"Whoa! Looks like a real party over there!" Son Goku exclaimed, swinging a steel pipe and caving in the skull of a nearby zombie. The crunch of bone sent a satisfying tremor up his arm—a faint, primal thrill. His Saiyan battle instincts, long dormant, were beginning to stir. With a grin, he waded deeper into the shambling crowd, turning his immediate vicinity into a zone of brutal, efficient carnage.
Unbeknownst to him, the intense firefight raging nearby was largely his own doing. The group holed up in the airport had previously cleared and barricaded the surrounding roads. Goku's haphazard path of destruction had torn through those barriers, and his rampant slaughter had acted like a beacon, drawing zombies from all over the district toward the noise and activity. The trapped survivors had no choice but to open fire, escalating the conflict and attracting even more of the undead until it had spiraled into the full-scale chaos now unfolding.
Saeko and the others waited safely offshore in the amphibious Hummer. Worried for their safety amidst the escalating disaster, Goku had ordered them to stay on the water—a zombie-proof sanctuary.
"Tch. Already wasted too much time," Goku muttered, tossing aside the bent pipe. "Gotta find that Minami Rika."
---
On the other side of the conflagration, Rika Minami was fighting a desperate, losing battle. Her movements were still precise, each shot dropping a target, but the tide was endless. "Dammit… If I don't extract soon, that fire's going to reach the fuel storage," she panted, wiping sweat from her brow. "That'll be a real problem."
She spun and fired twice in quick succession, the bullets finding their marks. She broke into a sprint down a debris-strewn street, seeking a momentary respite. Slamming her back against a wall, she took a second to breathe, her chest heaving. The relentless combat was taking its toll. She surveyed the road ahead—and the horde filling it—and a bitter smile touched her lips. "Never expected this many… Ammo's critical… Body's hitting the wall… This might be it."
Bang. Bang.
Her last two rounds took down the nearest threats. Without hesitation, she reversed her pistol and used the heavy grip as a club, smashing the heads of two more zombies that got too close. Her eyes darted toward the distant, looming silhouette of the fuel depot. "No way out… If that goes up, the hangar goes with it… This whole area gets flattened."
As if on cue, a deafening BOOM shook the ground. The fuel depot erupted in a cataclysmic fireball, a rising sun of orange and black that vomited flames and shrapnel skyward. A wall of superheated air and fire surged outward, devouring everything in its path.
"Is this the end?… Shizuka… I'm sorry… Looks like I can't make it to you…" Rika whispered, a strange calm settling over her. "I really did want to see what kind of guy your boyfriend is… That airhead…" She closed her eyes as the heat washed over her.
Suddenly, a powerful arm wrapped around her waist, yanking her off her feet. The world became a roar of wind and noise. When her eyes snapped open in shock, she was hundreds of meters in the air, looking down at the airport now fully consumed by a lake of fire below.
"…Am I dreaming?" she breathed, utterly disoriented.
Looking down at the beautiful, soot-streaked woman in his arms, Son Goku let out a relieved chuckle. "Cut it a little close there. You okay?"
Reality crashed back. Rika realized she was being held bridal-style by a complete stranger. Her face flushed. "L-let go of me!" she demanded, trying to push against his chest.
"You sure?" Goku asked, a mischievous glint in his eye. "We're about a hundred meters up."
Rika glanced down. The world swam. A yelp escaped her as she instinctively threw her arms around his neck and locked her legs around his waist, clinging to him for dear life. "Kyaaa!"
---
Out on the water, the women in the Hummer watched the apocalyptic pillar of fire with held breath.
"Saeko… do you think Goku-sama will be alright?" Shizuka fretted, wringing her hands.
"That hentai will be fine! Stop worrying so much!" Saya snapped, though the worried glance she shared with her mother, Yuriko, betrayed her own concern.
Saeko never took her eyes off the distant inferno. "I place absolute trust in any man I have acknowledged," she stated calmly. "All we must do is wait for him to return to us."
---
High above the flames, even the normally unflappable Rika Minami was blushing furiously. Their current position was… extremely compromising.
She took a deep breath to steady her racing heart, forcing herself to recall her phone call with Shizuka. She studied the man holding her aloft as if it were nothing.
"…You can fly. Kick a bus into the sky…" she mused aloud, her voice laced with disbelief. "Heh… I thought Shizuka was just being her imaginative self… But it's true." Her amber eyes locked onto his. "You… you must be Shizuka's 'boyfriend,' right? Goku, was it?"
"Heh. Just a humble traveler, really."
Rika's gaze sharpened, her cop instincts kicking in. "I never pegged Shizuka's type to be such a… lecher. So, did you trick her?" She knew Shizuka better than anyone—that soft, spacey, overly trusting girl was the easiest mark in the world. It was why Rika had always acted as her protector.
Goku met her suspicious glare with a look of exaggerated seriousness. "Don't give me that look! I'm a man of principle! Honest! Besides, you're the one who jumped into this position. Not my fault."
"Then," Rika said, her voice dangerously calm, "what do you call this?" She nodded pointedly to where his hands were firmly planted under her thighs.
"Safety protocol! If I let go—whoops—you'd fall!" To demonstrate, he gave a slight jostle, his grip tightening on her hips as he began a slow, controlled descent toward a clear patch of ground.
The moment her boots touched solid earth and his hold loosened, Rika pivoted and aimed a sharp kick straight for his groin.
"Oi! Trying to end my bloodline?!" Goku's body blurred, shifting just enough to trap her ankle between his thighs. No matter how she pulled, she couldn't wrench it free.
"Heh heh! Trying to pick a fight with me, little lady?" Goku grinned, his free hand snaking out to grasp her slender, toned thigh. "You should have thought about the consequences!"