PART FOURTEEN: SAIYANS, NAMEKS AND OTHER DEMONS

Chapter 66

Translated by Kakarotto Ka Power Level Kya Hai? (and a little help from Davidstarlingm)

“Now, here is Akira Toriyama from Universe 2 against Raichi from Universe 3!” cried the announcer Varga into his microphone.

“Ah,” said Raichi slowly.

Finally, it was his turn. He had hoped to fight against the Saiyans, but the forfeit of Universe 10 had disappointed him. Fortunately, only the worst of them had to fight. Now that they had forfeited, he would be able to eliminate them himself! He still had four fights. After his first victory, he would face the winner of the next fight. After that, tournament would be down to the final four -- from the first round, at least. Ideeally, he could fight Baddack after three victories. And if Baddack didn’t make it, Cold wouldn’t be too bad, he knew. After him, he would face the winner between one of the guys from Universe 19 (of whom Raichi had forgotten his name) and another female Saiyan, obviously, from Universe 16.

Sitting on a strange raven-blue sphere, Raichi levitated towards the ring. His competitor still had yet to arrive. Glancing behind him, the old Tsuful saw him appear, coming out of the Second Universe’s corridor. He was rather small. The fighter, Akira Toriyama, did not seem to be taller than seventy centimeters. He wore a mask. Could it be that the air was bad for him? Raichi could find out for sure, by throwing it out of the ring... It was a way to win, just like any other. Apart from that, the diminutive man was dressed in a suit. What a strange outfit to use in battle...

“It’s my turn...” said Akira.

He surprised another small man (although he was still taller than Toriyama), who stood for a few minutes in front of the entrance. He looked no more aggressive, as he was dressed in striped trousers and a simple jacket. This man immediately recognized the fighter who had just made his appearance: the name had rung a bell....

“But... aren’t you the author?” asked Senbei Norimaki, aka Dr. Slump, for confirmation.

“Exactly! I have full control over my characters! I’m sure to win!” he proclaimed, raising his fist, or rather, his mechanical claw, in victory.

“But... that’s cheating...” remarked the Doctor with the fine moustache.

“You want me to make you tap dance?” threatened Mr. Toriyama, the eyes of his mask seeming to pull off a menacing look and aura.

Senbei shook his head so quickly that he seemed to have more than one face.

“But this Raichi guy... Is he really one of your characters?” asked Beelzebub as he approached, still remaining within a reasonable distance from the man. (He sure as hell didn’t want to tap dance!)

Toriyama brought out several files and folders from a bag that he had brought with him. Inside, there were a whole bunch of images of characters, with information about them.

“Of course it’s me who... Wait...”

Toriyama had just looked through all the images of the characters, but still could not see one on Raichi. He looked at the ring again for Raichi’s head and rechecked his files at breakneck speed... to no avail.

Nothing from any of his stories. He took out a scribbled list and laughed at the puns he had found for the names of his characters... but he still could not find what he was looking for. Yet the name was most definitely a pun— his opponent was called, in reality, “Lychee”, like the exotic fruit. He sorted through the “character designs”... No, not there, not here either... Dragon Quest, Tobal, Chrono Trigger...

Well, you see, he was in a comic made by the fans of Dragon Ball, and the characters who had fought thus far had all come from Dragon Ball, in one way or another, save for Universe 2. But Raichi had come from Universe 3...

“I don’t know who are the idiots who made this comic, but the character comes from me, for sure! It must have been added to the cartoon version. Hold on...”

He sorted through certain cell sheets, the original plastic transparent sheets by Toei Animation, which had immortalized his work, adding color, sound, movement, and slight delay... Ah, the list of bad movies. Tullece, Broly, Janemba, Android #13... Aha, found Baddack... But no, he couldn’t find Raichi. Let’s see... the derived products that were derived even further! There was an advertisement for eye drops, nothing. Documentaries for children, no. Not even in a game show about time-travel, either. The crossover with One Piece—ah, that was fun,— but nope. Not even in Dragon Ball GT, either.

He lingered on a Tsuful named Baby, without knowing why. Master Toriyama had no idea that Raichi was also a Tsuful, as the last survivor of the massacre by the Saiyans, and wanted to avenge his race.

Suddenly, he came upon a series of images entitled “Video Games”. But they all followed his work accurately... Hold on? What was this thing? Ozotto? He looked like a failed version of Cell. Did he design him? Hmm, he must have been drunk... Ah... AHA! Here it was, Raichi, a video game character! Damn... He hadn’t even touched it...

“Oh no... I didn’t invent this one...” Akira Toriyama admitted watching his patiently-waiting opponent for the last time.

He thought for three seconds, rubbing one of his mechanical clamps on his back.

Facing this decision, half of the universe 2 fell back.

“Then I forfeit. I’m too old for this shit.”

“Raichi is the winner. You can leave the ring,” declared the Varga announcer.

“Really?”

‘Well, I suppose that wasn’t so bad,” thought the Tsuful as he slowly returned to his wing.

As Akira Toriyama headed for the hallway, two people prevented him from moving forward. They were incredibly happy and in their hands, the held out what looked like a notebook and a pen.

“Toriyama-sensei-sama-dono!: said the man on the left, Salagir, a blond with a marsupial tail. He had obviously learned Japanese by reading (from left to right) Japanese cartoons. In such cases, it was better to ignore them. After all, these gaijins and politeness...

“Can we have an autograph?” asked the guy with long, dark brown hair, Gogeta Jr.

They handed him a thin, rectangular object, perhaps the size of a pie dish.

“What’s that?” demanded Akira.

“Er... a graphic tablet,” replied the young man with dark hair, handing him a stylus pen.

“Can’t you use paper like everyone else?”

“Use what?” said the two men astonishedly as Mr. Toriyama signed their touchpads.

Then he went off without looking back. These strange characters gave him an unpleasant taste of déjà vu. He felt like he had already met them in another life, or another comic... a smaller, or mini-, comic...

“Does this actually say ‘Toriyama’?” asked the dark-haired man, observing the screen of his tablet.

“I don’t know, it’s all kanji!” replied his friend, who was also puzzled.

A little further on, Toriyama was halted by another character. Petite, with light brown hair and blue eyes, she handed the master a book and asked, “Could you please sign this?”

“What is it?” Akira asked, taking it into his hands.

“A novel!”

“But this is unreadable!!”

“Uh...”

“And plus, the cover is at the end!”

“That’s because it reads from left to right...”

“Oh okay, this world is upside-down. Everything has gotten like that, it seems.”

After scribbling some stick-like words, he went his way, leaving this strange character with his unreadable, upside-down book.

Walked forward with firm steps, hands in his pockets, a small, all-knowing smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, a man wearing a Piccolo-like turban, a cape, and three swords approached Toriyama. Once he was close, he spoke with good humor.

“Hey, finish with me!”

Then he suddenly assumed a serious tone, pulling his fist out of a pocket, waving it triumphantly in front of him.

“When I lose my temper and an immense anger comes over me, I turn into the legendary warrior! I am... I am...”

“Jackie Chan?”

Not even stopping, Toriyama passed by the man who watched leave, whose jaw gaped.

The latter mumbled in a little high-pitched voice, “Son Goku. The Super Saiyan...”

“What did he want, that guy?” wondered the talented mangaka, raising an eyebrow and not continuing to press the issue. This place seemed decidedly sketchy...

A Varga, just a little further yonder, then asked Toriyama to tread slowly. Indeed, the concrete floor was newly polished, and for safety reasons, it would be better for him to walk carefully to avoid a slip that would take him straight to the DB-Mergency Room.

A young man with glasses, fitted with Saiyan Armor, ran to catch up to him.

“Master, Master...”

“I know that guy! I’ve always wanted to meet him!”

“Master, I would love to be you, to have your talent!”

“Eureka! I’m going to use Captain Ginyu’s technique, and I will become Toriyama!”

He then yelled, “Bodi Chenji” while his he pierced his chest using his right fist. A ray of energy flowed from his body towards the direction of Toriyama. But it slipped... How awkward. The energy beam went straight towards a varga and collided. The two minds exchanged from one body to another...

“I did it! I have become Tori—quack?”

The young man paused, or rather now, the varga. He saw the mangaka on the ground.

“Then in whose body am I?”

After a super fast inspection of himself, he roared, “Nooooooooooooooooooo— Quack!”

Toriyama got up somehow and mumbled, seeing the Varga cry out, “What a funny bird, this one...”

He was definitely well-known and a celebrity: a young woman had been expecting him a little further on. She had light brown hair, a white ribbon around her head, a scouter on her left eye... It was unmistakable. Toriyama noticed that she was wearing the shoes of a famous blue hedgehog as she handed him a book.

“Again? What is this?”

“Master, this is the origin of the Saiyans, along with that of the Tsufuls!”

“Oh, really?”

Speaking rapidly, the artist explained the plot of her short work. After finishing in under a minute, she waited for a response from the master.I

“Is there no Gotenks?” asked Toriyama. “I like him.”

“Uh... no.”

Toriyama left without a word, thinking to himself: ‘I never imagined the origin of the Saiyans myself. It wasn’t all that important... and plus, the Tsufuls aren’t even my creations...’

He hoped not to make any more random encounters such as those, but was in vain. Another person halted him.

“Hello, Master,” she said. “I’m so glad you’re here! I’ve come up with something great--trying to imitate you, you know!”

She handed him a small stack of paper that was tightly clamped.

“No thank you. I’m sure you’re great. Your contracts don’t interest me, ma’am. Sorry, but I have to go now. Uh... my, uh, scooter...it’s double-parked.”

“It’s not that at all,” she said. “This is a scenario! This is the sequel to Dragon Ball!”

“What, DB GT?”

“No, it was after DB GT. You know, there is much left over after the cartoon. Like it or not, it’s part of the work of many people...”

“So what? Is it another DB AF?”

“Not really... there’s no SSJ5, if you will...”

“Isn’t there a script of something stupid like this on the internet? With a multi-universe-of-planets tournament or something?”

“No, my scenario is much better to me.”

“Well, I’m happy for you. Go! Good-bye!”

“Wait, you have to design it!”

“What?”

Toriyama-sensei ran away, pursued by this woman and her damn script. Very quickly, other people followed, with various papers and questions:

“Master, master! We want to know: is the Legendary Super Saiyan Broly or Goku?”

“Tori! What do you think of Super Sonic? Do they have the right to do that?”

“Hey, mister, I drew a parody of Dragon Ball with Mario. Does it not bother you?”

“Tell me, Toriyama-san. I have a question about the translation of a name! It seems that you use the kana “ma” but if it is a pun on the word, as I believe it is, wouldn’t the syllable be elongated?”

“By the way, happy birthday, master! Thank you for everything, too!”

“Mr. A.T., because you allowed Dragon Ball Evolution to be created, I am responsible for killing you! Come back here!”

“Akira, marry me!”

“Leave me alone,” the pursued man cried desperately. “I don’t even feel like Dragon Ball, myself! I just want to do with stories about toilet humor and round characters!”

Having left the area after a long time, the master disappeared with full speed behind a mountain. There, he invoked the end of the chapter, and disappeared between two pages...

Not so far away, at the edge of Universe 2’s space, a few participants and spectators were asking questions:

“He really... created us?” asked the young Shu of his compatriots.

“In any case, he had a whole bunch of files on each of us,” replied Eight, without answering the question.

“I’m telling you! He was the author!” repeated once again the man called Professor Slump.

“The author of what?” the blue cat asked innocently.

“He seemed to be able to control us all,” intervened Beelzebub.

“Nobody controls me,” retorted someone with pointy ears, long, silver hair, and wearing a red cape.

“And if he really was our god, or something like that,” added Sun Wukong, who had stayed back after all this time, “he would have some sort of power... And even you, Magnus, wouldn’t be able to face him and win.”

“Anyways, you’d never know until you tried.”

“No, but we can’t fight against the gods,” intervened Narub of Universe 19, who had been walking around the arena and heard everything. “We aren’t in the Knights of the Zodiac!”

“He was the one who said that...” thought Supaman, without daring to say it upfront.

“So then, excuse me, but I take on Gods in the morning for breakfast,” said Sun Wukong. “They aren’t that bad.”

Cutting short any discussion that wouldn’t lead to anything because it was now impossible to verify anything about Master Toriyama, the Announcer Varga declared next fight:

“New match, Syd from Universe 6 against Vegeta from Universe 13.”