I was roughly pushed through the huge throne room doors, and suddenly I was having an awful lot of second thoughts
Chapter number two. Our heroine finds that her life has taken a drastic turn once again. And…what's that she says to Seripa?

little_dende@planetnamek.org

I was roughly pushed through the huge throne room doors, and suddenly I was having an awful lot of second thoughts.

"Well, this room is rather intimidating." I said somewhat quietly. The guard that was walking with me 'hmphed' and smirked. The throne room was an enormous hall, with high, vaulted ceilings that caused the smallest noise to echo back to eternity. There were tall, gothic-style stained glass windows, depicting who knew what type of horrible scenes from the saiyans' history. There was a long, velvety, blood-red carpet leading up to the throne. I walked through the dimly lit hall, down the carpet, with the saiyan guard.

And then I was standing before King Vegeta. He was seated on his throne, which was on a dais, looking down, quite down upon me. The Prince was standing behind him, and to his right. Yes, definitely second thoughts were being had. I stood, almost paralysed with fear, looking up at him, at both of them, my mouth slightly open. They were much, much more intimidating here than they had been the last time I saw them. And I was scared out of my wits the last time. I felt a strong hand on my shoulder as I was pushed—very hard—onto my knees.

"Kneel before your King, ungrateful servant!" the guard yelled at me.

Crud, I'm off to a bad start again, I thought. I tried to ignore the pain shooting through my knees and legs, and tried to remember exactly how I was supposed to act. Oh yes, fist on chest. I brought a painful knee up so I was half-kneeling, and put my right fist over my heart, in a sign of supplication and respect. My head was still down; I dared not look up. I gritted my teeth and waited.

"What do you want, earthling, less-than-saiyan dog?" The King's voice boomed through the throne room.

Great, I've impressed him already, I thought sarcastically. I looked up, met his eyes, shivered, and said, "Sir, I want to—" I stuttered and looked at the Prince. He had his arms crossed and a look of disgust on his face. Or was it interest? With him, it was hard to tell. I looked back to the King and continued, "I want to train…like a saiyan. Sir."

Silence.

King Vegeta looked down at me.

The Prince 'hmphed' and smirked.

Then the King started to laugh…quietly at first, but louder with each moment, the sound echoing throughout the throne room.

"What?" he yelled. "You? A human? Train like a saiyan? Ha! now that'll be the day, won't it!" His laughter continued. "Corniss, please I must know, what's her combat level?" The King's head guard hit a button on his scouter and let out a quiet snicker.

"Six, Sir."

The Prince gave a slight chuckle, joined by the King's somewhat louder laughter, followed by Corniss, and soon everyone in the throne room was having a good laugh at my expense. The colour was rising very quickly in my cheeks but…what could I do? The laughter began to calm down, and was then silenced by a wave from the King.

"Now tell me, slave," he emphasised the word, "why I should let someone like you train."

"Well Sir," I started, "right now I have a combat level approximate to that which the third-class soldiers are born with," Yes, I had done my homework, "and if they are allowed to train, and can raise their combat and skill levels, I don't know why I shouldn't be able to, too. I know I can do it, sir I know I can. And because I—" I didn't want to bring this up. I wanted desperately to forget it ever happened, but it was probably the only thing that would convince the King. "—I was able to kill that other saiyan, on the ship from earth." I was still haunted by memories of the life I took. I regretted it badly, but one cannot change the past.

The King stroked his beard. "Ah, yes, I remember you now. Your combat level was only five then. You've managed to bring it up by one in this past year," he smirked. "So, you've given me your reasons why you think I should allow you to train, now tell me why you want to."

I braced myself. "I want to fight in the tournament next year," The King raised an eyebrow; he didn't look convinced. I scrambled for more to say. "I just want to see how I'll match up against other saiyans…Sir." That was only partially true, but I couldn't tell him the real reason that I wanted to learn how to fight; so that all the saiyans just might stop mocking and laughing at me!

I stopped.

The King stood up.

Crud.

He began to walk towards me. I instinctively stood and took a few steps back. Man, he sure was an imposing figure.

"So," he said, "you want to try yourself against a saiyan. Tell me," he stopped coming towards me and stood, only a few feet in front of me, "do you think you can handle it?" His eyes bore holes into mine, unblinking. I swallowed. What…was he going…to…? He kicked me lightening fast in the side of my ribcage with the force of a freight train. The pain seared its way through my mind and I instinctively grabbed his leg under my arm and held it. I would have fallen for sure, or rather would probably have gone flying, but his leg was actually holding me up as I held onto it. It was obvious he went easy on me with that one. Very easy. He could reduce me to dust without so much as a sideways glance. I just held onto him, trying to catch the breath that he so forcefully knocked out of me. I breathed through gritted teeth, looking at the floor.

"Well," he yelled, "don't just stand there! What do you do now?" To be honest, I had no idea. So I did something I saw in a movie once. I took his foot in both hands, and twisted it, heel up and toes down. When done right and with enough strength, you can flip an opponent over like this. When done right, that is. Instead of being flipped, he spun backward, and with his other foot, kicked me very lightly in the side of the head. Very lightly for him. For me, I think the apocalypse would have been more pleasant. I saw a bright flash as his foot connected with my head. The proverbial "seeing of stars" that afflicts so many cartoon characters. I fell to the floor and landed hard on my arm. I had to shake my head to try and coax the room to stop spinning.

"Pathetic." The King spat, as he turned his back to me and started walking back to his throne. No…no, no, no! It wasn't going to end this way; I had to convince him to let me train! I got up, cringing, and ran towards him. I jumped, and kicked with both feet into the small of his back, as hard as I possibly could. It sent him forward a little, but no more than a step maybe. I, of course, landed on the ground—again—hard on my bottom and my hands.

The Prince raised an eyebrow.

King Vegeta turned around. "Is that the best you've got?"

Pretty much, I thought to myself. I stood up and faced him. Gritting my teeth, I tried my best attempt at a saiyan snarl. I pulled back a fist, put as much power into it as I could, and punched him square in the--!

Crud. He caught it. Really easily, actually. How embarrassing.

Ouch…Ouchouchouch! His grip on my fist was tightening, and he showed no signs of letting go any time soon. He squeezed tighter and tighter as his grin widened. The intimidating look on my face turned into one of pain, and soon one of pleading as I felt my hand being crushed. I didn't say anything, but my eyes begged him to let go.

Finally, he did. "Useless dog," he said, and kicked his knee hard into my gut. I fell to my hands and knees at his feet and coughed up a little blood. I did not like the taste of that.

"Get up." He commanded.

I did.

"You'll be given one year," he said.

What!? I thought. Did he just--? My eyes widened as I tried to take in what he was saying. I was certain he was going to say no.

"One year. Until the next tournament. If I think that you've improved significantly, I'll allow you to continue. If not," he added, "I'll kill your worthless human hide."

I smiled. I couldn't believe it; he said yes! "Thank you, sir," I said through blood and pain. His look of death turned into a smirk again, as lightening-quick his fist connected with my face. I hit the ground and the world swam before me.

"That," he smiled, "was for kicking the King." And with that, everything went black.

* * *

Slowly, slowly, thoughts began to come back into my mind. Memories. The King. My eyes still closed, I tried to raise a hand to feel the wounds on my head, but I felt a significant amount of resistance against my hand as I tried to raise it.

I'm underwater! My eyes snapped open as the realisation hit. What the hell--!? Wait…I can breathe… I was still very afraid as I tried to push my hands forward and hit a strong glass panel. What's going on? I could see a couple of people walking around on the other side of the glass.

"Oh, she's awake!" I could hear someone say, though it sounded distorted. A greenish creature came right up to the glass and started punching some buttons on a small console. The water—or whatever it was, it seemed a little too thick to be water—began to drain from the small tank I was sitting in. The glass opened and the green alien pulled a mask off my nose and mouth that I hadn't realised was there. The air hit my skin and it was cold. I gasped.

"Where are my clothes?" I squealed.

"Here," a voice from behind me said, "put this on for now." A female saiyan came over and handed me a large cloak-like towel. I wrapped it around my shoulders and stood up.

"What's going on?" I asked, confused. I touched my head; it didn't hurt.

"You're in a medical wing," the strange green alien said.

"Yeah," the female saiyan laughed and added, "and you've been here for three days. King Vegeta really did you in good. I'm surprised you're alive at all. It's not often someone goes up against the King and lives to tell about it. He must like you."

Now that made me laugh. King Vegeta liking me? Right! "If that's how he treats people he likes, I'd hate to see how he treats those he doesn't like!" The saiyan and the alien didn't laugh with me though, which told me that I was right; I really didn't want to see how he treated those he didn't like. I shivered, and decided to change the subject. "What is that thing?" I asked, referring back to the tank.

"A regeneration tank," the female saiyan answered, "They can heal almost any wound or affliction, except death itself. And you'd better get used to them; you're going to be seeing a lot of 'em over the next year." My eyes widened as I remembered that the King had allowed me to train. The saiyan smiled the closest thing to a smile that a saiyan could manage, and extended a hand. "My name's Seripa, 2nd class soldier in the King's army. I've been assigned to train you to the best of my ability for the next year."

I shook her hand. "I'm…Kyotzuki."