.” Felix responded, making Antonio’s face light up.

“Then I’m game, count me in.”

Antonio immediately gave Felix a big hug, unknowingly smothering him with his chest.

“U-uhh…” Felix’s face turned red as he was let go, “Th-thanks, we need all the help we can get.”

“Yeah!” Mitoko commented, “Now we just have to find Lee!”

“What’s he look like? Maybe we fought him before and didn’t know it.” Antonio said, “A lot of the time we barely get their name before we fight ‘em.” they added, rubbing the back of their head.

Felix described his nemesis; “He should look identical to Goku, but in a black outfit. That and he never shuts the hell up.”

“Hmmm… we don’t know about the chatty part, but we did see a guy who looked like that a while ago. We were out clone hunting when we saw him taking out a bunch of them. We were gonna challenge him to a fight, but then some hottie in a lab coat got between us and he got away.”

“Hottie in a lab coat- that has to be Android 21!” Mitoko said.

“Yeah, she looked like someone’s OC. : 3 ”

“You fought Android 21 and survived?! Sammy and Gabe said she’s super strong, nobody’s fought her and lived!”

“Well she did put up a fight, but she started talking about food while we were fighting, and that made us hungry; so we blinded her and went to get some food. -w- She was pretty weird, though, some chicks eat way too much sugar.”

“If you can get out of a scrap with Android 21, then we might have a chance at beating Lee.” Felix said, it put him at ease to know they had such a strong fighter helping him.

Mitoko just thought Antonio was really really cute. He was like a big furry hunk! Didn’t have much in terms of ‘brains’, but any kind of Legendary Fighter could help! “Can I... can I touch your tail?” She asked as she looked over at the surprisingly tall Saiyan fusion.

“Sure, just don’t squeeze it or anything!”

Reaching out, Mitoko felt it lay in the palms of her porcelain white hands. “It’s like a kitty tail...” She felt it move around idly, and it was very soft .

“ Don’t get too happy, Hitori. ” Cell said, unamused by his player’s feminine feelings.

“ Shush! >^< ” 

“So uhh.. if we’re a team and stuff now, can we get something to eat? We’re starving!” 

A light blush remained on Mitoko’s cheeks as she kept playing with Antonio’s tail, “Maybe in like... 2 minutes...”

“Mitoko…” Felix mumbled, looking at the girl as she hugged Antonio like a big plush toy, feeling how soft he was. “Maybe we should get going..”

“So you’re from Argentina? Like, South America?” Mitoko asked as they had started up a campfire to stay at for the night.

“And Brazil too! What about you guys? :3c”

“I’m from Norway.” Felix said, tossing a stick into the fire. “At least in this cycle.”

“Don’t know what that means, but okay!” Antonio responded with a thumbs up.

Felix turned to Mitoko, “What about you, Mitoko? I assume Japan by your name, but I don’t wanna assume.”

Mitoko nodded in response with a slight smile on her pale face, “I used to live in Ikebukuro, before... y’know... dying.” She laughed awkwardly.

“What’re you doing in the game, Antonio? What’s your stake in this?”

“We’re just here to fight strong people! The idea of getting reborn is just a bonus! One of us was raised Catholic too, it’d be a little weird.. haha..” Antonio chuckled, “But if we can fight with some really strong guys then we’re happy!”

Felix was surprised; Antonio was more in-character for Goku than Lee was in the previous tournament. It was oddly frightening for him. But at the same time it was comforting. This game needs a real Goku player, even if its not just a Goku player. 

“ Maybe we really do have a chance… ”

As the trio chatted into the night and eventually went to sleep, they were unknowingly being watched by somebody. 

“...”

-END-

Chapter Text

Mitoko woke up to the sound of Cell ‘yelling’ in her mind.

“ Wake up, Hitori! ”

Jolting up, she looked around in surprise and confusion; “H-huh?! Are we in danger?!”

“ No, I just thought it was stupid that you were still sleeping. Or that you were asleep at all, the Perfect Lifeform doesn’t need to sleep. ” 

“Well, I do! But I guess you’re kinda right… I wonder if Felix is still asleep..” Looking around, she didn't see him or Antonio. Using her ki tracking, she could luckily sense him nearby.

Walking not far from their campsite, she found a small stream, where a shirtless Felix was washing up.

“F-felix? o///o”

“ Don’t even start, Hitori .”

“I’m starting, screw you.”

Walking up to him, Mitoko tried to get Felix’s attention by grasping his shoulder gently.. his broad shoulder. “ACK- Mitoko? Sorry, your hands are really cold .”

Mitoko pulled her hand back; “S-sorry! I just… uhhmm.. saw you there.. and..” she started to clam up as she tried not to stare at his chest.

“ Smooth. ” Cell commented.

“Anyways! Have you seen Antonio? He wasn’t at the camp when I woke up.” Mitoko asked.

Felix began to dry himself off; “He isn’t? You don’t think he left the team do you?” 

Just then, there was a loud crashing noise, like the sound of trees snapping and something big hitting the ground.

“Y-you think that’s him..?”

“Probably!”

Running back to the site, they saw Antonio dragging a dead pterosaur behind him by its tail. 

“Got lunch! :3”

Both Mitoko and Felix were shocked, it was like he was an unpredictable force of raw power! “..you killed that by yourself?”

“Yeah? :3c What about it? Speaking of which, can we borrow your sword, Felix? We gotta cut this up to cook it!”

The team enjoyed their lunch and discussed their next action in their hunt for Lee.

“We’ve never had dinosaur before! Tastes pretty good!” Antonio said as he took bites of the cooked meat. “So how we gonna find this Lee dude?” 

Felix finished his food, leaning back against a tree; “That’s the hard part, all we really know is his avatar is Goku Black. Finding him won’t be easy at all, unless we can find a fighter who’s seen a Goku Black player; but I doubt anybody could survive a fight against Lee.”

Mitoko thought about that time she watched Dragon Ball Super, it wasn’t really the best anime but it was a tad bit better than GT... but not by much. However, Goku Black’s presence left quite the impression.

The most she knew was that he talked a lot , usually in a rough voice unless he was in his Super Saiyan Rose form.

“Hmmm… we could try to use our ki tracking! It's got a wider range, probably because there’s four of us!” Antonio said, rubbing the back of his head.

While they talked, Mitoko stared at her food. “ Cell… do you eat with your mouth? ”

“ I’ve never had to eat anything after I became perfect. Don’t tell me you’re going to eat that. ” Cell responded.

“ But I’m so.. hungry.. QvQ ”

As if through sheer human desperation, Mitoko took a bite. The meat was tender and flavorful, but for some reason had a slight aftertaste. But it also felt very weird to eat as Cell, like his very body rejected the idea of eating something with anything that wasn’t his tail; Mitoko’s face scrunching up.

Antonio and Felix stopped talking for a moment to get a look at her reaction.

“You okay, Mitoko?” Felix asked, tilting his head to the side.

“Y-yeah… but Cell doesn’t like eating.. I think! >^<”

It was a weird experience. She should feel like it’s natural to chew food, but in Cell’s body it was the opposite; like it was alien to both him and her.

“So are you not gonna eat it, cuz we will!” Antonio asked, wagging his tail.

Felix sighed; “I think we’re losing focus here…”

“We are?” Mitoko looked over at Felix, unaware that Antonio was about to take a bite of her food.

“We should get going. Antonio, if your ki tracking has better range, then use it.” Felix said.

“Okay! :3” Pressing their fingers to their forehead, Antonio tried to sense a strong enough fighter that could possibly be Lee. “Hmmm…” it took a while, but they managed to find somebody. His fur stood on end; “Got one! He’s a tough one too! Ooohh, I’m getting excited!!”

Felix got up immediately, “That has to be Lee! Let's go!”

Watching the others fly off immediately, Mitoko nearly stumbled trying to follow them! “W-wait for me, guys!!”

Following Antonio, the trio left the woods and flew across the sea. 

“Are we getting close?” Felix asked as he stared down at the sea.

“Yep! Should be near a city! We can sense a bunch of people too!”

“People?! We have to hurry, he’ll hurt a bunch of innocent people!”

Making their way down to the town, the group looked for the strange man dressed in black.

“He has to be here!” Felix shouted, flying up high to get a better look at the city. He saw something, but it wasn’t Lee. A cluster of clones were causing a lot of trouble in one part of the city, but somebody else was among them, somebody who stuck out.

A man who looked like Goku, with bright pink hair dressed in a black and dark pink gi. That had to be him, that had to be Lee!

“You’re not getting away from me this time, Lee!” Felix shouted, powering up to Super Saiyan 2 and blasting off to kill the Goku Black player. However, something seemed off about Goku Black. “..shouldn’t his gi be black and red ?”

But Felix thought nothing of it, players could change the color of their avatar’s clothes if they wanted to, and he was too laser focused on slaying him to think anything of it.

Rushing forward with his sword drawn, Felix slashed at Lee, hoping to ambush him in this way.

However, when he did, it seemed more like his sword passed right through him .

“What!?”

When ‘Lee’ turned around to look at him, his eyes were a bright cherry red .

What Felix had hit was a copy of some sort, with the real one being across from him and coming in to retaliate fast . 

With a blade of his own, the Goku Black player slashed at Felix as well, the two clashing blades.

Felix gritted his teeth; “I don’t know how you got reborn, but I’ll make sure it's the last time, Lee!”

In response, the Goku Black player whispered;

“ I’m not Lee. ”

Felix backed up, the realization sinking in: they had been chasing the wrong person the whole time .

“Then… then who is?!” Felix stammered, his eyes wide in fear. 

Antonio and Mitoko caught up to Felix.

“Did we catch him, Felix?” Antonio asked.

“N-no! We’d been chasing the wrong person the entire time!”

“Then who’s this guy??” Mitoko asked, looking at the Black player. “And where’s the real Lee?”

Feeling his fur stand on end again, Antonio shouted: “We got company!”

Felix felt it too as a shiver went down his spine, “You’re right! He’s here! I know you’re here, Lee! Show yourself!”

Almost on cue, the skies darkened as clouds rolled in. The power across the city cut out, with the only light being a bright beam that cut through the black clouds. Descending from the sky was him .

Zamasu .

Or rather, Lee Bao.

“..do you think that’s him?” Mitoko asked, stepping back slightly as the Kai dropped down to the ground below.

Felix clenched his jaw tightly, “Yeah, it's him! I know that energy anywhere!”

The green god looked down at the others with a blank expression, one that changed to a smug smile when he saw the Black player.

“Now, now Tarine; what did I say about running off without telling me first? I almost lost your ki signature!” 

The Black player, Tarine, rolled his eyes.

“You’re a bad girl.~”

“Girl?!” Mitoko shouted in confusion. “But your avatar is a guy!”

“ Says the girl in my body. ” Cell commented.

“Lee, you monster! How did you come back?!” Felix yelled at the Fused Zamasu player.

Lee glanced down at Felix, raising an eyebrow; “And you are?”

Felix only got angrier; “Don’t play dumb with me, Lee! You know who I am!”

“Truly I don’t. Enlighten me.”

Felix lowered his sword; “You mean you really don’t remember? The last game, me, your past life, anything?!”

Lee grimaced, becoming fed up with Felix’s pestering; “Of course I remember my past life!” 

“Not your life before you came to this game, the one before that! You couldn’t have possibly forgotten all the horrible things you’ve done, you betrayed me! I thought you were my friend!” Felix yelled, holding back angry tears.

Lee smirked and rolled his eyes; “I really don’t know what you’re crying about, and frankly I don’t care~”

“Hey! That’s- that’s really mean what you just said!!” Mitoko shouted out, even though the idea of making herself known terrified her. She had to stand up for her friend!

“So? If he doesn’t like it, then he can stop me himself!” Lee responded, sticking his tongue out.

Felix agreed, and rushed at Lee with his sword; “I can’t let you stay in this game any longer!”

Lee smiled, “Tarine, handle our other guests while I take care of this one! He doesn’t seem to know his place!”

Tarine sighed as she looked over at the others, unveiling a ki scythe. “Don’t take this personally, I hate him as much as you do.”

“Th-then why work for him?!” Mitoko asked nervously.

“C’mon, we can ask questions later! We wanna fight!” Antonio shouted, flying forward to Tarine, striking her with a lightning fast kick; sending her to the ground. “We’ve felt how strong your ki is, and now we’re pumped up! You better not make this easy for us!”

Getting up, Tarine’s poker face never changed as she dug her fist into the ground below, releasing rows upon rows of pitch black spikes toward Antonio and Mitoko.

“I don’t remember a lot about the Zamasu Saga, could Black do that?!” Mitoko shouted.

“Maybe! No time for that, Mitoko!” Antonio shouted in response. “But it's a pretty cool attack!”

Rushing Tarine again, Antonio fired small ki blasts at her, using it as a distraction before teleporting behind her and striking her in the back with his hand. If it was one thing he had, it was speed.

Meanwhile, Felix and Lee took turns slashing at one another.

Lee caught Felix’s blade between his hands; “You seem to know me very well… what was your name again?~”

“Felix! Don’t act like you don’t know my name! You can fool other people with that act, but you can’t fool me!” 

“You must be as stupid as you look, I really don’t know who you are or any previous after death games. Frankly, your insistence that I’m playing dumb is starting to annoy me.” Lee gritted his teeth as he kept the sword’s blade from cutting him. Putting more pressure on it, he managed to disarm Felix, throwing the sword to the ground below.

“Shit!--Gaahh!!” Felix coughed as Lee sucker punched him in the gut, knocking the wind out of him. He instinctively leaned against Lee, who grimaced in response.

“You dare touch a god?! Get off of me!!” Lee stabbed through Felix’s abdomen with a ki blade.

“ AAAHHH!! ” Felix screamed in pain as he was thrown to the floor like trash, a deep gash in his side.

Lee dusted his uniform off and spat; “Disgusting.”

“Felix!!”

Mitoko yelled as she raced over to help the lavender-haired man, already catching Lee’s attention and annoyance. She managed to catch Felix before he could hit the ground, blood soaking her hands as she held him. 

“A-antonio! We have to leave now! Felix is gonna die if we don’t take him to a hospital!” Mitoko shouted to the Gogeta player.

“You go on ahead, we’ll take care of these guys!” Antonio responded, still fighting Tarine. 

“R-right!” Mitoko nodded nervously, she was afraid for him, but if she didn’t hurry Felix would bleed out! With no other choice she flew off.

Holding the swordsman close, Mitoko carried him out of the field and toward safety. “ Maybe Bulma could help? Dammit, I forgot where the Capsule Corp is-! ”

Panicking, she thought hard about where it was or just anywhere or anyone who could help them and--

Back on Samael’s ship, Zeke and Henry headed to the cafeteria after a long training session.

“I can’t believe Samael is still upset about Mitoko leaving..” the Guldo player commented.

“He’ll get through it soon, we just have to focus on ourselves for now. We’ll waste too much time if we keep looking for her.” Zeke lamented, “I’m sure she just needed some space.”

Opening the door to the cafeteria, the two were met with the sight of Mitoko, holding a very pale Felix.

“Please… you have to help him! You’re the only ones I could think of!”

Zeke was surprised, but also weirdly thankful that she decided to return. Though that quickly turned to fear as he realized she was holding a dying man.

“Quick, we’ll get him to a healing pod! Henry, tell the others!”

“Y-yes, captain!”

Rushing to the infirmary, Zeke and Mitoko got Felix undressed and into a healing pod before he bled out. Of course, Zeke had questions.

“What happened?! Who is this guy?!”

“His name is Felix, he’s m-my friend! We were fighting another player, and he got stabbed really bad! I-I didn’t know where to go, I just ended up using instant transmission a-and I ended up here!” Mitoko explained frantically, stuttering and trying not to cry. “I-I... I don’t want him to die..”

Helping Felix into the healing pod, Zeke walked over to Mitoko and hugged her close.

“E-eh?”

“You did good, he’s not going to die.” he let go and smiled at her; “You’re okay, you’re okay. Take a deep breath, and calm down.”

Mitoko took a deep breath through her hiccuping and hyperventilating. “I… I’m.. o-okay.. I’m okay..” she rubbed her eyes, “Thank you, Zeke..”

“I just didn’t want to see you crying like that, you wouldn’t get any better panicking and freaking out. Now tell me, who did this?”

Mitoko wiped her pale face with her wrist. “..a-a Zamasu player named Lee..”

“Hmm… that’s news to me.. never heard of him..” Zeke replied, “But we can worry about that later, you just relax and recover; you and your friend here.” he added, tapping on the healing pod’s glass.

“Mmhm..” Mitoko sniffled, about to leave when somebody else walked in the infirmary.

“So you finally came crawling back, huh bug girl?”

Standing in front of her was Samael! Though he didn’t look too happy to see her.. folding his arms, he scowled as he looked up at Mitoko. “..Sammy, please understand-”

“You left and didn’t even care enough to tell me in person!” Samael shouted. “And for what? Another boy?!” he added, pointing to Felix. 

“Sammy it's not like that at all! Felix needed me to help him! I couldn’t just stay here all the time.. I was gonna come back when everything was over!”

“Oh I’m sure you were.”

Mitoko looked over at Zeke, who merely shrugged and shook his head, before looking back at Samael. “..what do you want?”

“First, I want to know what was oh so important that you needed to run off with some… lavender haired twink; and secondly, I want you back on my team!” Samael demanded.

“His name is Felix, and there’s another two really strong players out there! He needed my help, but… but we had to flee when he got hurt.” Mitoko explained.

“Hmm… another pair of menaces?” his expression pivoted from anger to amusement; “Ohoho! What a shame you didn’t have me and my forces to help you~ But I suppose we can provide assistance, should you rejoin my Frieza Force team~” he said, the edges of his black lips curling into a smile.

Considering her options with a light blush on her face, Mitoko looked around. “..Sammy..”

“Well? Your little friend is in my ship’s healing pods, and I’d be happy to show these other fighters you speak of what for~” Sammy had her somewhat backed into a corner; if they wanted any chance of defeating Lee, they needed more numbers.

“...A-alright.. we’ll join your team.. but you have to promise to keep Felix in too! He’s the only one who knows anything about the one we’re fighting! H-he’s named Lee, I-I almost forgot to say ehehe.. <:)”

“Hmph, fine. He can stay, for now.” Samael replied, looking to the side with his arms crossed. He didn’t like Felix already, but he realized he kind of had to stay.

“There you guys are! Took a while to find you!” Greeted Antonio, who was inexplicably behind Samael.

“ AAA-- ” Samael’s soul nearly jumped out of his avatar when the seven foot tall furry Saiyan teleported in behind him.

“Antonio!! You’re okay!” Mitoko shouted happily, running up to him and hugging him. “Did you defeat Lee already?”

Antonio shook their head, “Nah! We got him on the ropes for a bit, but his assistant summoned a few shadow clones and dragged him off while we were distracted. That Lee guy sure is no joke though! Hehe, we think he likes us too! ://3”

Samael caught his breath and got between Mitoko and Antonio; “And just who are you?!”

“Sorry about that! Our name is Anton and Andrio, but you can call us Antonio!”

“Then just say that!” 

“We did though. : 3 ”

“Antonio is another friend of mine, and he’s a Legendary Fighter too!” Mitoko said.

“A Legendary Fighter?!” Zeke sputtered, “Now that you mention it, he does look incredibly strong! Good thing I wasn’t wearing a scouter..”

“Yeah we’re pretty strong~ -w-” Antonio said, wagging their tail. 

“Then it's settled, all three of you are a part of my army now, and we’ll be going after this Lee fellow.”

“And Tarine!” Mitoko added. “She’s Lee’s partner, e-even though she kinda hates him..”

Samael scoffed with a smirk on his black lips, ”Let me guess, she’s a Videl player?~”

“Nah, Goku Black!” Antonio responded, “And she’s a serious one too! Though it's kinda weird too, cuz Lee is a Fused Zamasu player, but he’s usually fused with Goku Black. : 3 ”

“Sounds like we have quite the problem on our hands then.” Zeke said, having listened to everything. “Guess we’ll have to put in some serious training!” 

“You’re speaking our language now!” Antonio shouted, “We’re down to fight any time!”

“C-can we wait until Felix is all better first?!” Mitoko interjected. 

Antonio laughed; “Nope! The pain train waits for no one!”

-END-

Chapter Text

Laying up against a wall, Mitoko stared at Felix’s healing pod as she waited for when he would eventually wake up. She was genuinely worried when he got wounded by Lee... Cell? Not so much.

“ You worry too much about him, you like him too much. ” Cell commented, his disdain for the Trunks player being obvious.

“I didn’t ask you…” Mitoko responded to the bitchy bug with clear annoyance. “Felix is my friend, of course I care about him.. I hope he recovers soon..” She walked over and pressed her hand up against the glass, thinking about caressing his pale face, with his lavender-colored hair flowing over it like a waterfall. Something about Felix made her realize... she never had any true romantic partners before.

“Maybe when he wakes up I can tell him how I feel…” she mumbled, before blushing and shaking her head. “I-I couldn’t!” 

To distract her from her romantic feelings, Mitoko went to see how Samael and the others were doing. She did kind of feel bad for leaving them without saying anything. Looking around, she could never fathom being physically inside Frieza’s ship like she was now, feeling the cold metal walls beneath her hand.

Samael was in his room, still upset over her leaving, but she still knocked on his door anyways.

“Sammy?”

“Go away. I’m still mad at you.” Samael responded.

“I’m here to apologize, please let me in…”

The door soon opened, with Samael standing in the doorway. “I’m waiting.”

Mitoko had a hard time putting in her words in the right way, it seemed like anything she could say would set Samael off like fireworks. She tapped her porcelain white fingers together, breathing in and out while the Frieza player stared at her impatiently.

“I’m.. I’m so-”

Suddenly, she felt her arms get grasped as she was pulled into his room! Samael closed the door as he pulled her into his room; “I missed you… so much, you stupid roach..” he pouted and folded his arms, “But I’m glad you came to your senses and came back at least..”

A light fluster appeared on Mitoko’s face, her peridot green irises shrinking slightly. “..so.. do you... ummm...”

“I won’t spell it out for you if you can’t already tell!” Samael responded, flicking his tail immaturely. The door opened back up, letting Mitoko leave. That was about the best outcome she could get, it seemed.

“ ...I think he likes me. ” The girl thought as she left the room, looking back every so often to see Samael watching her. 

“ Oh, he totally likes you, I don’t blame him; not many can resist my perfect form.~ ” Cell commented, stroking his own ego.

“Yeah yeah, we’re kinda hot..”

“Not you, just me.~”

“Nevermind..”

Once again, poor Mitoko’s own ego had been shattered to pieces. “..maybe I should check on the Ginyu Force...?”

Heading over to where they usually hung out, the Ginyu players were doing what else? Practicing their poses. They were pretty good at it too, like really good.

“W-wow… that’s a lot of buff pantless men.. ”

It was no surprise she found herself quickly getting interested in Dragon Ball Z as a series, it was hot men heaven!

“H-hi…” Mitoko mumbled to the boys, trying not to get too flustered. “Wh-what’cha doing..?”

“ Smooth .” Cell commented.

“Hey, Mitoko.” Henry replied, sitting on a bench and drinking a soda. “You here to train, or just gawk at the almost bare alien ass?”

“E-eh?! I wasn’t here to do anything like t-that!” Mitoko held up her hands, stuttering in response to her comment. “C’mon, guys! Be nice to the Sheila, she can gawk at men’s ass all she wants! Ain’t that right, Kaiman?”

“Heard that joke a million times, Zachary!” Kaiman responded, very tired of Zach’s bad jokes.

Zeke paused the training for a second to talk to Mitoko; “How’s Felix doing?”

“He’s still in the healing pod, but he’s doing alright..”

The Cell player pressed her hand up against her cheek, still visibly blushing as she thought about Felix and his... toned body.

“Say, where’s that Antonio boy? Haven’t seen him since we put Felix in the healing pod.” Zeke asked, “It's kind of surprising we have a Legendary Fighter as an ally now!”

“He’s a nice guy, and knowing him he’s probably off looking for people to fight.” Mitoko said, rubbing her buggy horns. “I just hope he doesn’t pick a fight with the wrong people..”

Of course, Antonio was looking to pick a fight with the wrong people. He had tracked down an interesting ‘scent’ of ki that he presumed belonged to two separate Legendary Fighters. Although, to describe it as a ‘scent’ would be difficult for obvious reasons since ki in of itself doesn’t have a smell in the slightest. Although most types of energy or plasma could carry some sort of smell, like for example methane, ki energy doesn’t have that implied characteristic.

Going back to Antonio, he wandered around a desecrated forest, not unlike that of how it was in Tree of Might.

“Wonder where they are, hope they’re not hiding from us! Haha!” Antonio laughed, interrupted when a massive pillar of green ki energy erupted not far from him. “There they are!” they smirked before heading in the direction of the eruption.

What he saw were two Brolies, one based on the DBZ incarnation and the other from Super, beating down on each other like vicious animals battling for territory.

“Whoa! That looks like fun! >:3” Antonio flew over to the battling Brolies, “Hey, you guys got room in your fight for two more?” he asked, but was mostly ignored by them; the two absorbed in fighting each other.

These players were Cain and Abel, twin brothers who hated each other so much that even in death, they would fight endlessly.

“GRRAAHH!! WHY WON’T YOU JUST DIE?!” Abel, the Super Broly player, shouted as he pummeled his brother in the face. 

“We’re already dead! But I’d be happy to send you into oblivion for a second time!” Cain, the Z Broly played, yelled back; blasting Abel in the gut with a sphere of dark ki.

Antonio kept trying to get their attention, but they weren’t focusing on anything else. 

“Uhhh… guys :D?”

And that wasn’t even getting started on the damage they were doing, as they were so focused on killing each other that everything else was being blown up in their ignorance! If they weren’t stopped they’d blow the whole forest up! 

Antonio, not wanting them to destroy everything in their radius, fired a Kamehameha at Cain. Why Cain? Because if Antonio knew anything, it was that Z Broly was a walking euthanasia factory, plus he was named Cain .

“Why don’t you two chill out for a hot minute?” Antonio said, holding their hand up. “You two don’t have to fight that hard.”

Cain glared at Antonio with unfathomably black hatred, growling as he moved down toward the fusion. “Do you have a death wish, rat? ”

Antonio, standing tall as they looked up at Cain with a smirk on their face; “Maybe I do, pendejo. ”

Cain growled and immediately tried to grapple Antonio, but the fusion was too quick and easily dodged him. 

“That’s more like it, big guy! You wanna pick a fight, pick it with me!” Antonio shouted. They hoped that Abel would help fight off Cain, but even if they had to take him on their own, they'd be happy. Fighting tough opponents was Antonio’s whole reason for being here, and nobody was tougher than Broly!

“Your business is with me, brother!” Abel barked as he went to attack Cain, all while Cain was trying to get a grip on the much smaller fusion. 

Cain, despite being in a 2-on-1 fight, was not at all scared of being overwhelmed. Managing to finally grab Antonio, and using them as a living weapon, hit his twin with the Gogeta player.

“Whoaaoaoaoa!! We’re not a club, dude! Leggo!” Antonio shouted, being swung around and smacked against Abel. Trying to make Cain drop them, Antonio bit down on Cain’s hand; which only resulted in him being thrown across the area like an empty soda can.

“SHIIIiiitt!!” 

Blood trickled down from his hand, but it quickly healed as Cain went back on the offensive against Abel, charging at him without a care for anything and everything else. 

Antonio, despite being thrown fifty feet like a discus, was stoked to watch these two titans fight; “They’re like two T-Rexes fighting each other! That’s cool and terrifying!”

They kept getting between them, only to be thrown back out in the tussle. After a while, it got annoying for the twin Brolies. Antonio was a literal monkey on their backs!

“C’moonn!! Fight us! Please?!” Antonio pulled on Cain’s sash, only to feel something fuzzy in his hands. “Eh? : 3 ” Grasped in his hands was Cain’s bright green tail. And he was not happy about Antonio tugging on it.

“ Wuh-oh :3 ”

“ Now you’ve done it .”

“I-Its fine! We didn’t pull it out or anything! Ahaha… hah.. we think..” Antonio nervously laughed as the massive, and extremely pissed off, Z Broly player towered over them.

“I’m gonna tear you in half.”

Sweating, Antonio weighed their options. Surely a SSJ4 Gogeta player like them could take on Broly… but at the same time that guy like took on four Super Saiyans at once and still won.

So instead, Antonio ran.

Having a Broly player aggro onto them could’ve led to a fate worse than death, and they had already died twice when they were two separate people!

Technically there were two Broly players after them, as Abel was still pursuing his brother, not wanting that fade to escape him.

“Man, we really fucked this one up big time! Maybe I could get the others to help…” they thought on it for a bit; “Nah, we’d just be endangering them! But who would I feel good dumping two pissed off Broly mains on…? Hmmm..”

“Another successful cleansing, as per usual.” Lee commented as his partner, Tarine, pulled her energy scythe out of a clone’s body to be absorbed into her own. 

“You don’t have to say it like that, it makes you sound like a pretentious jackass.” Tarine responded, squinting at him.

“To purge such clones from this world, is it not a holy and righteous act of cleansing?” Lee asked, placing his hand on her chest.

“Not when you spend more time ‘cleansing’ innocent civilians than clones.” Tarine responded as she swatted his hand off of her. 

“Not but a few losses in the pursuit of power.~” 

The Goku Black player scowled, walking toward a cooler they had ‘borrowed’ from one of said civilians and taking out a bottle of vodka. “Did I say you could drink, Tarine?”

“The more you talk, the more it makes me want to trap you in the void so you would shut up.”

Before Lee could make some awful comment in response, he and Tarine felt three insanely high power levels rapidly approach them. Seconds later, Antonio flew by.

“Hey Lee, hey pink girl, can’t explain anything, no time–Bye!!” he said in fast succession before flying off.

“What in the devil was that about?” Lee asked.

“Probably that.” Tarine responded, pointing to the two Brolies speeding right towards him.

“OH SWEET CHRIST–TARINE HELP!”

Alas, Tarine was nowhere to be seen, having left Lee to his possible fate of being torn apart by two angry gorilla men. Feeling his arms and legs get grabbed by both Cain and Abel, the Zamasu player could only scream in agony as he was tormented by the ravenous Saiyans.

“We kinda feel bad for that.” Antonio said to themself as they flew off; “Ehh.. he’ll be fine!” they snickered and shrugged, flying back to Frieza’s ship. They were kinda miffed they couldn’t fight the two of them, but they knew the two Brolies would still be around to fight later. 

“We just hope they don’t take Lee out of the game, we still wanna fight him too!”

Sipping from her bottle of vodka, Tarine’s rose-colored hair blew in the wind as she took in the atmosphere of the nearby city. The people only really know her as the evil Goku Black, but she had no actual intention of killing people... unless they really annoyed her. 

It’s why Lee is on her permanent shit list.

“Hey! I finally found you!”

Turning around, she faced a man in an orange and blue gi.

“Man, I didn’t think I would find you here. Took quite a while too... you know how hard it is to talk about trying to find ‘ Goku Black ’ without people freaking out? Ha!”

“Mhm..”

The Goku player, sat down beside Tarine. “So... what are you in the tournament for?”

The Black player shrugged, her poker face unchanging. “Thrills. What about you?”

“I dunno, I just thought it’d be cool. I mean I am basically really strong already!" 

“Would be a bit unfair to the other players trying to win and be reborn..” Tarine commented.

“Eh, if somebody beats me in the end then I’ll just accept it and go back home. No biggie, right?” He laughed as he grasped the bottle out of Tarine’s hand, taking a swig of the clear liquid. Tarine, for once in her existence, smiled... although it would be very hard to tell unless you looked very closely.

“...no biggie.”

Antonio got back to Frieza’s ship, landing down and heading back inside.

“Back from out.. uhh.. training! You guys won’t believe the shit we’ve seen today!”

Mitoko and Samael were back in the infirmary, as Felix had gotten all healed up after a day in the pod. 

“How’s he doin’?” Antonio asked.

Felix answered that himself, shambling out of the pod. “I’m alive and as well as I can be.. did I miss anything?”

“Just us encountering two Broly players! You guys shoulda seen it! One of em nearly tore me apart, but I distracted them with Lee and Tarine!”

“Y-you found Lee again?! Where is he?!” Felix shouted, nearly straining himself. 

“Easy there, he was in… East City we think? Didn’t have time to confirm with two Brolies after us. -w-”

The lavender-haired swordsman was already hyperventilating, with Mitoko patting him gently on the back. “Easy there, don’t wanna stress yourself too much...”

“If Lee survives his fight with those players, then he’ll get a boost in power from his Saiyan DNA!” Felix explained. “I get one too for almost dying, and so do other players with Saiyan DNA.”

“And this whole roster is full of you monkeys.” Samael commented sarcastically before folding his arms; “ Fun .”

“S-sammy! Don’t say that!” Mitoko whined, “That’s mean, you don’t mean it right?”

“Guess.” Samael responded. “Anyways, now that you’re not injured anymore, you can be useful to me.” The Icejinn emperor slapped Felix’s back with his tail. “And since your old clothes are a bit torn up, I took the liberty of getting you clothing more fitting of somebody in my army~”

Being passed a uniform not too dissimilar from what Trunks wore during the Cell Saga, Felix looked over at Mitoko as she was blushing so hard her face looked like a grape.

“D-don’t look, guys. C’mon…” Felix said, making everybody look away as he got into the bodysuit and armor. “Okay you guys can look now.”

Mitoko looked at his new clothes, “You look really good in that, Felix!” 

“You think so? It's kinda tight..” Felix tugged on the bodysuit. 

“Well I couldn’t get your exact measurements, hmph..” Samael glanced away, “Anyways, I expect you to be a useful asset to my army, boy.”

Felix rolled his eyes; “I’m older than you, don’t push it.”

The Frieza player huffed, pursing his black lips as he looked up at Mitoko, who was still paralyzed from the sight of Felix in such a tight-fitting suit.

“A -hem .” Samael snapped his fingers in front of Mitoko’s face, getting her out of her trance. 

“S-sorry! Were you saying something, Sammy?” 

“Ugh, nevermind! I’m going to find some clones to fight, do whatever you want until I give you further orders.” Samael said, storming off.

“Was it something I said?”

-END-

Chapter Text

The After Death Game: a tournament arranged to gather human souls and pit them against each other in the bodies of the strongest fighters to fight for the entertainment of the gods. For the humans brought into the fold, their reward for winning was to be reborn in their world. No matter how terrible they may be.

And there were few as terrible as Bao Lee. 

Rotten to his core, Lee fittingly inhabited the body of Zamasu’s fused form, playing the part of a psychopathic narcissist well. 

However, with his absolute power and reign over anyone who dared to face him... he was lonely. Much like in life, Lee had very few friends or allies, and he wasn’t in the habit of making them.

At least in conventional ways.

He pondered a way to gain something close enough to a friend; relaxing in the home of somebody, somebody he most definitely killed.

“I know of a way to give myself a powerful ally!” Lee said to himself.

Drawing a pentagram on the floorboards surrounded by pink candles, Lee smirked as he tossed down the body of a Goku clone he had freshly killed not even five minutes earlier. It was grim, but he had a firm belief in what he was doing. Taking out a pristine blade, Lee laughed as he slowly cut a wound into his lime green skin.

“ Hear me, outer gods.. grant me an ally in this game of fools! Allow yourself to use this body as a vessel, my blood an adhesive! ”

He was not entirely sure of how he came into knowing this dark knowledge. For his whole life he was a normal human from a normal world, not a fantastical one like in Dragon Ball; the most he recalled was a shadowy voice speaking to him as he was strapped to the execution chair and given lethal injection, all for the murders he had committed.

It offered him powers like these, in exchange for some minor sacrifices. But he was partially suspicious of it, after all, it could have just been his mind losing its grip on reality as his lifeforce faded from his body.

Purple blood trickled from his hand and onto the markings, slowly spreading out, turning the white chalk a lavender shade. The flames from the many candles in the room started to turn pink one by one, as the vessel that was placed directly onto the pentagram started to be overtaken by a thick black sludge, pouring out from every orifice before eventually being dragged down into the lightless void.

“..did it work?...”

Lee looked down into the sticky goo before a figure emerged from it, looking similar in appearance to the Goku clone he killed, only now with pink hair and a new look.

“ I am the one who stalks between stars, I am the endless dark that encumbers all beings, organic or null. What purpose did you summon me for? ” It asked.

Lee was speechless, he had done it! He actually managed to get himself a partner! Dusting himself off, he chuckled quietly before coughing into his fist;

“Greetings, being from the dark world, I am Bao Lee; but you may call me Lee, or perhaps even master . I have called you forward to be my ally in this game I find myself in. Maybe we could be even more~”

The red gleam from the deity’s eyes stared deep into Lee’s tar black soul, unblinking and judging. “A foolish gesture, but a gesture regardless..”

It, too, coughed into its fist.

“Enough with the pretenses, your voice is starting to annoy me.”

Lee couldn’t help but blush, this demon in the body of Goku, his own Goku Black .. and one that treated him with annoyance…

“Are you perhaps.. single?” he asked, grasping the Goku Black player’s hand. Its hand was delicate and soft, contrasting with the more masculine features of the avatar, although it did seem like its body was slightly more... feminine?

“God from the void, are you... a girl?~”

“Yes. There, I answered your question. Will that shut you up for five minutes?”

“You are?! Perfect! Please, be my girlfriend, my lover!” Lee begged, getting down on one knee and kissing her hand.

“I’m 16.” The Black player responded, an expression of disgust on her pale face.

Lee’s face remained unchanged; “So?” 

The Black player grimaced slightly; “You are a grown man.” 

Although, of course, Lee’s stance on immediately feeling romantic intent toward her remained. Something about her emotionless demeanor, her lack of reaction toward his approaches, it made her so appealing to the madman.

“Please, help me in this game, and you shall satiate your desire for bloodshed-- our desire for bloodshed on these lowly masses!” 

“No, just yours.”

To Lee it didn’t matter, he had a hot demon lady, in the body of a man, who would do all he wished--well except be his girlfriend, but the rejection only made him want her more.

He stood back up; “What is your name, demon?~”

She rolled her eyes, spreading out her arms in a stance. “I am Tarine.”

“Well Tarine, this could be the start of a beautiful relationship, my dear~” Lee said, placing his arm around her shoulder, breathing uncomfortably close to her ear. “You and I are going to be wonderful friends~”

“No. No we’re not.”

Lee didn’t take no for an answer, nor did he quit flirting with her as the night went on, the green god as happy as he could be. He was no longer alone!

He was no longer alone...

But still, he had to wonder, where exactly did Tarine come from?

He remembered studying books related to the outer gods, and a few of them mentioned a ‘god of darkness’ that was usually unnamed... was that very god Tarine? If so, then it only made him even more excited!

To have a god as an ally, even if she was aloof and didn’t like him very much, it made him ecstatic .

Stepping onto the soft ground, a handsome man who appeared to be Goku looked up at the sky and smiled. “So this is the After Death Tournament? Neat!” He laughed and looked around, “Gotta find her soon, I can’t wait to meet the people I’m gonna fight!”

And so he took off into the skies, without a care in the world.

-END-

Chapter Text

“ I don’t know why you’re so worried, it's just training. ” 

Cell had been waiting inside his own body as Mitoko awkwardly stood around near Felix’s new room aboard Samael’s ship. She had been wanting to train with him for a while, it seemed like a fitting way to bond, given the setting. She felt her chest rise and fall back with every breath she took, her eyes darting around as she looked around the hallway she stood in.

Clasping her hands together, Mitoko played around with her ivory white fingers, fidgeting until something would inevitably happen.

And something did happen, as Felix opened his room door, nearly bumping into Mitoko. 

“Whoa--How long have you been there?” he asked, causing Mitoko to panic slightly.

“J-just for a minute! I wasn’t trying to spy on you or anything!” the bug-girl mumbled, “I just wanted to ask if you felt like training today!”

Felix nodded; “Sure, after what happened I could use some training.” he rubbed his shoulder, “I might be rustier than I thought.. hm, what year is it?” He asked, with Mitoko staring at his chest almost in a hypnotic daze.

“Eh- Oh! Uhh.. 2024? Yeah, I think it was 2024... I don’t know if time passes here.”

“Last time I fought Lee was in the early 2000s, at least going by the ‘game’ I was in…” Felix mumbled to himself. “Doesn’t matter though, I’ve had a whole life not dedicated to fighting him, if I want to stop him I need to train. Please, Mitoko, train with me.”

Even though she felt like Cell figuratively vomited in her mind, Mitoko nodded as a heavy fluster grew on her face, grasping his hands in her own almost instinctively. From his long, lavender-colored hair to his green eyes almost matching her own.. she felt a connection to the other player.

“L-let’s get to training then!”

Anticipating things might get rough, Felix had him and Mitoko head out somewhere out of the way so they didn’t accidentally cause any harm to the ship. Settling in the same area where they initially met Antonio, they got prepped to train.

“You ever do this before?” Felix asked, taking off the bulkier part of his new armor. 

“No, not really… are you sure you wanna take your armor off? ” Mitoko responded.

“Knowing what Cell is capable of when he’s powered up, it’ll get shattered anyways.” Felix said, taking a fighting stance; “Right Cell?” he added, talking not to Mitoko, but the dormant vessel’s soul inside her. He spoke to Cell like an old friend, aware of his power on a personal level. “I used to be in your body too.”

“ Okay, I know he didn’t mean that in a sexual way buuuttt.... ” Mitoko thought to herself, and Cell thought the exact same thing too.

“I need you to kick his ass for me, Hitori. You don’t have to kill him now, but it would be appreciated.” Cell commented, he couldn’t stand Felix as is, but knowing he once used his body like Mitoko is now infuriated him. “I killed him once in another timeline, I’m sure you can help me do it again.”

“ I-I’m not doing that!!! ” Mitoko responded, she was here to train, not take somebody out of the game!

After psyching herself up, Mitoko did her best to copy Felix’s stance. In her past fights she got by with rage boosting, letting her new body go wild and attack. But those previous battles were against people she wanted to fight, and deep down, wanted to hurt; but she felt none of those feelings with Felix.

Felix quickly took notice of the fact that Mitoko’s legs trembled, a clear indicator that she was very unwilling to go out of her way to fight him, knowing her previous battles.

“Hey. If you’re scared of hurting me, don’t be. You can’t do anything worse than a stab through my chest.” Felix said, trying to calm her nerves. “Nothing you can do to me will make me worse off in the end, just do your best not to kill me and I’ll do the same.” 

“ Psh, not like he can. As long as my nucleus remains intact, he won’t ever be able to kill me completely! ” Cell piped in with his ever-so-useful commentary, which confused Mitoko. “I thought that was a translation error?”

Shaking her head, Mitoko rushed forward to hit Felix, though clearly holding back; evident in how easy it was for him to weave out of the way of the attack. She tried again and again, but couldn’t bring herself to actually commit to hitting him. 

“ What is your problem?! Is it really that hard for you to hit him?! You’re beginning to bore me! ” Cell commented.

“ This is different from the other people I’ve fought! I’m scared of going too hard, of losing control! ” Mitoko responded, “ I’m not like you, I just can’t feel the hate you feel for Trunks! I can’t just feel hatred on command!

It was mainly because she had a crush on both Felix and Trunks, it didn't help that he was just... really handsome in general. And he was her friend too! One she almost saw die during their fight with Lee, she was afraid of doing something like that to him.

“ Oh you’re hopeless, let me lend a hand.~ ” Cell said, before briefly taking control of his body and decking Felix in the chest; knocking him back. Skidding several feet across the ground, Felix wiped his mouth with his arm as he looked at his opponent. 

“Not bad!” he shouted, “That actually winded me a little!”

“ Th-that wasn’t me, but he still praised me. ” Mitoko thought, “ Cell, you think we could… work together? ”

For a moment, there was a brief bit of silence before Cell responded. “ You had me at punching Trunks, Hitori.~ ”

Finally forming some kind of connection, Mitoko’s eyes were now a gradient of green to pink, as if combining her soul and her avatar’s power together. It intrigued Felix greatly, as he had never seen such a thing in the Y2K Tournament.

“Serious now? Good. Now I don’t have to hold back!” Felix said, rushing towards Mitoko, grasping his sword in two hands. Leaping up, he swung the blade down.

Mitoko, despite panicking slightly, caught the blade between her hands; with some help from Cell of course. With a quick jerk of her hands, she disarmed Felix, tossing the sword to the side. 

“You’re fighting me without your sword!” she shouted, already feeling way more confident. Forming two claw-gestures with her hands, she made her position akin to what Cell would do as Felix charged toward her, finally seeing that she was at least capable of fighting now. 

Dodging her attacks as she tried to strike him down, Felix waited for an opening. He knew all of Cell’s weak spots, every chink in his chitinous armor. When the moment arose, he struck Mitoko right in the soft purple underbelly.

Doubling over, Mitoko stepped back with tears in her eyes, making her wide open to an elbow in the chin.

Just as he was about to land the blow, Mitoko quickly grasped Felix’s arm and twisted it, or rather Cell did.

Thankfully not to the point of breaking. “Did you think it would- it would be that easy?!” Cell said, which Felix immediately picked up on.

“If you’re going to fight me, the very least you could do is not take control of Mitoko’s body.” he responded sternly. “I already know you’re a good fighter.”

Mitoko felt a sharpness in her mind as she began to power up a ki move, with Cell’s aid giving her an easier time concentrating so she could actually pull it off. “Kaaaaameeeeee...”

Charging up a Kamehameha this close was risky, either Felix hit her again and canceled it out, or she would end up seriously hurting him with it! But she was committed to it, and Cell wasn’t going to let her go so easily. She felt sweat roll down her face as she pressed on, watching her opponent with close eyes to see if he was planning any counter-move.

Felix backed away as much as he could, not entirely knowing if it would be Cell’s ‘Perfect’ Kamehameha or not. But he had a feeling it would be, and he could not let that happen.

Mitoko was about to fire the massive attack, but was struck in the back, right in the exposed bit between his chestplate and pelvis. 

“Haah… hahh… I’m not letting you destroy this planet before we can save it, Cell..”

Turning around, Mitoko and Cell were both confused as the former tried to regenerate from the damage she took. It took a while to heal, a fact that shocked Cell. His healing wasn’t instant, but it was faster than this!

“ What did you do to me, Hitori?! ”

“ I-I don’t know! ” She wasn’t sure why his regeneration was slowed--then she suddenly figured it out. “ M-maybe it's because our bond is getting stronger? I’m a normal human! ”

Mitoko looked at her hands confused before her gaze focused on Felix. He had paused, noticing Cell’s weakened regeneration. 

“You okay?” he asked, Mitoko not sure how to answer. She was kind of scared, what if Cell’s regeneration got weaker the stronger their bond got?! What would happen when their bond was completed?

“I-I’m... I’m not sure...” She mumbled, frightened as the damage healed up. “Wh… what if my bond with Cell is causing this? What if I get worse? I might not be able to help you!”

Felix sighed, “Hey. Don’t freak out, I won’t let anything happen to you, you won’t have to worry about not being able to heal. I promise.” He walked over and gently pet her on the head, which flustered Mitoko immensely with his gesture of kindness.

“ Patted on the head like some kind of pet... wait. Hitori, I’m getting a strong signal. Someone is approaching! ”

Looking up, Mitoko and Felix sensed it too. It wasn’t just one strong power level, but two! Mitoko had an awful feeling about who it was.

“I-It’s Kavin and Dante!” she shouted.

“Who?!” Felix shouted, not knowing who she was talking about, but he could sense that whoever they were, they were deathly strong. 

Landing down not far from them, the Janemba and Kid Buu players arrived, and from the looks of it, they had been looking for Mitoko for a while.

Of course like last time, Dante’s focus seemed targeted at Mitoko at first... before he scowled as his gaze moved over to Felix. He was another swordsman, and he was very close to Mitoko, which he really didn’t like.

“Hrrgghhee…” Dante growled at Felix, whipping his tail in aggression. 

“I’m not sure who you are, but I know what Janemba is capable of..” Felix said, taking his sword out again. In the past tournament, Janemba was a rather strong fighter; his player being in the top ten during the final fights of the Y2K tournament. “I’m surprised you’re in your final form.” he chuckled; “It's a little unfair that you get to be in your strongest form from the get-go.”

Dante huffed before looking over at Kavin, gesturing for him to keep out of it. This was his fight with Felix, because in his eyes, he was in the way of getting to the love of his life.

Kavin nodded, but looked right at Mitoko. He wasn’t gonna fight Felix, but he wasn’t going to let her escape or interfere. “eehoouhhhoho! >:)”

“U-uh-oh..”

Felix and Dante were on two sides of the same arena, staring each other down like cowboys in the Wild West.

Until someone drew their weapon, the fight wouldn’t start. 

And Dante was very impatient.

Forming his sword, Dante ran towards Felix; vanishing as he got close to him. Psyching Felix out by making him turn around, Dante reappeared and kicked Felix in the back.

“Aggh!!” Felix skidded across the ground, getting up he looked for Dante; who had vanished again. “ You’re toying with me, I know you are… ” he thought, trying to sense where the Janemba player was. 

It didn’t matter who his player was, Janemba was still a being of pure evil; he’d torment Felix before actually trying to kill him. Dante was one of the Legendary Players, those few who were lucky enough to be granted a vessel with extreme levels of potential, so Felix had to keep his guard up.

Dante reappeared and slashed at Felix with his sword, cutting open his body suit. 

“R-really wish I kept that armor on..” he grumbled, feeling his back bleed. Returning the slash, his sword struck against Dante’s armored body.

“Heehaah!” Dante laughed, barely feeling it. He punched Felix in the gut, making him double over, then whipped the Saiyan player’s face with his tail.

“D-dante, stop!!” Mitoko shouted. She tried to get over to her friend, but Kavin stopped her; grappling her and wrestling her to the ground. “L-let go!!” She yelled as he wrapped around her, kind of like being trapped in bondage made of chewing gum.

Kavin, to put it bluntly, didn’t like Mitoko too much. Much like how Dante disliked any guy who got too close to Mitoko, he didn’t like anybody who got too close to Dante. And while he knew he couldn’t kill her without angering Dante, he could still make her afterlife a living hell!

“>:) hoohoo!!” Kavin continued to fight her, even after she managed to get free from his grasp, he just regenerated like nothing happened, then continued to pummel her!

“ What are you doing Hitori?! Fight back! ” Cell yelled at her. 

“ I-I’m trying! Kid Buu is a bit stronger than you are! ” Mitoko shouted back, the statement greatly offending Cell. Although “offending” would be an understatement.

“ Are you implying a living wad of gum inhabited by the soul of a child is stronger than the literal perfect organism? ” 

“ I mean… wait, how do you know the soul inside him is a child’s? ” Mitoko asked.

“ Look at him. ” Cell responded, using what control he had to gesture towards Kavin, who was sticking his tongue out at them and making immature faces; “ You cannot convince me the soul in there is older than twelve. ”

“ ...maybe he’s really into LARPing? ”

She could’ve sworn she heard Cell sigh angrily.

Meanwhile, Dante and Felix were still fighting; and Felix wasn’t doing well. In fact, he was barely holding up against Dante; who was really showing off why he was a Legendary Fighter.

“Heeehahaha!” Dante laughed as he hit Felix through portals he formed, letting him punch Felix even as he tried to get some distance between them. Felix would ask why Dante was doing this, but he knew there wasn’t a reason; why would a Janemba player need a reason?

From what Felix could tell, he and Dante are on very different tiers of power, so he would have to give it his all to survive.

Vanishing from sight, Felix tried to give himself time to search for any weak spot Dante may have. He had never fought the Janemba player in the last tournament, he never got the chance to; so he had no idea what kind of weaknesses he may have. 

“ He looks similar to Cell, here’s to hoping he has the same weaknesses! ” Felix thought before appearing behind Dante and slashing at the demon’s exposed back--only to have Dante’s tail wrap around Felix’s throat. “ Ack! ”

“. odiputsE ”

Just as Dante reeled Felix in so snap his neck with his girthy tail tightening around his frail nape with his blue pupils shrinking down in excitement, blood boiling as he could just hear the tension in Felix's muscles break... he heard a familiar voice.

“Dante, stop!!”

It was Mitoko.

Looking over at her, Dante loosened his grip slightly. “?” 

“Please Dante! Don’t kill Felix! He’s my friend!” Mitoko shouted, holding Kavin back as he tried to pull her back down. “Please… he’s important to me.. I don’t know what would happen if he died!”

Somehow, hearing Mitoko plead for him to let Felix live... it soothed his heart slightly, much to Kavin’s anger.

Dante was conflicted, he didn’t want to let Felix live and possibly take Mitoko away from him, but he didn’t want to make her sad either. 

“...” 

Reluctantly, he dropped Felix. “Herghrhr…” he never spared somebody before, the best that happened to his opponents was that they managed to slip away. Sparing somebody felt wrong. In his mind, he felt a sharp pain as he watched Felix cough and wheeze as he approached Mitoko.

Like it was a mistake for him to do so.

“Are you okay, Felix?!” Mitoko shouted as she ran towards her friend. 

Felix smiled weakly; “I could be better, but I won’t be needing another trip to the healing pod if that’s what you’re afraid of..” 

The insect girl hugged Felix close, her black fingernails digging into his ripped up bodysuit slightly before she looked back at Dante and Kavin. She saw the much smaller Majin tap his foot angrily while Dante stared at her, his eyes glazed over before he looked away with a faint wave.

“WAIT!”

Mitoko called out, with Dante stopping in his tracks. Kavin looked at him and Mitoko confused, squinting slightly with a scowl.

“..Maybe.... maybe we could fight again sometime! We’re trying to find the same person, right? Android 21?”

Dante grunted, he really didn’t care about Android 21, he was just here to fight people; as was Kavin. But he did want to fight them again, he had to; he still had a score to settle with Felix. 

“Y’know, you’re pretty strong..” Felix commented; “We already have one Legendary Fighter, but we could always use another. Plus it wouldn’t hurt to have Majin Buu on our side either.” 

Dante and Kavin looked at each other, considering what Felix was offering; only to laugh it off. They weren’t allying with anybody, it’d go against their nature.

The two began to leave, letting Mitoko and Felix live for now. But as Dante left, he turned to look at Felix; pointing at him and glaring. He had made a new enemy today.

Mitoko rubbed her arm as she watched Dante and Kavin leave, laughing awkward as she slowly turned to face Felix. “Umm... sorry for umm..”

“It’s not your fault, Mitoko.” Felix responded, “Neither of us knew they were going to show up.” he stood up; “Besides, fighting Dante made me realize how much weaker I am than last time. I thought I could single mindedly go after Lee, but I got beat before and I got beat now. If we want to beat Lee, we’re gonna have to start playing by the little rules of this tournament and fight other players outside of our allies.” 

The Cell Player couldn’t help but smile, she was feeling a lot more confident than before. “Yeah... yeah...”

“Let’s get back to the ship though.. I gotta rest.. and get a new suit..” Felix commented, his entire bodysuit torn apart, barely holding together. “I really wanna go back to wearing my old clothes, if anything..”

-END-

Chapter Text

“Felix?... Felix, wake up!”

The Trunks player rubbed his eyes as he woke up to see Mitoko holding his hand tightly, still feeling cold like always. “I.. I brought you back since Dante looked like he did some really bad blows to you...” 

Felix rubbed his eyes, “O-Oh, right.. yeah, now I remember..” he sat up and patted his chest; which still hurt from when Lee stabbed him, just another reminder of his mission. “Geez… it felt like forever while I was out..”

Mitoko glanced away, a light fluster on her face as she looked toward the window and then back at Felix.

“I just-.. I can’t stress enough how thankful I am that you’re okay.”

Although she could feel Cell metaphorically puke in her mind, the girl was genuine with her feelings.

“Believe me, I am too.” Felix responded, “Though.. I can’t help the feeling like we’re not any closer to being able to beat Lee! O-or Android 21, hate to admit it but I kinda forgot she was a threat we have to deal with too..”

Mitoko blinked and rubbed the back of her head, “..speaking of... why have we never seen Android 21 before? What’s she like?”

“ I’m glad you asked, Hitori. ” Cell butted in, “ She’s merely a poor man’s imitation of MY-- ”

“Perfection, yeah, I know. You talk about it all the time.”

“ And for good reason! From what I can tell, Android 21 was that old twat Dr. Gero’s miserable excuse of a ‘better’ version of myself, when I’m already perfect! Oh, she thinks she’s soooooooo interesting with her Majin DNA!? ”

“..She’s part Maji--”

Mitoko quickly remembered something Samael mentioned about her a while back.

“..Oh, yeah.”

“I’m happy you understand, Hitori.” Cell said, ending his rant.

Speaking of Samael, maybe he knew something about her! Maybe the others in his team knew something too. It was their best shot--though Mitoko was still nervous about talking to him given the circumstances of before. 

“ Hope he’s still not mad about that… ”

“Oh, hello Mitoko!” Zeke, the captain of the Frieza Guild’s Ginyu Force, greeted Mitoko as she stepped onto Samael’s ship alongside Felix. “Why the glum face, sport?”

“..I... I wanna find Android 21. I want to know what her deal is! How to get out of this-- out of this GAME!”

Zeke stopped for a moment, “..kiddo, I know how badly you wanna return home.. but going out of your way to find that woman is a death sentence. I should know, nearly lost my team to her trying to protect Samael.”

“You.. fought her, once?”

“Well, tried .” The Ginyu player sighed as he laid back against the wall, “We barely managed to escape with a sliver of our pride intact!”

“T-that and we almost died.” Henry commented, “Well, I almost died.”

“I know, sorry if it felt like I dismissed you, Henry.” Zeke responded, “But either way, there’s no way any of us could beat her, even if we worked together.”

Zachary interjected; “‘specially not us, we’re in the bodies of C-tier characters, B-tier at best. We’d get creamed.” He rubbed the back of his head, “..not loik... whipped creamed or anythin’... dammit! Now I want some sweets! Kaiman! We need’a get some ice cream later!”

“ We sssstill need to work on your accent, Zach! ”

Zeke sighed; “...as I was saying, if you really want to find Android 21, you have to make sure you’re absolutely ready!”

“How would we.. do that? Normal training isn’t enough! At least for me so far..” Mitoko said.

“Hah! Oh please, I’d hardly call what you’ve been doing ‘training’.” Samael said, showing up in the hallway of the ship from his room; “Unlike you, I’ve been constantly honing my abilities~”

“..then how come you’ve never shown off your Golden form?” The only girl in the group asked, with the Frieza player suddenly freezing up, no pun intended.

Samael paused, a little shaken; “H-hah! As if I’d show something so powerful to a roach like you! Such a form of pristine strength is reserved for only the worthiest of adversaries; shame I’ve yet to find one!” he responded. “Though perhaps you’d be so lucky to see it once I finally defeat 21.~”

It was clear that his pride was muddled slightly from Mitoko’s question.

“..I’m.. I’m gonna go-”

That, of course, got Samael’s attention; “H-hey! Where are you going?!” he shouted.

“To train. You’re right, I’m not strong enough, but I can be!” Mitoko responded; “Maybe I can find other players or clones to fight against. I… I dunno.”

“Th-then I’m coming with you!” Samael blurted out, quickly regaining his composure after; “Maybe my top tier power will rub off on you~”

“ He’s clearly insecure about it .” Cell noted, “ When he isn’t playing up the facade of confidence, he sounds almost like you.~ ”

“ Cell, you’re not helping!! ” Mitoko thought back; “Uhhm… sure! If you insist, I mean..” she responded before she looked over at Felix, “You get some rest today, alright?”

Felix nodded quietly; “Go ahead, I need a breather.”

After some time of flying around, the two managed to find a good spot. “Here we go. A decent amount of clones are here, so you can try absorbing them--”

“Sammy!! I am NOT doing that!!” Mitoko shouted, flustered as hell; “I-I almost did that to Raiden and I still haven’t recovered!! >m<”

“Hmph, still think you should have absorbed him.” Samael responded.

“ I second that~ ” Cell added.

“Not helping!!! Ugh! W-What’s with your obsession with me absorbing people? Is it some kind of kink for you!?”

Samael cocked his head to the side smugly; “Snippy, huh?... I like that.~ And no, I just think Raiden is annoying.”

“I’m still not absorbing anybody! It's so weird… and gross..” Mitoko whined, she was starting to regret her choice in character a little. “Besides, don’t you think it's unfair? To just instantly win like that?” She asked as she tapped her fingers together, her face heating up slightly from the thought.

“ To absorb someone into my body is a privilege! It shows that their power is enough to be added to mine. ”

“W-What about the poor people you.. ummm... smoothie’d?” Mitoko muttered internally, shivering from the memory of Cell stabbing and sucking people to death too literally.

“ They didn’t earn the privilege then. ”

Mitoko shuddered as she looked back at Samael; “Maybe we can just battle instead! I mean, we’ve never really fought before..”

“Ha! You think that hodge-podge of a body can best me!? You’re cute!”

“I-I mean Cell is canonically stronger than Frieza--”

“Shut up!!! I’ve trained far more than you, I could beat you no problem!”

And that was the hook, now she had him woven into her very poorly put up web. Samael was quickly on the offensive as he attacked Mitoko, seeing her dodge out of the way of every hit and blow he could make.

“Quite the escape artist, are we? Like a cowardly insect, and one that deserves to be SMACKED--!!” Samael whipped Mitoko with his tail, pushing her back before firing several ki blasts at her. 

Mitoko could barely think of a way to retaliate!

Almost instinctively, she swiped away at the orbs of energy repeatedly, counter attacking while still panicking.

“ You’re lucky I’m helping you with this, Hitori! The fact that you’re only productive when frightened is going to be a detriment for us both! ” Cell commented, briefly taking control of her to parry one of Samael’s attacks. “ I’ll throw you a bone, you know how to do a Kamehameha right? No? Let me enlighten you~ Watch closely .”

Taking control of their shared body, Cell charged up a Kamehameha and fired it at Samael, catching him off guard slightly and doing considerable damage.

“ Just do that when he’s at a fair distance. If I feel like you’re doing subpar I’ll ‘teach’ you a new attack. Do not disappoint me and waste those moments, Hitori. ”

Hearing the genuine scorn in his voice, it gave the girl enough determination to try instead of flailing around like an anxious cicada.

“A-Alright! Come at me!”

Samael wiped himself off; “Confident, huh?” he smirked as he threw an energy disc at her, “Fine then!”

Thinking quickly, Mitoko vanished to dodge the Death Slicers, appearing behind Samael and hitting him with a heavy attack. She was actually improving ! Jumping into the air, the emerald green bug girl disappeared before teleporting behind the Frieza player, slamming her firm hand directly into the nape of his neck with enough force to bruise.

“OW!! I will NOT let you have the upper hand on me! I’m the Emperor of the Universe!” Samael said, gritting his teeth; why was she suddenly getting good now?!

Cell laughed; “ More like a child larping as one. ” 

Deciding to show his host a new move, especially as Samael was rushing in for a dragon rush, Cell took control again; “ Observe closely, Hitori~ ”

He swiftly formed an electrical green shield around himself, instantly punishing Samael on contact. In essence, it was what is known as an ‘idiot magnet’, and boy did Samael not like falling for it.

As they were fighting, it was clear that the two had caught some unwanted attention, but that came later.

“How!? How are you this strong!? Last time, you were a cowardly crybaby!” Samael yelled, wiping away the blood from a wound on his cheek.

“I’m not gonna stay that way forever, Sammy! If we’re gonna beat Android 21 or Lee, then I need to get stronger! Sorry if that ends up hurting your pride , hehe..” Mitoko said, giggling. Which was weird to hear come out of a big green bugman with a slick, handsome voice.

Once he was at a good distance from their back and forth attacks, Mitoko pressed the bottoms of her hands together.

“ Finally doing it yourself, hmm?~ Let's see you try to pull it off, kid! ”

Samael’s eyes went wide as he saw the girl try to pull off a Kamehameha... but something was clearly off, mainly her stance. Her feet were placed firmly into the ground, her body’s muscles appearing to expand slightly, pulling her arms back as far as she could. This wasn’t just any regular Kamehameha...

She was trying to pull off a Solar Kamehameha .

And that was the one thing about her that genuinely scared Samael.

“Hey hey hey, whoa whoa whoa--” Samael backed up, “Let’s not do anything we might regret!” 

Mitoko, however, was not planning on stopping. She just wanted to see if she could pull it off! “ I just hope I don’t like… kill him.. ”

ONE. 

TWO.

THREE.

“KAMEHAMEHA!!!”

Although Samael managed to thankfully dodge out of the extremely powerful attack as it plowed through several mountain ranges, leveling everything in its path as its force was enough to break through every planet unfortunate enough to be in its path.

“Hah... hah...” The Frieza player panted, as he collapsed onto the ground, his violet-colored eyes wide in horror as he had a brief glimpse of an agonizing demise.

“...Did I.. Did I do it right?” Mitoko asked, lowering her hands as she saw the damage she had done.

“ Take a guess. ”

After a moment for a breather, Samael immediately was back to his usual personality. “You! You chitinous roach! What the Hell was that!?” 

“..That?.. I.. I did the Kamehameha, didn’t I?”

“NO!! That was clearly something different! Something more powerful! Didn’t you say you never played FighterZ before!? How were you able to pull that off!?”

Mitoko glanced down at her hands once more, gripping her right palm into a fist. “I guess it just felt-”

“Natural, right?”

The two were immediately put on edge from the sudden inclusion of a third voice, one that Samael recognized near instantly.

“I knew I would find you here! And with that Solar Kamehameha, it made tracking you down leagues easier than before!”

Samael grimaced; “God… fucking dammit. Not her! Not now!”

It was Android 21.

“ I couldn’t agree more with that purple brat, hearing her voice again is already giving me a migraine .” Cell commented, gritting his teeth in annoyance.

“Wh... What do you want with us!?”

“Correction!” The Majin scientist pointed toward Mitoko, “What do I want with you? ”

“Stop speaking cryptically, woman.” Samael said, though it could just as easily have been Frieza talking. “What do you want?” it was obvious from his voice, he was quickly growing impatient.

21 whipped her tail as she jumped down from where she was, approaching Mitoko as the latter backed up as quickly. “Never have I seen a human soul reach their potential so quickly! And with Cell too, I assumed that he was one of the more stubborn avatars to get used to!”

She pressed her finger up against Mitoko’s pale face, a twisted smirk on her own. “Your powerlevel increased dramatically, and without killing anyone! You’ll be perfect .”

“ Already am, idiot- ”

“I-I think she meant that in a different wa-AAAAHHH!!” 

Mitoko was pushed to the side by Samael, the two of them just barely dodging a close encounter with 21’s Candy Beam.

“You fool! Did anybody tell you not to stand still when around her?!” Samael shouted to the bug girl.

“N-No! But I know now!” Mitoko responded in a panic. “We gotta get out of here!”

“ Not what you’re supposed to say, Hitori! The Perfect Lifeform doesn’t run! ” Cell told her; “ Stay and fight! And don’t get yourself killed! It's my body too! ”

21 pressed her hand up against her cheek in a mocking fashion, “What’s wrong? Can’t form a connection with your own body? You’re gonna make this way too easy for me!”

“MITOKO!!” Samael yelled. 

Now was the time to fight, but the poor girl felt her body freeze in fear again. 

“ What are you doing, Hitori?! ” Cell shouted in increasing agitation, “ Either you can move or I can make you! ”

Just as the Majin was about to make another quip, Mitoko dashed forward and quickly kicked her to the side with substantial force, firing several ki blasts to where the rivaling bio-android laid. This, of course, surprised Samael greatly. “Is this... her true power...?”

“Why is this getting.. easier for me?”

Mitoko barely had any time to think before Android 21 retaliated, jumping out to try and pounce on the girl.

In all honesty, Mitoko was just trying her best to fight back, throwing out random attacks with no strategy. She could only hope to hold 21 off with Samael until the others arrived to help--surely they could sense her right?!

However, as she kept attacking, Mitoko realized that she started to get slightly better at it. From desperate punches and kicks to actual strategized movements, dashing around and feeling like not even gravity could tug her down, like she was in the zone.

Samael, seeing she was actually able to hold her own, decided to help; given the situation wasn’t as dire as it seemed.

“Allow me to assist you!” he shouted, firing a Death Beam at the robotic Majin. 

“Sammy! Thanks!” Mitoko said, “M-maybe we can beat her together!”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, we’re still only two people--As strong as I am.”

“Two dumb kids teaming up to try and tackle a final boss? Ain’t that cute.~ But also sign your own death wish! Just like the Yamcha player!”

“I’m sure the others are coming to help us.” Mitoko whispered to Samael so 21 didn’t hear. “We just gotta hold her off until then… so uhhh.. let’s not trip up, okay?”

“Me? Trip up? What a sense of humor you have!” Samael scoffed before he was pulled to the side, just out of reach of one of 21’s beam attacks. “Shut up!”

It was two against one, so hopefully they could make a stand against the pink menace.

Launching an attack, they did their best to overwhelm her. They couldn’t let her fire off another one of those Candy Beams!

“You think you can do another one of those Perfect Kamehamehas, roach girl?” Samael asked.

“If we can get her to stand still I might be able to..”

Samael nodded in response as he went on the offensive, waiting for the right moment for Mitoko to charge her attack once more.

It wasn’t an easy fight by any means, and Mitoko’s ace being a move with some amount of wait time didn’t help that. But Samael did his best to get 21’s attention and distract her via ki blasts and physical attacks.

“ I hope this works… ” Mitoko thought, getting into position.

She felt her beating heart overwhelm her senses as she stared 21 down, seeing a predatory gaze in those cherry red eyes.

With Samael chasing her in a circle, now was the best time to do the devastating attack! …though Mitoko hesitated.

“ What are you waiting for, Hitori?! ” Cell shouted.

“I don’t wanna hit Sammy!”

“ Neither of you will live if you keep stalling! Just do it already!! ” 

 Biting her lip till it bled violet down her chin, Mitoko closed her eyes tightly;

“I’m sorry!”

Before firing, shooting her hands forward to unleash her powerful ace in the hole.

The beam fired straight forward, blasting 21 in a direct hit--and Samael too slightly as collateral, nearly a direct hit on him too.

“S-Sammy!!” Mitoko flew over to her friend, checking on him in fear she may have hurt him too much.

“Y-you wretched insect! You almost killed me!!” Samael shouted, letting his mask slip for a moment.

“S-sorry!! Did we get her, though?”

The two heard distinct cackling, “If only it were that easy.” They turned around to see 21 reforming from drops of pink goo and discarded white hair.

“No.. no no no...” Mitoko whined, she couldn't be beat! There was nothing they could do!

Though they wouldn’t be doing it alone; as help had finally arrived! 

“Mitoko! We’re coming!” Felix shouted, flying in with Zeke and the others--plus Jerry, who really did not like this idea.

“Oopsies!~ Looks like it’s my time to leave! Ciao!~ Say hi to Chisa for me. ”

And like that, Android 21 vanished as soon as the Frieza Guild came.

“...so Chisa wasn’t lying.. she’s...” Mitoko shook her head, struggling to hold onto her hope... before subsequently passing out.

When Mitoko awoke, she was back on the ship. 

“Hhuh… what happened?” she asked, spotting Samael in the room with her.

“Our ‘help’ arrived, but the pink bitch fled before we could get rid of her for good. Though now that she knows where my ship is, we couldn’t stay where we were originally.” Samael explained, leaning against the wall. “We’ll find a new place to have it landed, or just have it in the planet’s orbit. As long as we don’t stray too far, Beerus won’t disqualify us.”

Mitoko sighed, hugging her legs close to her chest as she still thought about Chisa. What did 21 have to do with her? 

“ Hitori, listen. I know you hate it when I say this, but there’s only one way we could win against a wretch like 21. Do you remember what me and Samael said earlier today? ”

The girl laid back, her eyes moving up to the metal ceiling.

“ The only way to end this is to absorb her. Not even to fuel my perfection, it’ll be the only way to subdue her for good. She’ll take out your allies one by one, doesn’t that sound familiar to you? ”

Mitoko sighed. “I... I need some rest.”

“Well if it makes you feel better..” Samael folded his arms; “You did… good today. You might even be somewhat competent!” he added, “Had circumstances been different, maybe you could have killed her.” he said as he tried not to sound like he cared too much.

“At times like these, I wish I did...” she replied with her voice slightly muffled as she pressed her face up against her pillow. “..God, having an exoskeleton makes trying to sleep more annoying than it should beeee...”

-END-

Chapter Text

It had been a few days since Chisa, the Android 18 player, had managed to escape from Android 21’s capture; the poor girl being forced to work for the half-majin alongside another android player, Raiden. 

Raiden, who she didn’t even like due to his antagonistic personality.

Sitting on top of a building, she watched the people of the Dragon World carry out their daily lives like they would in real life. It harbored feelings of envy within Chisa, that normalcy... she wished she could have it. 

Chisa had it once , but she tried not to think about her old life outside of the desire for normal life. She thought it was finally the end when she died, but now she’s stuck here! It was like a punishment.

She couldn’t stay here long; it wasn’t easy to escape 21, and the scientist wasn’t willing to just let her go. She was always being tracked, either by clones or by Raiden and 16. Chisa looked out to the sunset beyond Satan City, hugging her legs close as she mumbled to herself, solemnly apologizing to Mitoko.

She felt so bad for… everything. She wished she could take everything back, everything she said--and maybe didn’t say but think--and undo the pain she caused. She wanted to find Mitoko, but she feared she’d only end up causing more trouble, maybe even get her friend killed by 21!

“ We should get going. ” 18 told her from inside their soulspace.

“I know.”

Buying a hoodie from a nearby shop, Chisa used it to try and keep her identity hidden as she made her way toward the next area, constantly looking back to see if she was being followed. She may not be one of the more powerful fighters, but she was still a human soul .

She hoped to find some place where it would take far longer for her to be found, maybe then she could think of a plan on what to do next. But just as she was about to calm down and think of something, she felt the ki of other players, making her panic. It could be Raiden again, or worse!

She quickly hid behind a tree, only peeking out when she felt like she wasn’t being watched. It wasn’t Raiden, thankfully, but she still didn’t know who they were; outside of the fact they were a Gohan and Krillin player respectively.

“You’re sure there’s another player here, Mike?” Gabe asked his friend as they landed down. 

“Yeah! Could be someone new, or maybe Mitoko is back here looking for help.”

Chisa relaxed ever so slightly, these guys knew Mitoko!

“Man, I feel kinda bad for Mitoko, ya know... being stuck with Cell of all avatars... I’m fully betting that it isn’t good for her sanity.”

“You bet?”

Feeling comfortable enough, Chisa peeked out from her hiding spot and took off her hood. “Do… do you guys really know Mitoko?”

The two guys were kinda surprised to see another player was that close; Gabe nodding.

“Yeah, we’ve helped her before. Do you know her?--Wait, are you Chisa?” he asked.

“Mmhmm.. I’m her.”

Gabe let out a sigh of relief, “Well, that’s good.”

Mike rubbed the back of his head and laughed awkwardly, “I’m just glad you’re not a complete weirdo like that Raiden guy!”

“I’m not, don’t worry… but, do you guys know where Mitoko is?” Chisa asked.

“Last time we saw her she left with a Trunks player named Felix.” Mike answered; “But we heard that she might be hanging out with Samael and his buddies. No idea where he is though..”

“Dammit… well thanks anyways..” Chisa was about to leave when Mike stopped her.

“Hey, no need to run off! We’ll find her easier as a group!”

She felt the much smaller player grasp her hand gently before immediately pulling back, “S-Sorry! I didn’t mean to! I just-- well--” Mike struggled to form a sentence before Chisa sighed, taking his hand.

“No need to apologize.” Mike responded; “We wanna find Mitoko as much as you do. You sure you don’t mind if we tag along?”

“Sure.. you can help.” Chisa said, folding her arms. “Thanks, it means a lot to me.”

“So it’s true that you and Mitoko were friends?” Gabe asked as the three of them were still searching for the girl, with Chisa nodding in response, twiddling her fingers together as her gaze wandered off to the distance.

“Yeah, we were. She was a troubled kid... I remember her not having too many friends, she was erratic and really lonely.”

“Makes it all the more worrying that Cell is her avatar in all of this.” Gabe replied. 

“I know, I’m worried about her, really worried. Last time I saw her, Cell took over and she--well he --almost absorbed Raiden! After that, I couldn’t handle this whole game anymore! I had to run away.” Chisa explained. “Was that selfish of me?”

Gabe took in a deep breath, “..I wouldn’t put it against you. I remember being ecstatic to pretty much live out the life of my favorite Dragon Ball character, until it involved... you know. Turns out? Constant fighting in a game to get to that #1 spot isn’t so fun.”

“I can imagine… I didn’t even want to play this game, I had no idea that this would happen. I don’t want to fight or win a second chance; but I don’t want to lose either!”

Mike glanced away briefly, “If one thing’s for certain, I don’t think anyone could predict that this would be the afterlife!”

“As far as I know, this isn’t actually it , but I don’t know what would happen if I lost, if any of us lost.” Gabe added, “But I’m just rolling with the punches for now, even though we’re supposed to be looking for Android 21..”

“Don’t ask me anything about that, I’m already dealing with her and Raiden..” Chisa said. “They’ve been following me since I escaped.”

Stopping to rest, the Gohan player decided to pressure her further for answers. “What are Android 21’s plans? You used to work for her, kinda.”

Chisa gulped, “..She wants to escape into the real world.”

“WHAT?!” Both players shouted, mortified by the revelation.

“Y-you’re kidding! There’s no way that’s actually what she’s planning!” Mike stammered, his hands shaking.

“How?!” Gabe added; “She can’t really do that, can she?!”

“Well, I don’t remember much, but apparently she needs a human soul... and for some reason... Cell too. And-”

Gabe then realized something; “Cell... is Mitoko! Oh god! She’s doomed! We have to tell her!” 

“No need to.” a voice familiar to the trio said, “I’ll do it after we’re done with you guys.” It was Raiden again! With 16 too.

“Damn, you guys again?!”

Chisa raised up her fists, a very clearly angry expression on her face as she gritted her teeth. “I told you before and I’ll say it again, I’m not going back!”

Raiden shrugged; “Don’t worry, 21 doesn’t want you back anymore. She just wants you gone .” 

“We’re not gonna let that happen.” Gabe said, stepping forward. “Go away, Raiden; you don’t have to do everything 21 says!” 

Raiden stepped up close to Gabe; “Oh yeah, handsome? You rather I do everything you say?~” He reached up and felt his chin down to his chest, a mischievous and perverted look in his bright blue eyes.

Gabe flicked Raiden’s hand away; “If you want Chisa, you’re going to have to go through us first.”

“Well you’re no fun, but sure. We’ll take you up on that~” Raiden said, nudging Gabe’s chest. “16, we’re using force!” 

“Understood.”

It was three against two, although Gabe and Mike had other plans if things were to go suddenly south. Chisa didn’t want to fight at all, but she knew Android 21 wouldn’t leave her alone unless she was able to defend herself; so she stepped up to help fight. 

“Chisa, listen.” Mike whispered to Chisa, “If things get too much for us, I need you to run; me and Gabe will keep them distracted as long as we can if we can’t win.”

“Thank you for the heads up, b-but I’m not going anywhere. I’m done running from these people.” Chisa then, for once in a long while, smiled softly. Her gray eyes lightened up significantly, which surprised Mike.

Mike nodded “Alright, then! Let's take these androids down!”

Gabe made the first move, vanishing and re-appearing behind Raiden; kicking him forward. He wasn’t holding back, and made that very clear to Raiden as he attacked the 17 player with a combo of heavy attacks; which caught Raiden off guard.

“Not bad! You kinda got me there!” Raiden shouted as soon as he got free from Gabe’s onslaught. “So you’re more than just a pretty face~”

“Shut up.” Gabe responded, his cheeks a little red. Raiden’s flirts were kind of getting to him.

Taking the chance, Raiden slipped past Mike and landed a suckerpunch directly into Gabe’s chin before hitting him with a good ki blast, not long after getting kicked in the head by Chisa.

Raiden slowly got up and rubbed the back of his head; “A tag out? Well that’s no fair!” 

Chisa was confused, what did he mean by ‘tag out’? She didn’t bother asking as she continued to attack the male android. Though Raiden found it easier to get out of her attacks than it was to get out of Gabe’s; weaving out effortlessly and punishing her with a hard elbow to her shoulders.

“Come on, you can do better than that~” Raiden said, mocking Chisa; throwing her aside. “16, keep them preoccupied, I wanna beat the tar out of Gabe first~”

“Affirmative.” 16 said, stoic and robotic as usual.

“Not again!” Mike said, remembering last time; “C’mon, don’t you get tired of him ordering you around?!” he shouted to 16.

“Yes, but I am given orders to listen to him in the absence of Android 21.” Android 16 responded bluntly.

“He’s not going to listen, Mike.” Chisa commented, “We’ll beat him together!” 

Moving swiftly, she slipped behind 16; letting Mike take the front assault, knowing damn well that both Raiden and 16 had orders to kill her. “ I’m more useful being back-up anyways.. ”

Eventually, Raiden managed to pin Gabe down, ecstatic and breathing heavily as a rosy tint covered his face. “Man, I remember this scene from History of Trunks! Didn’t think it would happen now between us!”

“Nghh… get off of me! This isn’t going to end like how you want!” Gabe shouted, kneeing Raiden between the legs before grabbing him and blasting him away with a ki barrage. “Would really suck if I ended up losing an arm.” he commented, brushing himself off. “Now get up, I know you’re not done.”

Raiden wiped his mouth clean of blood, still smiling like a lunatic. “Ya know me too well, Gabriel!”

“Yeah, because you never leave me alone!” Gabe loudly responded, starting another combo onto the android’s twinkish body. Though he knew that deep down, Raiden was enjoying it; and that kind of took the edge off their fight. 

Chisa was quickly growing exhausted from the constant fighting, her arms and legs aching in pain, but that couldn’t be right! Wasn’t her avatar an android that could literally never stop!?

“ Why--Why am I getting tired?! Why are we getting tired?! ” Chisa frantically asked her vessel.

“ Dammit, we’re out of sync! I know you don’t want to, but you have to take charge! I’m not made to fight like this! Show a little confidence! ” 18 responded, shouting at her to stop being so scared.

In a moment like this, Chisa wondered if this was how Mitoko felt.

Tightening her fists, she quickly made her move through punching Raiden off and away from Gabe, trying to force herself through connecting.

“ Chisa looks determined!... but something doesn’t feel right at all! Is she trying to force a connection!? ” Gabe thought as Chisa beat the utter shit out of Raiden. If this were a normal game in their world, she’d be button mashing right now; desperately trying to form a connection between her and her vessel. Blood stained her fists as cracks formed on her face, showing signs of increased stress from trying to force the bond to reach its full potential.

It was agonizing.

Eventually Mike pulled her away; “Hey hey! Chill! You’re hurting yourself more than you’re hurting him!” 

Chisa un-balled her fists and covered her face with her bloodied hands, stepping back before looking at Raiden, some of the blood on her face; “Go home Raiden, tell 21 that I’m not afraid of her or you, or anything else she can throw at me.” She threatened, breathing in and out heavily as her body was on the verge of complete collapse.

“..Well, I won’t kick a girl when she’s about to fall down.” He winked at Gabe, “See ya around, toots.”

Raiden and 16 left, retreating to get Raiden’s beat-the-fuck-up face and body fixed up, leaving a very shaken up Chisa behind with Mike and Gabe. Chisa tried to wipe her face, but only got more on it, causing her to fall to her knees and cry. Briefly looking up, she saw Mike holding out the orange part of his gi to her.

“J-just take it, I didn’t have any handkerchiefs or anything..” He mumbled, slightly looking away from her to hide his flustered face. 

Chisa couldn’t help but smile slightly through her broken tears, her vision fuzzy but still good enough to see the concerned look on both Mike and Gabe’s face.

“Th-th…thanks..” Chisa said, wiping her face; “Let’s… let’s go find Mitoko and the others. I wanna see my friend again.”

-END-

Chapter Text

“And another one bites the dust.~”

Lee chuckled as he dropped the corpse of another clone to the ground harshly, not an inkling of empathy in his eyes before he looked over to his partner, the eternally apathetic Tarine.

Lee sighed as he turned to his partner, “Honestly, it’s like they’re not even a challenge anymore, Tarine~” he said, smugly shrugging.

“Then why don’t you fight other players instead?” Tarine asked, rolling her pale eyes.

“When the time comes and I feel as if these peons are worth my time, I will. This half-Saiyan body of mine requires a powerful adversary to battle, after all~” the Zamasu player explained; but Tarine knew he was making excuses, if he truly wanted that he’d challenge fighters he’s ‘fought’ before like Antonio or the Brolies. Deep down, she knew he was a coward.

Without any fanfare, she ‘absorbed’ the dead clone into herself, as if dragging it into her pitch black shadow.

Lee held his face, blushing as he watched the display; “It’s so nice of you to clean up after me, I could hire you as my maid.~”

“And I could sock you in the jaw right now.”

“I would thank you for it~ But no matter, this is enough training for now, we’ll find another ‘home’ to rest in and continue tomorrow.” he of course meant killing some poor NPC and taking their house for the night; something which made Tarine hate him and the fact she was bound to him even more. “Perhaps you’re right though, I could use some practice on other players… maybe that roach and his annoying half-Saiyan friend?~”

The pink-haired demon squinted at him, although her stoic demeanor never changed. “You know him, don’t you?”

One of Lee’s pointed ears flicked; “I beg your pardon?”

“The Trunks player, you know who he is, don’t you?” Tarine repeated.

Lee crossed his arms; “Hmph, vaguely… I admit the way he speaks and the vitriol he has for me feels.. familiar. It's almost.. intoxicating, I wonder if he hates me that much~”

Tarine groaned; “Ugh. You’re gross.”

She felt him wrap his arm around her firm waist, making her jolt up slightly from the sudden sensation.

“Goddess of a Thousand Forms, my faceless deity.~ I love you even more than I ever could that idiotic wretch.~”

“Your purple prose is making me want to hurl.”

Just as she was about to sock him in the gut for touching her, Tarine felt a familiar aura. “ Is she here again? ” she thought, her internal monologue interrupted when Lee tried to kiss her on the cheek, causing her to deck him in the face.

Purple blood trickled down from Lee’s nose, a smile etched on his features as he licked the fluid away.

“Gross.”

Feeling the wind blow through her hair, the demon who ironically looks exactly like the body snatcher she based herself off of saw a familiar person drop down from the sky.

“Hey! Been looking for you!”

Goku.

Or at least, someone who looked like Goku.

Lee wiped his bleeding nose and glanced at the Goku player, his feelings of arousal and romance quickly slipping away.

“You, mortal. You’re in the presence of a god, and you haven’t the sense to bow?!”

The Goku player pointed at themself; “You talking to me? . 3. ?”

“Are you--Yes! I am talking to you!” he shouted.

The Saiyan laughed and waved, “Oh yeah! Forgot to introduce myself! I’m Necta! Hi Tarine! :)”

“Hey.” Tarine waved back.

Lee looked at Necta and then at Tarine; “I didn’t know you had a sister.. or… what is going on..??” he was totally and utterly confused.

Necta rolled her eyes with a dopey smile on her face, “Ooohhh! Yeah, I guess we’re kinda sisters but- like.. It’s complicated!” She seemed to perfectly encapsulate Goku’s personality.

“I suppose I can let your disrespect slide then, given you’re… related to my wonderful Tarine~” Lee said, putting his arm back around Tarine; “My name is Lee, I’m her master and boyfriend .”

“You are not my boyfriend.” Tarine responded with aggravation, pushing him away. “I’m just unfortunately bound to you.”

Necta gasped in surprise, her eyebrows furrowed. “You did WHAT!? You can’t just do that! Borrowing someone’s other half should be some kind of felon- feron... fellon...”

Lee sighed; “Felony. The word you’re looking for is felony; and what I’ve done is no crime! I paid for Tarine’s loyalty and assistance with my godly blood, and as long as I remain in this tournament, she will be assisting me.”

“That doesn’t sound right! She only takes debit!.. right?”

Tarine sighed, “I guess ever since we’ve been labeled as deities by association, then I could be summoned.”

“Darn… hmmm.. how about a fight then!” Necta said, “If I beat you then you have to give Tarine back! >:I”

“ If you can beat me, you fool.” Lee responded, taking her challenge as a threat. He looked over at Tarine before a smirk grew on his lips, “And if I win, I’ll keep you as a trophy.~”

“HEY!! You pervert!!”

“Why not?~ You may not have her godly aura, but your avatar is just as good looking~ Do we have a deal?~ You can trust me.” he said in a very untrustworthy tone.

Necta blinked, her deep brows furrowing courtesy of her Goku avatar, scratching her buff arm as she glanced around. “...uhh.. I mean... you sound really creepy . I’m surprised Tarine even tolerates you!”

“I really don’t.” Tarine commented from the back.

“Well… if it means I can help get Tarine away from you, then I’ll do it! Plus I haven’t fought a ton of other players in this body, and I wanna see what I can really do!”

Necta tilted her head, her lips pursed as she placed her hands on her hips. “I dunno... are you really sure you can beat me?”

“I am a god! A being of limitless power and possibility! Very few have fought me and lived~”

“ He’s such a shitty liar… ” Tarine thought, rolling her eyes.

Necta tilted her head to the side; “If you say so! You’re not the first Zamasu I fought though! Well… kinda--It's still complicated!”

Just as Lee was about to question her, Necta quickly rushed in and slammed her fist directly into his stomach, followed by a combo of several punches for good measure! 

Staggering back, Lee had moments to catch his breath and block another bullrush of attacks, somehow this… girl was able to move faster than he could! 

“ A mere mortal, able to outpace me?! I can’t believe it! I won’t! ” Lee thought, gritting his teeth and stopping Necta’s combo with a short range ki attack that hit right under her face. “Enjoy that moment, mortal, because you won’t get it again!” 

Summoning his divine aura, he flew above her to get out of her range; “I will not be made a fool of!” 

Sharp black and red needles rained down onto Necta from above, exploding a few seconds after stabbing themselves into the ground. She’d angered the god-player, and was now the unfortunate target of his ire.

“Woah! Wuh- crap, crap, crap!!”

Necta dodged his Blades of Judgement as much as she realistically could, using her vanish every so often to make sure she didn’t get too damaged. 

“Man! You sure are taking this seriously!” Necta shouted to Lee, trying to get back on top of things.

“Of course I am! Who wouldn’t when the love of their life is on the line?!” Lee responded, causing Tarine to groan so loud the other combatants could hear it all the way up in the air. Of course, the Zamasu player didn’t care about his interest’s displeasure as he continued to combat Necta, striking only when he could get close enough.

Necta did know a lot about Goku, but she wasn’t entirely used to how he fought. “ Man.. this must be how Ginyu felt when he stole Goku’s body… :I ” 

She felt incredibly powerful, but at the same time, she only knew half of what her body was capable of! “Alright, now it's really time to lock in! HHHAAAAA!!!!”

Tensing up her whole body, she unleashed her vessel’s Super Saiyan form; “Man! This is really cool! So this is what it’s like to go Super Saiyan! Hope I don’t get dinged for using this form, so many Super Saiyan forms are their own players! It's kinda ridiculous--” Necta would have kept talking if Lee didn’t rush in and sucker punch her in the gut.

“Silence! Less talking, and that’s coming from me! ”

Some blood spat out of Necta’s mouth as she stumbled back, “Hardy har har...”

Getting back on her feet, so to speak, given they were in the air, Necta tried to get back into the fight before she couldn’t maintain the SSJ form any longer; it didn’t look like it, but it was really hard to maintain. She’d have to make it quick if she wanted to use this form to beat Lee! 

Luckily, she didn’t need a lot of time to do that if she put her mind to it.

Clashing with Lee, she managed to get the upper hand; pushing him back with a spark of ki and staggering him. “My turn again, buddy!” she said, radiating confidence befitting of the Goku player. “C’mon then, hit me with your best shot!”

Lee scowled; “If you wish, then so be it, worm!”

Forming a ki blade with his hand, Lee charged forward, slashing at Necta; unknowingly stepping into her trap. 

“ Heh. ” 

With Lee so close to her, she was able to immediately form a Spirit Bomb. Not a very big one, but still able to form one. “Bet you didn’t even notice me gathering energy huh? Funny thing about making these things, you don’t need to announce it when you ask to borrow energy; you can just think it! Hehee, or have your vessel’s soul ask for you!~”

“Aw fuck.” Lee mumbled.

“You’re a pretty bad guy, I wonder how much damage this’ll do to you! ;P”

She threw it as hard as she could at the godly player, causing him excruciating pain as his screams echoed throughout the arena. It did massive damage to Lee, and when the dust settled he was barely standing in a crater; his uniform torn in many different places and his body covered in burns, the combination of both his host’s soul and his making the Spirit Bomb far more strong.. He was very close to dying, and he knew it.

“ G-guhh… damn this stupid mortal! I refuse to lose to somebody this… idiotic sounding! ” Lee thought as his whole body rippled with pain. Though he wanted to beat her fair and square, he knew he couldn’t in the state he was in; so with no other option in his mind, he decided to retreat.

“Tarine! We’re leaving! Get us out of here!” he shouted.

“Hey! No fair, you said if I won you’d give Tarine back!” Necta yelled to Lee.

“Silence! I’m still in this game, you haven’t won shit! I refuse to lose to the likes of you! Tarine, NOW! You’re bound to me, remember?! When I command you, you obey!!”

Tarine’s eye twitched in annoyance, “Don’t need to raise your voice, dick .”

Forced to listen to Lee’s demands, Tarine formed a puddle of dark ooze which teleported him out of the arena; with her to follow soon after.

“Wait! Tarine! Don’t go!” Necta shouted, though Tarine didn’t respond. “I promise I’ll break whatever spell he’s got you under! <:) Even if I have to kill him!”

Tightening her fist, Necta sighed as she looked up at the sky, her Super Saiyan form wearing off. “I’ll do whatever it takes to get you back.” 

“D-damn that mortal fighter! I should have finished the fight while I still had the time--Ow!” Lee winced in pain as Tarine begrudgingly applied medicine to his burns. “C-careful! That stiiings!!” 

“Don’t be such a baby, you’re lucky I’m doing this at all, you do have regeneration.” Tarine coldly responded.

Lee wasn’t really listening to her, as usual. “That girl sure is something though, shame I wasn’t taking the fight seriously; she’d be yet another… wonderful asset… to our team..~” Lee trailed off as his mind went directly into the gutter again. 

Tarine, quickly losing her patience with him, grabbed him by the hair and yanked him back aggressively.

“Wh-what?! I’m just thinking about what a strong fighter she is!” Lee whined in response.

“No you’re not, don’t have dirty thoughts about my other half, you freak.”

Lee pulled himself free from her grasp, “A-anyways… perhaps it's time I took this whole tournament more seriously. I shouldn’t let a simple Goku player nearly beat me, not if I’m to win this little game. Not to mention there’s still the matter of that annoying Android 21, even if I get far in the tournament, there’s still the issue of her getting in my way.” he said, flinching from the sting of the medicine. “Suppose we’ll have to go from fighting clones to fighting other weaker players, now won’t we?~”

-END-