Dragon Ball: After the End

You stare down at the leader, scowling as your mind races.

It's the scouter that's the issue. Everything you do is recorded -- but not audibly. Sure, they could read your lips...

...but a first impression is hard to shake. This man has primed you for failure. He's set up a scenario where anything you do lets him win.

You glance at Jaron, and see that your friend is twitchy as hell. He shifts from foot to foot, eyes locked unblinkingly on the scouts' leader.

You turn back to it. "What's your name?"

It blinks. "...Songs-Through-Murk."
Communication: 73, Pass
You frown. "That seems like naming a human, 'Words.'"

The alien sinks back and lets out a weak-sounding trill. You realize after a moment that it's laughter. "I never said that it was a good name." It looks you dead in the eye. "Are you going to make me wait?"

You stare for a moment longer-

-before it clicks. You straighten out of your stance. "Sure am."

And then you turn on your heel, tugging Jaron with you, and start to walk away.

"...what are you doing?"

Jaron stares at you like you're nuts. "Karen-?"

You squeeze his arm for a second, and he shuts up.

"This is not over. GET BACK HERE."

You keep walking.

"DON'T YOU TURN YOUR BACK ON ME!"
Ki Manipulation [Kakara vs. Leader and Jaron]: 97 vs. 65 and 12. Easy pass
You hear him shift with a gasp of agony, feel the painfully slow welling of ki-

-Jaron tears his way out of your grip, picking up a rock to throw it at the alien with enough force to kill in a lethal reaction that you remember, you couldn't forget-

-a blast flies from your hand to disintegrate the rock mid-flight-

-you catch the leader's ki blast on your palm where it sits, thrumming.

You stand crouched, clothing and hair still settling from the speed of your turn. As your bangs settle in front of your eyes, you still keep staring at the leader. He gapes back at you. You vaguely see Jaron doing the same.
Ki Control: 58. Pass
Your close your fingers around the blast and snuff it out. Then you straighten, giving the leader one last cool look, grab Jaron firmly by the wrist, and take off at a slow pace, leaving the leader behind and flying back towards the main fight.

You hear nothing from the leader as you go.

CRACK

You and Jaron touch down just as the bruiser cannons into the asphalt at your feet, completely unconscious. Jaron stares. "What did Maya do?"

"She won," you say, giving him a gentle push back.

whump

Maya rockets into you. You grunt, stumbling back a step as your friend hugs you.

"AreyouokayIthoughtyouwerehurtandyouweregoneIwassoscaredand-" She swallows before letting out the last of her breath in a quiet sob.

You just hug her back, ignoring your ribcage creaking. You've learned by now that Maya likes the reassurance. "I'm fine. Just got knocked around a bit."

"I felt something going on over there," says your father, sinking down to the ground beside you and letting his aura wink out. "Did the leader try to jump you two while you were down?"

You look back. "...he wanted me to kill him. I left him alone. He's still there."

Dad tilts his head. You can see him wondering -- questioning your decision-

-he lets it go and nods, making a sharp gesture to a team of warriors. They spring into the air and fly off towards the leader. Dad steps forward and hugs you, not even trying to dislodge Maya.

Then he turns to Jaron. "...you fought with my daughter?"

Jaron stares up at your father, wide-eyed. Jaron nods.

Dad stares for a moment. You wonder if Jaron can see the conflict in your father's eyes like you can.

But then the conflict vanishes, and Dad steps forward, squeezing Jaron's shoulder. "Good job." Then he takes a step back. "Well, kids, the battle is over. Good job, all of you. Now..." He glances over.

The crowd from the school has evacuated, but they didn't vanish. You can see them a few hundred yards away.

Staring at you.

"Oh, crap-"

"Karen Marsden," says Dad, shooting you a warning glance.

"Dad, what do we do-?"

"We adapt," he says.

Sorcery? you ask, finding the prospect distasteful but not knowing any other way-

Even that wouldn't work, he says. About half of them have camera phones. Maybe a quarter of those used them, at a guess. And according to the reports that are flooding in...just about all of those have posted the videos online. We're trending already. The ki secret, at least, is out of the bag. He sighs aloud. "Well, kids. I suppose that our cover is well and truly blown. I'll need to talk to them, and explain. Gary!"

One of the Masqued saiyans runs over. "Sir!"

"I want you to personally escort young Mister Somerlad and Miss Webley to their homes. Explain what's happened, but if they ask anything else, simply tell them that I will be present to answer their questions shortly."

"Sir. Alright, kids. Come with me."

Jaron squints suspiciously at the man. Maya burrows deeper into your arms.

You look up. "Uh, Dad? Maybe I should do it?"

Dad looks at you. "Actually, that does sound like a better idea. I still expect you back home by bedtime, though, young lady." We need to address the Clans. Or I do. I've been stepping up your training this year; consider this an exam. Watch carefully, and learn.

You stare up at him and solemnly nod. "Yes, Dad."

You take off with your friends in tow, mind whirling.

That fight has only just begun. Now you get to once again deal with your least favorite kind of struggle.

Politics.

From the instant you pass through the wards, you can tell that the Training Hall is in an uproar.

You can hear your father and Lady Dandeer shouting at each other.

Rushing down the stairs, you come into the open air and take stock. Saiyans stand in a milling mass -- nearly every single member of your world in one place. It's chaos.

And at the center of it all, the Lord and Lady of Goku and Vegeta.

"You had no right to make this decision without me, and much less to involve my son!"

"The situation happened to me, Dandeer, not because of any of us! I didn't choose this situation, and I didn't bring your son into it. Blame the scouts, not me!"

"YOU MADE AN ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE HUMANS! You told them about ki! First that upstart girl, and now this! You've been stepping over line after line, Berra, and now you-"

Your emotions freeze over the longer she speaks, and you eyes narrow when she mentions Maya.

vip

You transform and power up to full as you land -- from an outsider's perspective, you just appear, flaring at your full power. Panicked or outraged shouts turn to gasps of shock as the crowd shrinks away from your presence.

You stare Dandeer down for a long moment. She stumbles back, cringing.

After the moment passes, and silence falls, you speak. "Dad didn't choose what to do at the school. I did. The scouts were about to blast the crowd. We needed to make time. So I did."

"And you brought my son into it?" seethes Dandeer, gathering a bit of backbone.

"He brought himself," you say, tone cold. "I didn't do anything."

"But you trained him," she hisses. "Your little friend wasn't enough for you, so you just had to go to my son and teach him how to use his ki! How dare you? How dare you?!"

While silence had already fallen, now it turns murderous. It takes a few moments, but Dandeer eventually registers the sudden shift in mood. She turns out to the audience of the entire saiyan race, trembling.

Almost every Vegetan in the crowd contemplates murder as they stare at the woman who just admitted to wanting to keep their Scion from ever again being able to serve his duties.

"I didn't teach him anything, actually," you say, folding your arms. "He did this all by himself. He saw Maya and me using ki, and boom. Figured it out in a minute. Pretty good, huh?"
Deceit: 74, pass
The crowd mutters. The Vegetans look a mixture of proud and even angrier -- such a promising Scion! So wasted.

"Kakara," says Dad, nudging you. "That's enough."

You purse your lips, but nod. You let your aura snap free and dissipate, releasing your transformation.

Your father steps forward.
Berra Communication: 156, pass
"I understand that you're all feeling threatened right now," he says, looking across the crowd. "This is not what I wanted to happen when I woke up this morning. First nuclear weapons, then the scouts showing up to attack my daughter's school-" he cuts himself off, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Events got away from us all. In retrospect, perhaps I should have contacted the scouts to let them know what was going on and try to ensure that they didn't intervene. Or maybe that would just have let them make their strike at a better time and place for their plans. I don't know. What I do know is this: the ki secret is out, yes, but people don't know that we're saiyans. Over the next few months, I'm going to work with the nations of Garenhuld to manage this period of coming out. I have faith that we can do this.

"The most important thing I have to keep in mind with every decision I make is this: 'Does this keep us safe? Does this endanger us?' I have kept those same things in mind today. We were exposed -- unavoidably. The decision that stood before me was whether to get our intervention over with before vanishing once again, or stopping to explain. One would tell people that there is a society of superpowered fighters with an interest in remaining hidden, and nothing more. The other allows us to demonstrate that we are obviously human -- we were once hidden, but now can come forth. One allows the possibility of hiding saiyans -- those long-lost refugees, should the wider galaxy hear of us. One does not."

Dad straightens. "I think over every decision I make, and today was no different. I chose the safer option. Now we can finally act somewhat openly. Our true nature must still remain hidden, but we can come out to the world in the open. And remember this: that even should the worst happen, and the Garenhulders force us away, there is nothing they can do to harm us. They are not the threat. I acted today to contain the true threat, as is my duty." He straightens. "My duty is to safeguard our society from the Enemy. I have done so today."

The crowd doesn't cheer. It's not that kind of speech. But they look back at your father with a humbled solemnity. Nobody questions him.

Something clicks for you, watching this. Time after time this past year you've watched your father step forward to calm people panicking over the war and the scouts. Somehow, he always calms them even when you'd swear they were about to riot.

It makes sense, though, watching him now. It's not magic -- it's not even hard. He's just telling them what happened exactly in the way they need to hear it to calm them down. He's working with their worldview to get them to fall in line, instead of trying to change everything about them in a single conversation.

And more than that, you recognize something else: that everything he has done is part of a plan.

He didn't just tell the crowd, "Trust me, I thought this through." He told them, "I did this to protect us from the Enemy."

But revelations like this aren't part of the traditional understanding of Lordly duties. Not in Clan Goku.

Over the past year, and the last three minutes, you've seen your father convince the people that the Lord Goku needs to have more power to act to do his job...without any of them realizing it.

You see him looking at you out of the corner of his eye.

You nod in return. I understand.

He smiles. Good. Then maybe it's time to move onto the next lesson.

Trait Lost! Reflective: You have had your beliefs directly challenged. While your worldview is stable enough at the moment, the question still remains: what will you come to decide about your view on violence? You don't know yet. "Pacifist," its sub-trait, and "Convictions" remain disabled, but you no longer suffer a penalty to Willpower. You have until [ERROR DATA NOT FOUND] to get Kakara back to more settled ground on the matter of violence and her stance on it. After that time has elapsed, she will begin taking scaling Willpower penalties over time due to increasing existential crisis. I will not explicitly announce it in updates when this occurs, but there will be indications in the text when it's on its way, and when it's occurring, and I will update the character sheet with the information. Pay attention...

Traits Developed! Pacifist+Open-Armed-->Protector: Meerak forced you to confront the question of what kind of person you really are. It was a painful year, figuring out the answer, but now you have it. You have your powers so that you can keep people safe. Everybody. Even those who don't want to be. People who are working to hurt others need to be stopped, but that doesn't mean you need to sink to their level. At the end of the day, the wicked need to be stopped, but you aren't them -- and you won't become them. That might mean that you need to talk them down, or it might mean that you need to fight. So be it. But no matter what, you know one thing about yourself: Thou shalt not kill. You gain heavy vote weighting against the use of lethal force on sapient beings, and will never default to it of your own will, even against Hated Enemies. The use of lethal force will never be presented as a default option; the players must write such options in if they want them. However, Kakara now gains a moderate bonus on all checks made in service of actions taken to protect the lives or safety of others. You no longer encounter barriers or penalties to combat skill training. This trait may, still, be developed further...

Victory Gained! Capture: Through words and nonlethal force, you ended the threat of the Scouts and brought out the secret of ki to Garenhuld in a way that can be managed. While the long-term ramifications are unclear, one thing is certain: this day was a win. The turmoil from your earlier defeat at Meerak's hands has been wiped away.

Skill Developed! Communication [Talented-->Exceptional].

Skill Developed! Intrigue [Competent-->Talented].

---

Year 4 concluded.

For the past few months, you have been working your way towards another vision. You still have little control over these, especially since your focus has shifted towards Mind Projection, but you can steer your way towards one particular aspect of the art.

[ ] What was.
[ ] What is.
[ ] What will be.

THIS VOTE IS NOW CLOSED.

Productive update!

I hope you all have enjoyed Year 4, folks. This year was by far the longest, in terms of thread space, of any year since the quest began! 218 pages later since the last year post, we've brought on a lot of new faces and gone through quite a ride. Not only that, but as of two days ago, we passed a very important milestone.

It's a bit late, but happy one-year anniversary, everybody!

This past year has been incredibly fun for me, and I look forward to another year writing Kakara's adventures with you all. I'm just glad I was able to close the year out at such a convenient time.

On this spectacular note, I bid you all adieu for now! I sincerely hope that you've enjoyed the update. Share your thoughts, and go nuts with the voting; no moratorium this time.

Thanks again for all coming together to make this one of the best rides of my life. And strap in for Year 5; we've got more things coming down the pipeline, and I guarantee that some are going to take you way off-guard.

No teasing, @The Fourth Monado.

Have fun, everybody!