The Saiyan Royal Guard, every single one of their eyes deadset on the tomb of Prince Vegeta, heard and witnessed stranger and stranger phenomena coming from inside as the time went on. Two of the power levels registered in the depths of the structure suddenly burst to life, their showings rising dramatically for an instant, all while the sound of powerful screams and shouts echoed through the front entrance. Did the tomb raiders catch wind of the Saiyans' presence and express their dismay? Or did they, overtaken by vanity and greed, start to stab each other in the back to increase their share of the ill gotten wealth? Or was it neither of those?

The Saiyans would not learn the answer today, as, suddenly, all of their scouters died down in unison.

"We lost contact!" one of the Saiyan guards exclaimed, his voice filled with fright as he continued tapping on buttons on his scouter to check for any malfunctions. General Cumber was having none of it, and roared:

"What do you mean, 'we lost contact'?! They were right there! They have no other paths of escape!" The choleric general glared down at the ground, focusing on his own weak, but present ki senses. No matter how hard he checked, however, the entire structure was completely barren of life. No, that cannot be... They couldn't have escaped from right under his nose... Cumber waved towards some of the Saiyans closer to his position as he ran towards the gaping front entrance of the tomb. "Come with me! Now!"

The small Saiyan investigation squad, no less than five heads counting, ran past the highly decorated and pristine murals depicting the life of the Z-Fighters and Prince Vegeta among them, the destroyed remains of two Vegeta-Bots inside a peculiar room where their ki felt mysteriously shifted and altered, and finally through an open double door whose lock seemed to be an arm sticking out from the hardened steel, to witness a desecrated burial chamber before their eyes.

It was beautiful, it was breathtaking, it looked exactly what the Saiyans might have imagined the resting place of their long lost legendary hero to be like, but also clearly had seen better days. A few of the paintings had been taken off, many places in the wall now held gaping holes where they were clearly supposed to have precious jewels embedded, and several of the chests lined up by the walls had been opened.

Two things stood out, however. The first thing was that, either because of trying to escape before the Saiyans catch them or for some other purpose, the perpetrators of the crime half-assed their job. Much of the chamber was left unscathed, many of the jewels and gilded paintings were left in place and there were no signs of intentional vandalism. The second thing was that there was, simply put, nobody here. The perpetrators vanished to thin air, try finding that on your job record if you're a Royal Guard officer!

"So... General... what do we do now? We lost 'em." one of the soldiers behind Cumber spoke out. The General, upon turning around, saw the same soldier slowly reach out towards a ruby dropped on the ground next to his feet - in response to which, he received a disciplinary ki-infused slap across the scalp, the force of the blow forcing him to wobble back a few steps.

"Don't touch that, you idiot!" Now, regarding his question... The High Command was not going to accept him losing something precious to the Saiyan Dominion due to his failures twice. He was alraedy lucky to be where he was after what happened in the Battle of the Golden Fleece, and he couldn't afford just letting this go. "What do we do now? We search for answers. Get the best damn forensics experts on this entire planet and have them collect all possible evidence on the perpetrators, force out testimonies from everyone in the village who noticed the events at the bar. Unless they used protective measures against it, they must have definitely left fingerprints, footprints, anything which could help up make out their identities.

And then, I want their scalps."

"Ciao!" The word lingered on in her mind for a few more seconds.

As soon as Mizuna's feet stepped down on the cold, eternally frozen ground, her nose taking in the first welcoming breaths of Dark Energy infused air of the Demon Realm, the disguise she had put up for the purpose of the tomb raid broke apart like a cheaply made facade, revealing the blue skinned Shinjin hiding underneath. Truth be told, even she was surprised at how well she managed to keep up the guise of being a friendly, warm, yet also money driven Earthling tomb raider - hugging Khoshai and other members of her team was probably the hardest part to keep up. That and not lashing out at all four of them after they endangered the entire planat the very beginning... However, Mizuna's tenacity at dealing with the annoying mortals prevailed in the end. Even if there were close calls.

What unfolded before the Makaio's arms as she casually strolled forward, her two floating animatronics in tow, was a vast complex built upon the surface of this unnamed ice planet in the Demon Realm, stretching from miles on end, up to the horizon. Though, technically, this complex was built in the territory of the Ice Demons, a peculiar species residing in this dimension, not a single one of them could step foot on the world which Mizuna has designated for her work. A powerful magical enchantment would force spaceships and asteroids to turn around, it not get completely destroyed by the pressure. Those who managed to get somewhat closer to the surface, and were also more familiar with the culture of the dimension on the other side of the Kaioshin-erected barriers, would joke that they have found Santa's Workshop.

And while there were no presents to speak of to be given away to little kids in the mortal realm, this was certainly a workshop, and there were certainly elves to be found. However, Mizuna preferred the term "animatronics", or "dolls".

As the Makaio stepped through the front gates of her massive workshop, the cool air of the planet's surface left past her, she was immediately met by several animatronics of several sizes, shapes and forms, either strolling around or automated to create new carcasses for their master to enchant and turn into minions later on. Two animatronics, both of them identical to the two dolls which had been following her on New Sadla, pushed forward a heavy and massive glass bulb with the remains of Prince Vegeta suspended in a cloud of magic in the middle. Mizuna placed her hand on the glass casing, her reflection gazing into her, and cracked a faint smirk.

Sure, what she was looking at was merely a set of bones, but she was worked with less. And you cannot rid a person's ki from their body with something as pathetic as a few hundred years of decay - the contraption she will build from this base will inherit all of the power still lingering from its original owner.

Creating powerful synthetic creatures from biological material. It was one of the skills which Mistress Towa passed down to her, and one of the skills which ultimately earned her the label of being a corrupted Shinjin and thus cast down to the Demon Realm of Universe 7. Not only that, but they even declared her to only be worth of a pathetic, lowly Makaio position, even though with all the power and magical ability which she wielded, she could probably challenge the Supreme Kai himself, not even counting all the animatronics following her every command.

Mistress Towa, despite all the knowledge about all things technological and magical which she passed down to her disciple, was an imperfect woman. And, in Mizuna's eyes, she made two fatal mistakes. The first is to focus all of her efforts solely towards one supposedly perfect super-android, which she promptly fell in love with and eventually had to kill once its extremely developed programming ended up too hard for her to control. The second was putting her attention too much on time distortion shenanigans with the attempt to collect enough strength to destroy the seal separating the two dimensions of Universe 7 by force - and thus receiving far too many enemies and too little allies. There was a far easier and simpler way to not only reunite the dimensions, but also to destroy the entire hierarchy of the Other World to reshape the entire Universe as she saw fit.

And how did she saw it fit?..

Mizuna continued strolling across her workshop, humming under her breath, moving past building after building before finally ending in what seemed like a cozy street, surrounded from both sides by small, plastic-like homes. The sky above immediately brightened up and so did Mizuna's features. The Makaio's animatronics here lived their own cozy little lives, pretending to go by their daily chores, chatting with each other (even if they were unable to talk, so they mostly just wobbled their heads back and forth). As she continued strolling forward, Mizuna's eyes shifted towards a path intersection, where two beautifully crafted dolls - a raven haired boy and a white haired girl, both resembling Earthlings in their form and skin tone - were standing holding hands and looking at each other, occasionally wobbling their heads as if they were saying some heartfelt words.

"Wooow! I knew you would be able to do it!" Mizuna exclaimed upon running up to the two animatronics and gasping. "I told you she was going to say yes! And you two look so cute together!~ Where are you gonna take her? To your friend's bakery, or for a romantic walk by the beach?~"

The truth is, Mizuna was faking surprise. None of the animatronics here actually had free will. They could only follow her commands, even if they could take more complicated paths towards them than the usual robot or computer program - she ordered him to ask her out for a date and her to say yes to the prospect. Because... wouldn't they look cute together?

She was crafting a story here. A story with her animatronics, which she had complete and utter control over. Unfortunately, the rest of the Universe did not work like that. People did not follow her wishes, they did not do what she wanted them to do for the sake of a better story or for her own desires, they cited their free will or their own wants, however boring or foolish they were. Her creativity always had to make amends with all the... stupid crap which the mortals would think of to ruin her plans, over and over - could she not get a break?

She could.

She just needed to expand her house of dolls.

(1833 words, total 11606)



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