This Time is Different (Son Goku)
Episode 2
Learning the Controls
Special Privileges
Someone is poking your cheek.
At first, it’s easy enough to ignore and you think you’ve gotten rid of the annoying pest after half heartedly swatting in their general direction without opening your eyes. This person is insistent to get your attention though, because after a few seconds, you can hear the rustle of clothing, they’re leaning in… Mere seconds after their finger can make contact, you keep your eyes closed and use the heel of your palm to make contact with their face; hard. You heard a yelp and someone falling over.
Opening your eyes, you sat up and stared.
It’s a tall man with spiky black hair and dark eyes wearing that iconic bright orange gi, the symbol of the Turtle school printed boldly on the fabric.
There’s absolutely no way that you can mistake this person for anyone else. After all, you’d grown up watching his adventures on TV every single day before real life got in the way and later, you’d forgotten all about it in favor of different anime. The Earth raised Saiyan who had the worst luck with not dying. The man, the myth, the legend, who reached past his limit every single time and literally embodied the saying, “Never give up”.
Son Goku.
“Haha! Geez, [Your Name]. You sure had worried me for a second there.” Quickly sitting up again, legs crossed beneath him, he rubbed the back of his neck, laughing lightly. “I think I might have hit ya too hard with that last attack and I’m out of senzu beans.” Brows furrowed, face scrunching up with guilt. “You’re okay, right?” He looked like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
Tail lashing out angrily in the air before sticking up straight, fluffed out, you open your mouth, about to read him the riot act, only to stop as you brain threatened to crash. ‘…Tail? Wait, what the fuck?’
Time paused and familiar ghostly writing appeared in front of your eyes.
/ Dragonball Z: AT Chronicles is a story based game that features player choice. The consequences of all your in-game actions and decisions will affect past, present, and future. Choose wisely. /
‘Okay, yes. I’ve already been through this once before. Get to the point!’ Try as you might to ignore it, you really can’t ignore the fact that you have a brown monkey tail.
/ Due to the game survey you completed prior to purchase, the system has deemed that you’re a Saiyan female and randomly generated your character features, fight style, default attacks, health and stats. Stat points can be stacked and more powerful attacks will be awarded the stronger you become. However, fight style and character features can be changed only once per game.
Would you like to do that now?
a.) Yes?
b.) No? /
After you chose to ‘Yes’ and return to the Main Menu, you’re grateful to see that none of the settings have altered and after much hemming and hawwing, you decide to turn Tutorial Mode off. There’s a flash of green light and soon a tiny block of text informs you that the action has been selected for all future games you play and can be turned back on at any time.
Hints and tips can be found in the section marked ‘Other’.
Once that’s finished, you focus on adjusting your stats. Pressing Customize, then reset attribute points, which returns the randomly assigned stat points back to zero for each category; health, stamina, ki, etc. A drop down menu appears every time you selected a category, and you’re given a brief description with examples of how to improve your base form.
Max Health (42)
Max Stamina (25)
Max Ki (26)
Basic Attacks (51)
Strike Supers (30)
Ki Blast Supers (49)
Pressing save and exiting out of the customization screen, a small sigh escaped you. To your knowledge, this particular build would make you a fairly average Saiyan.
…You hoped.
It wouldn’t do to compare yourself to or put yourself in the leagues of Goku and Vegeta as both were on a whole other level from jump. Besides, this was just your base form, so in theory, it’d be possible to go Super Saiyan and even further, right?
Shaking your head, as if you could physically shake away the uncertainty, you swiped right, and a full body screenshot appeared.
Gorgeous brown skin, lush curves, and full lips, this is you alright. Hand on your hip, head tilted to the side just so, dressed in the standard Saiyan battle armor that came equipped with the power level scouter, monkey brown tail wrapped tight around your waist, you radiate complete confidence and sass.
Thankfully, for your sanity’s sake, unlike most full blooded Saiyans, your hair isn’t completely trippy. It’s pulled into a ponytail to the back and bangs frame your face neatly.
After you skim over your default attacks, you set your fight style to balanced which meant you’d be able to do a fair amount of damage with either just your fists or with ki blasts or a combination of both. Instead of solely relying on energy attacks or being built like a tank and capable of dealing or taking lots of punishment but sluggish as a tradeoff for speed, this was a happy medium between the two options available to start with. Now more than a little antsy to actually get into the game and see what it’s all about, you decide to forgo reading the backstory and glancing at the friendship stats for the moment.
Since this is a game taking place in the DB universe, it’d undoubtedly revolve around fighting for at least ninety percent of the time anyway.
Exiting the Main Menu, almost immediately after, a set of options appeared in front of your face.
[“You’re okay, right?”
a.) “Of course I’m not okay, you dolt! I gave you very specific instructions and you of course went off doing your own thing anyway, incapacitating me in the process. Urrrgh, how humiliating!”
b.) “Wipe that concerned look off your face, it’s insulting. We’re Saiyans, this is nothing.”
c.) “……”
d.) “If that was an accident, then I want to see you actually trying.” ]
The urge to face palm is overwhelming.
Or maybe gently bang your head against a wall and give yourself a concussion to avoid the sheer tsundere-ish nature that seemed to be a common trait with each character you’ve played as so far.
‘Then again, all Saiyans are pretty much asshats except Gohan, Vegeta’s brother, Tarble, Goku’s mom, Gine, and Broly.’
Smooshing both hands to your face, just barely holding in the goofy laughter, you know you can’t put this off forever. Deciding to bite the bullet and power on through this trainwreck, you selected the final option.
Time unpaused and you find yourself repeating the sentence to Goku, watching as the man-child blinked, staring at you with an odd expression before nodding with a grin and striking his fist into an open palm twice. He hopped to his feet and held his hand out to you.
Bemused by the gentlemanly gesture, you grasped the outstretched hand, and he gripped yours tight, but instead of being helped to your feet like you expected, the world went topsy-turvy.
Glass shattered around you in a thousand tiny shards and belatedly, you realized that you’d been thrown out a window but you didn’t feel any pain. Body moving on autopilot almost, you did a backflip or two, avoiding Goku who swooped in low with a heel kick aimed at your face.
Even after you manage to get upright again, he doesn’t stop pressing the advantage, throwing a left and right hook which you block, and he followed up with a jab. That connected and hit you in the ribs. And then you were hit with an uppercut to the chin. You guarded pretty well against the next blow though you were pushed backwards.
‘I see, so gameplay is intuitive and instinctive. It’s not difficult to get the hang of but you can get trounced–’
Goku grabbed you by the front of your armor, choking you almost before catapulting you high in the air. “If you don’t take this serious…” And then gravity did it’s thing as you came plummeting downdowndown, him raining hits on you as the two of you fell. “You’ll lose!” The earth crumbled and splintered beneath your combined weight.
Dust kicked up and billowed everywhere.
Once it cleared, Goku blinked, surprised to see you gone. He looked to the left and to the right but you were nowhere to be found.
And then he looked up.
Spotted you gathering energy for a massive attack and made a move to counter you, deciding quickly on, “Kame…hame…hame…”
“Take this!” Thrusting both hands out, you fired the ki blast directly at him.
“HAAAAA!”
Goku’s signature attack, the Kamehameha, collided with yours. The overwhelming pressure from both attacks coming into contact with one another caused significant damage to the surrounding area.
The very air seemed to hum and crackle with energy.
For a few seconds, both attacks were deadlocked. Neither getting over the other. Then you felt yourself beginning to lose ground. Gritting your teeth, you poured more of your power into the attack but it isn’t enough. The Kamehameha overpowered yours and is on a collision course with you. Reaching out with both hands, you instinctively try to shove it back, and as you realized it’s futile, let out a shout of anger.
Everything went completely white for a second, maybe less, as the blast detonated.
Blinking, breathing heavily, Goku kept his hands stretched out. “I….won….” Huffing, he managed a weak smile but then it hit him too late. “! Shoot. [Your Name]–! Augh.” He was suckerpunched in the back of the head and collapsed onto his knees. “Oww!”
“I win.” You declared imperiously. Your armor is broken and falling apart, a smoky ruin. “Honestly, you’re the worst. What were you thinking hitting me with a Kamehameha during training? I could have died!”
“I was thinkin’ that ya could handle it, and I was right.” Poking his bottom lip. “Besides, I didn’t use my full power anyway…” he muttered underneath his breath.
“What was that?” You demanded, voice sharp and cutting. “Don’t mumble. Speak u–”
For the second time that day, you’re caught off guard.
Goku had managed to get to his feet surprisingly quick, which made you honestly wonder if he only let you sneak up on him, and he’s…kissing you.
He’s kissing you and he’s good at it, and you feel simultaneously confused and horny. Your hands, which had been limply hanging at your sides, goes to his chest, some part of your subconscious is screaming at you to push him away, push him away now!, but then he let out this sexy growl deep in his chest that turns your knees to water and makes your tail unwind, swaying gently in the air behind you. Goku doesn’t seem to mind that he’s practically holding you up now, hands sliding down to cup your backside and then he’s lifting you as if you’re light as a feather, and your legs wind around his waist to avoid falling and you can feel him, hard and throbbing with every step that he takes.
As soon as you’re back in the house, far too soon, he’s dropping you onto the comfy mattress that you’d woken up on, and for a tiny moment, clarity returns. Goku is supposed to be married to ChiChi, they have a kid together and, and he can kiss?! …Your brain has deduced that the last fact is most important. You return to the present as his knee is wedged betwixt your legs, pushing them open wider as he crawled between them. And then you felt his tongue as he licked along the column of your throat. It’s a highly erotic move that further destroys your sanity and demolishes your potentially very logical reasoning for why this is a bad idea.
{Goku Affection increased by twelve. Goku wants you.}
{Gained the ‘Unbreakable’ trophy}
{Gained the ‘Saiyans are always hungry’ trophy}
/ Congratulations! You’ve made your first significant choice that delved into a hidden branch choice which can be forged into a deeper connection. Saying ‘No’ is always a valid and accepted choice. Refusal will not be used against you and your partner will always respect it. If you’d like to opt out of the mature scenes and have them fade to black, you can do so from the Main Menu.
Would you like to do that now?
a.) Yes
b.) No /
As of right now, you feel as if you’re going to absolutely die of embarrassment or sexual frustration or choke on your own confusion, one or all of those things and you’re not for sure which. Conflicted despite the horny part of you screaming, ‘Fuck morals!’, you instead select ‘Yes’ and return to the Main Menu. This time, you swipe right until you come to the backstory.
You’re completely floored and deeply horrified. You’re the last full blooded female Saiyajin, yet it might as well be an empty title.
If Frieza wasn’t having Zarbon and Dodoria knock you around as a child and simultaneously threatening to have his soldiers take turns “handling” you, then you were belittled and ignored by Vegeta and mocked and jeered at by Nappa. Raditz was the only one who showed you an iota of respect which later became a secret friendship and even something vaguely resembling a sibling like bond. You went to Earth with Vegeta and Nappa, being the only one who had aspirations to actually try and avenge Raditz.
No one counted on Goku’s instant and total visceral reaction to you, nor his deep desire to protect you, especially after seeing Nappa pummel you halfway to death.
Putting it in simple terms, you’re Goku’s mate.
Vegeta didn’t like that. Not one bit and so he destroyed you on the spot.
Skimming through the rest of the backstory, as it largely followed the canon that you did know.
Only subtle things changed, like Goku and ChiChi deciding to get a divorce and agreeing to co-parent Gohan. Goku was a lot more ruthless and brutal in his fight against Nappa and later against Vegeta, the prince coming especially close to death’s door though he managed to escape only barely.
Going to Namek with the plan to revive all their friends, and you. Fighting the Ginyu Force, being quietly furious with Vegeta after he ran away like a coward to avoid fighting Ginyu, the fight against Frieza and Vegeta revealing his little sob story, which finally let Goku somewhat forgive him, your revival on Namek, watching Goku become a Super Saiyan and avenge the Saiyan race, etc. etc.
Disquieted by what you’d read, you checked out your friendship stats. Nappa was greyed out, signifying him being dead you guessed and didn’t care, Raditz is also greyed out.
Vegeta is at level 0 and his bar is almost fully filled out. Krillin is at level 2, but under halfway filled. Tien is at level 2 and halfway filled. Chiaotzu is at level four and looks to be about to receive a level up. Yamcha is at level one and looks like it only recently got there. Piccolo, surprisingly, is at level five. ChiChi is at level 3, neatly on the halfway mark. Bulma is the same as ChiChi.
Gohan is a level 8 and only needs a little bit more time before seeing a level up.
Goku’s stat level is six. Underneath his small bio, it details how he sees you as important and to be protected. However, he’s conflicted by his own nature and reactions to you, but despite that, he still wants to get to know you better.
Swiping right the final time, up popped the familiar screen.
/Save and Continue or Save and Exit?/
»»————- ————-««
Dun, dun, duuun. And thus concludes another chapter. Things are getting more interesting and complex by the day. Are you enjoying yourself? Would you like to continue? Don’t be shy~ It’s not a bad thing to ask for what you want you know~?