Standing in the middle of his cramped bedroom was a man in an orange gi. Black hair, sharp bangs. Calm, unimpressed eyes.
“Wha—Goku?”
“Not exactly.” The man raised a hand, and a sphere of cobalt energy flickered into existence. “I’m the ghost in the save data. Every match you lost. Every rage quit. Every ‘what if’ you never played. The game remembers. And after three years… I decided to remember back.” Dragon Ball Budokai Tenkaichi 3 Aethersx2 Save Data
AetherSX2 loaded the memory card. He held his breath, navigated to “Load Game,” and—
The bedroom melted away. The floor became the World Tournament stage—cracked, endless, floating in a void of green code. The silhouette took form: a perfect mirror of Kai’s most used character, Ultimate Gohan, but with those burning red eyes. Standing in the middle of his cramped bedroom
“What?”
He’d been given a rival.
Goku. But not the cheerful, dumb-as-a-rock Goku from the anime. This one had the stillness of a god.
Kai looked at his controller. Then at his trembling hands. Then at Leo, who gave a tiny, terrified thumbs-up. “Wha—Goku
His heart hammered. This was too easy. Too convenient. Probably a virus. Probably a fake. But the ache of loss overruled his caution. He downloaded it.