Dragonball Z Golden Age - Highschool/Cthulu Arc [Sketch][Cover] (Patreon)

It took me a while to craft this piece, but I've finally nailed an appropriate Highschool Arc at the end of the 7 Year Gap period after the Cell Games.

In the original canon timeline, we see an untrained, whimpy looking Gohan go to school, attend one or two classes, play as Saiyaman for a bit and be a super hero, then start training for another tournament. While the slice of life elements were fun to watch, it was mostly underwhelming because it didn't do more for it, so I decided to make my Highschool Arc a little more interesting.

In typing up the summary for the Highschool Arc's design, I heavily borrowed elements from multiple sources- namely existing anime where characters are featured predominantly in highschool settings, as well as the magical girl genre, both of which are rich with ideas.

It has been an ongoing goal of mine to somehow blend magical girls into the DBZ universe because I always found the idea of Sailor Moon characters meeting the Z-fighters to be a fascinating mix. But how to do that and do that in a realistic manner? How can you include a magical girl plotline into DBZ without having it clash with the rest of the world and the events going on in it, and how do you explain why they haven't shown up after all this time? Well, I used the same approach marvel did with Doctor Strange.

While all of the foes and entities the Z-fighters have encountered- the Kais, the demons, the androids, the Gods, and Zeno- all operate on the physical world of their reality, the magical girls Gohan run into when he enters high school operate in a supernatural, mystical setting, in which the enemies they are tasked with fighting and defending their world from are invisible and can't be seen by anyone else, yet they pose a substantial threat to the universe. And what enemies can fit this mould  while also providing a challenge to the heroes when they suddenly start crossing over into their world? Well, H.P Lovecraft of course, and his series of psychotic, nightmarish monsters and creations. (It also helps that Cthulu and the like are in the public domain, and thus can be used for whatever fictional purposes you wish).

The summary goes like this:

A couple weeks after entering highschool, Gohan discovers the Student Council President, Chitose, and three other girls, secretly battling a group of strange, twisted sea-creature like monsters entering their universe through localized black holes in the courtyard at night. This leads him to getting caught up in the battle and meeting the girls officially, who introduce themselves as the Astral Witches- a secret group of warriors blessed with otherworldly powers tasked with safeguarding the multiverse from the aberrations- creatures from the Abyss Realm- which are attempting to invade other realities.

These creatures are all composed of Psycho Matter, matter that is constantly changing, allows these creatures to cross spaces to the point of omnipotence, and cannot be harmed by regular matter- including the abilities wielded by the Gods of Destruction and Zeno. The Astral Witches posses Mystic Matter, which is specifically designed to disrupt and cancel out Psycho Matter. Gohan eventually learns to harness this himself so that he can help the girls fight off the aberrations.

At around the same time, Zeno, who is hanging out in his palace and playing games, is invaded by the leaders of the invading branch of the aberrations (the villains you can see in the cover above), and is taken hostage. The leader, the tall, dark, thin man named Nyarlathotep (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyarlathotep) states his intentions to invade the Dragonball Z Multiverse, terraform it, and transform it into a feeding ground for his masters- the Outer Gods and Great Ones.

So... yeah... the villains in this arc are no joke, and it's the Astral Witches' job to stop this particular event from happening. However, this is the first time they end up dealing with Generals and Leaders of these creatures- intelligent, dangerous, sentient and ambitious military warriors with supernatural powers of their own- thus beginning the main conflict of this arc.

The main characters involved in the final battles include: Gohan, Celipa, Hit, Erasa, Chiaotzu, Chitose, and the three other Astral Witches. The reason why all of them become a part of this saga is because all of them are capable of dealing with the aberrations, due to possessing either magical, psychic, or time-distorting abilities- which are ideal for dealing with villains that cannot be harmed physically.