Chapter 4: Outer Space

In hopes of training more, Krillin programmed the ship's speed accordingly to the time in which he wanted to get to Namek. Goku had gotten in ten days, but he wanted at least three months of training just like the first time he went to the planet. After getting everything in place, he, together with his two companions, left for Piccolo's home place.

Training with Videl was harder than expected, basically since she was way too behind for Krillin. He even had to taught her fighting basics because Gohan hadn't fully explained that to her. Energy blasts, afterimages, special techniques, etc. Videl learned quickly, Marron stayed all day having fun with a pair of childish games she had brought, and occasionally learned something from Krillin. However, due to his lack of advancement in his strength, Krillin opted for training in the night, while Videl and Marron slept. He would double the gravity the first days, and, as time progressed, he would move onto harder gravities to get better results.

The first month was the one that took the longest. Videl raised her strength a bit and sparred with Krillin when she could. Of course, he had to hold back terribly, but at least she was throwing Ki blasts: they were weak, no doubt, but advancement was advancement. Also, she worked hard on developing her own signature ki technique, as part of Krillin's training for her.

"Look Videl," started Krillin once. "Fighters have signature moves that they use in battle. These signature moves are basically consisting of a large amount of ki that you gather in a certain body part to release a powerful blast. Understood?"

"Yup!" had said Videl.

Having the concept clear, Videl struggled to create her own signature blast but it was way harder than expected to her. Krillin didn't blame her, it took him a long year to develop his own Destructo Disc, although at least half of the time had been spent on what to create. However, upon seeing news of UFO's, Krillin opted for creating an energy saucer. The real time of creation was six months, and that with perfecting the technique to be completely circular and powerful. His first real advancement had come within the first weeks, creating a small and deformed disc which cut through a wall of Kami's palace.

Videl, however, couldn't even gather energy well in any part of her body despite the fact that she was as strong as Krillin had been during the Saiyan's first arrival to earth. Seeing how her student wouldn't make it far without coaching, he tried to teach Videl the Kamehameha but not even then she made it: she could gather energy in her hands, but she was afraid of putting a lot of energy and fainting.

Discouraged at the failure, Videl had almost given up when Krillin came up with yet another technique. He remembered that, while he trained with Kami, Gohan had trained with Piccolo and had developed the Masenko, an easy blast through which energy from the head was directly transported to the hands in front of it to create a yellow Ki blast that inflicted damage. Videl started struggling less with the Masenko: it appeared she had quite a lot of energy in her head and wasn't afraid of using it.

In the meantime, Krillin's own training went bad as he spent way a lot of energy in teaching Videl and was completely consumed by the rough training during the nights. Moreover, he had to be silent, trying to avoid waking either Videl or Marron since he didn't want them to become worried or something. Furthermore, the fighter was starting to lose sleep in exchange of tiredness, which was what he hated the most.

Things were apparently going bleak for Krillin's training but smoothly for Videl's, until one day when, practicing blasts, Krillin shot a weak Kamehameha but his opponent received the blow on its full. It was then when Videl asked:

"Not fair, Krillin! Isn't there a way of protecting oneself with energy?"

It was then when Krillin realized what he had to train for. Energy barriers! If he could block in battle the incoming blasts of Goku and the others, he would have more of a chance to catch off-guard his opponents and thus he would actually win something. Yet again, he had to make energy barriers strong enough to withstand enormous ki quantities, so that his protection wouldn't be overwhelmed and, apart from the waste of energy doing the barrier, receive the incoming blast on its full. He had found an answer to his problems on that sense, although he still had to work hard.

That same night, the experienced fighter rose from his bed in the lower part of the ship, watching at his companions lay on the red floor, both of them sheltered by the same huge white blanket. He smiled warmly although he knew to perfection that he couldn't be seen by either of them. He went to the second floor trying to avoid noise like he usually did and got to the tower which contained the gravity system.

"Alright," he said to himself. "Let's practice shielding!"

Upon saying these words, he made the gravity a hundred times stronger and sent a Destructo Disc to spin around the whole second floor. Once the first turn was about to get finished, Krillin put up a barrier of ki, trying to protect himself from the blast. The disc tried to break through and actually managed to pass the barrier although not on its full, cutting Krillin's face slightly. The fighter moaned in pain, releasing the shield he had made and resting a bit.

"They heard me," thought Krillin worriedly about Videl and Marron. "I'm about done."

Luckily for him, he was mistaken and both women were still sleeping calmly downstairs. After confirming this, Krillin kept using Destructo Discs and Kamehamehas so he could block them effectively. However, he was unaware that when he released the blasts, a little noise was done. Shamefully, this would cause Videl to have a couple of nightmares and, eventually, check out what kind of things was happening upstairs. Krillin wasn't in luck.

"Help me Videl!" shouted Hercule in despair as Mr. Buu punched him and made him suffer terribly.

"I'm going daddy!" answered Videl with courage as she approached her father in a rush, trying to save him. Nevertheless, each time she tried, she felt an enormous hit and backed away. Refusing to give up, she'd try again and again and the result was the same. Completely beaten, Videl watched how the pink blob easily finished her father's life, as she shouted in horror:

"NOOOOO!"

Then, everything went black as her father appeared again in numerous places simultaneously, recriminating her.

"You disappointed me…"

"Forgive me daddy, please!" begged Videl in tears. But the noises didn't stop, they kept up making Videl feel even worse.

"NO! NO! I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT THIS IS REAL!" screamed the young girl, while crying inconsolably to one in particular. All of a sudden, she opened her eyes abruptly and noticed everything so calm around her, the white blanket giving her enough warm and Marron next to her, snoring a bit and enjoying her sleep. Everything was perfect, she had had a nightmare but it was no more. Her father was down in the Earth, safe and sound, and she was in the outer space with Krillin and his daughter on her way to Namek while she sharpened her skills.

"Hold on a second," Videl whispered as she turned where Krillin was supposed to be. "Where's Krillin?"

Looking around, the young woman noticed that her teacher was absent for some reason and started to look for him in the first floor, to no avail.

"Maybe upstairs?"

Videl slowly got up and, step by step, came closer to discover Krillin's secret. Although a little scared by her teacher's absence and the recent terrifying dream, she was determined to check out whatever was happening upstairs. Luckily for Krillin, he started to hear Videl steps coming and quickly disappeared the blasts and shields, turned off the gravity and vanished himself, staying behind the tower in the center of the ship.

"Krillin?" asked Videl aloud once she reached the second floor. Krillin was shivering with fear, he couldn't let himself get caught or else Videl would be enraged and possibly not talk to him again. And if that happened, his main resource of money (Hercule) would no longer provide him anything. He actually needed it to pay to Marron's studies, he couldn't allow that money to get away from him! And plus, Videl was a friend of his; he didn't want to lose that friendship because she was just too weak for his likes.

"There's someone here…" suspiciously stated Videl, knowing that there was a strange presence but unaware that it was actually Krillin. "Where's Krillin?" shouted Videl, waiting for someone to answer.

"Oh god," thought Krillin, "Videl is thinking that someone entered the ship and kidnapped me!"

He was right, Videl had already started to search around the room, trying to catch some sort of alien although only the two humans were there. On these attempts, Videl searched behind the tower of gravity and Krillin, with a smooth but fast movement, vanished again in order to avoid being caught. Nevertheless, the young and smart girl felt this and tried catching whoever had tried to escape. Krillin, too, noticed his young student trying to catch him, and moved even faster so he could escape.

The following minutes were a complete chase in which Krillin had to limit himself to the reduced space of the ship while Videl freely moved in hopes of catching him, but failing to do so. The ship began to tremble because of the constant movement and because of this, both fighters fell in inaccuracies at the time of moving. Krillin almost got caught twice because he tripped over and Videl finished up in the floor after an abrupt shaking of the whole ship. While Krillin took the chance to hide once again, Videl broke into a rage and started releasing blasts of energy without control.

"STOOOOOP! RAAAAAAAAAAA….!"

Krillin watched in amazement as Videl emanated powerful shots of Ki, hitting the ship and weakening it. One of those shots, unluckily, hit the control board and raised the speed of the ship. Caught off guard, Krillin tripped and landed next to a space suit, and, taking the chance that Videl was still enraged, he put it on and tried simulate that he was the alien so that he could reduce the speed of the ship to normal and face Videl until she fainted so he could, afterwards, convince her that it had only been a dream. He had thought about it while he was being chased, yet he didn't know how to simulate being an alien, and here was the chance.

Unfortunately, another of Videl's blasts shot the control board again, this time raising the speed to the max and tilting the whole ship, making Krillin fall again to the lower part of the it, hitting the exit and releasing the man into outer space, while everything inside was being sucked up by the opening Krillin had left.

"Ha!" blurted Krillin while releasing a ki shot that closed the door.

With the door shut, Krillin outside of the ship and Videl without energy after the blasts she released, the situation appeared to be better although it wasn't: the ship was still going at max speed, Krillin could no longer get into it and Namek was so close that in any moment they could reach the planet and crash.

"Namek…..Namek is there!" shouted Krillin upon seeing a green planet in the distance, while being overwhelmed by the ship's speed.

With the planet so near, Krillin knew that he had no other chance than reducing the ship's speed by any means. Trying to think, everything he had lived through came to his mind to see if the situation lived now, in some sense, was similar to any other he had lived. And then it hit him.

Getting quickly in the top of the ship, he started to gather energy as he knew this was his only shot of saving Videl, Marron and himself. If it failed, he would live in other world with the guilt of having killed his friend and his own daughter, just because of the selfish impulse of getting stronger without telling the rest. He only hoped that the results of his so-said training would be shown.

"Kaaaaaaa…."

The blue sphere appeared in between his hands like it usually did, but it grew larger on the instant after Krillin powered up, the transparent aura appearing around him.

"MEEEEEE…."

This scene remembered Krillin of what Goku had told him of his fight against King Piccolo, how he, using a Kamehameha, had propelled himself from the ground towards the demon and had defeated him with amazing strength. What Krillin expected that would happen was somewhat the opposite, using the technique to propel the ship in the other direction so that it would eventually stop moving.

"HAAAAA….MEEEEE…."

The ship was already entering the planet and the moment of releasing the beam came closer, it was a matter of timing now.

"HAAAAAAAAA!"

An amazing blast came out of Krillin's hands as he moved them forward and in no time the blue beam reached the planet, clashing against the green ground. The ship started to lose speed but, to Krillin, it appeared as if they were going to crash anyway. Although he was sure he would survive the crash himself, it was quite obvious that Videl wouldn't and Marron much less. So, pushing himself up to the limit, he shouted:

"HAAAA!"

The Kamehameha widened greatly and Krillin thought for a second that his technique might have gone through the ground. Luckily for him, this didn't happen and, slowly, the ship reduced its speed to the minimum, nearly reaching the ground. And when it appeared that it was getting rocketed again, but in the opposing direction, the powerful human ceased using his Ki and the ship fell onto the ground.

Exhausted, but relieved, Krillin let go of the strength that kept him on his feet and fell next to ship, fainting in the process.