Blue Roses
Bouzi Neo
Chapter Ten: Training
Trunks couldn't stop himself. When the shadows passed and he was sure Gohan wouldn't find him, he slipped out and followed him.
Gohan was right. Trunks did learn quickly enough how to sort out kis. At first he didn't want to, but he was happy he finally did. It was easier than Gohan made it seem. Energy was right there, you just had to think about it until you didn't have to. He didn't get to that point yet, and was still a little uncomfortable using it, but then again, this is the first time he used his new ability to actually find someone.
He sighed as he peered out into the night, "Where is he?"
Gohan looked around himself, the energy around him seemed to sizzle and spark. It would be good when Trunks was strong enough to get into serious spars with him. It was always easier to train that way, when training by yourself it seemed to limit your powers, and your mind and feelings seemed to take over. When he used to spar with Piccolo or his father, as far behind them as he was, they would always make him focus on them, he didn't have time to be upset.
But they were dead.
'Dead' was such a cold word. It hurt. Bad. But he had to remind himself every time he trained. He didn't want to think about it, but it always seemed to come up.
It wasn't fair.
Of course, nothing was.
Trunks crouched down in the grass, staring at his master through the thick blades. It was almost hard to recognize him, so hard it scared him. He was deep in thought, Trunks noted, but also had the ability of concentrating on his energy. Suddenly, he had a thought: Maybe Gohan wasn't as dedicated to his training as he thought.
If he was, wouldn't he stop thinking and train?
'When I fight, I would never let my stupid thoughts get in the way. Maybe that's what's been keeping Gohan from defeating the androids.' Trunks crossed his arms, still staring at his friend.
Gohan started to twitch, literally shake. The little yellowish waves surrounding him, that Trunks supposed was energy that was so strong it turned into form, seemed to turn thicker. Suddenly, Gohan was gone. There were little flashes everywhere.
Trunks gaped, he saw the little flickers of energy everywhere, but no Gohan. And he felt what he supposed was Gohan there, but it increased so much, it was petrifying. Maybe he had underestimated Gohan? Maybe he was concentrating?
It was a blur, it was scary, all he heard were grunts and all he could see were flashes of light. Was this what it would look like if he fought with the androids? Would he be able to handle it?
His eyes settled on where the energy was, and he stared at the little flashes until it became a form after about fifteen minutes of staring at it. His head completely followed it matching it's speed almost exactly, and the form, he could identify as Gohan's.
His thoughts turned as Gohan let out a yell, of pain?, and Trunks fell back.
It was too much to comprehend.
It was mind-boggling.
It was shocking.
He could barely concentrate enough to look at Gohan. He wanted to stand and watch him, but he was afraid to look at him. Not because Gohan could hurt him, but because the energy was so shocking. And last thing he needed was Gohan seeing him so shocked at this power.
"This is called a Super-Saiya-Jin, Trunks."
He blinked but nodded, "I heard a lot about it but never imagined it would be so strong."
"I've heard a lot about you but never imagined you would learn so fast. I had no clue you were so far along." His eyes were teal, but they shined with a sort of pride and Trunks nodded. His golden hair, so bright it was hard to look at it, slowly fell back to its original color, "Well, do you want to start your training?"
Trunks shook his head, "I'll let you train for a while."
"Trunks, it's still training to train you. Besides, the sun's coming up anyway. Unless you really don't want to-I know the feeling of a Super Saiya-Jin's energy can kinda be hard to accept."
Trunks just nodded, not sure if that meant he would train, or agreeing with Gohan.
Gohan got in a fighting stance, and smiled his same tricky smile, turning and flying off.
"Hey! That's not fair!" Trunks hissed.
Gohan turned again, "I'm teaching you to fly, Little Bro!"
"How does this help me? Got any pixie dust?"
Gohan smiled, "Nope."
All Trunks could do was roll his eyes, "Then how do I.-"
"Figure it out! Use your energy!"
With that, Gohan was out of site, leaving Trunks in the dust.
Trunks smirked as he sat down. 'Does he really think I don't know how to use my ki to fly?' Hovering in the air for a few moments, he sighed and sped up. Gohan was going slow, he could tell that. Maybe he could cut him off if he went just... a little... faster...
"Hiya, Trunks." Gohan nodded, blinking a little. With a raised brow, he looked towards the teen, "So you can fly, eh?"
Trunks smirked a little, "I'm not that behind."
Gohan stared at him and stopped in mid flight. 'He looks just like...'
Trunks blinked and slowed. "Gohan... what's wrong, Man?"
Gohan closed his eyes, trying to beat the image of the Saiya-Jin Prince out of his head. "Nothing. You just, kinda look like someone."
"Oh. Who?" Trunks tilted his head to the side. He felt bad... for Gohan to stop in the air like that. He looked like he saw a ghost. 'Which is probably what he did see...'
"No one, Man. Here we go. See that little island down there? It's my favorite training spot. Similar to the area I was first trained by Piccolo."
Trunks nodded and sped down in a narrow angle towards the lower cliffs of the far end of the island. A flash of orange light, and Gohan was already there, sitting on a rock with his arms crossed.
"You're..." Trunks gasped as he finally hit the ground, "Fast..."
"Take a few minutes to recuperate if you want." Gohan teased, causing a small blow to the boy's pride.
Trunks shook his head and stood, staring at the rising sun.
"Here's what I want you to do, Trunks. Power up to your highest level. I want to see if we can get you to a Super Saiya-Jin."
'But a Super Saiya-Jin seems so far away, Gohan. That power was so overwhelming just now. You expect me to become one of those? It's hard to think I could compare to that power. But I trust you, Gohan. I'll try.'
Trunks stood, bending his legs a little and bracing himself for balance. Lifting his arms out straight ahead of himself, he clinched his fists. The sharp nails dug into the soft skin of his palms, pain flowed through his body as he gathered as much energy as he could. His entire being began to ache. The energy was so hard to hold all at once. He heard himself let out a soft grunt as his host slowly started to shake. Or maybe that was the ground.
He worked hard to keep his feet on the ground, his own energy felt as if it could knock him off of his very own feet. It hurt, badly. Every muscle in his body clinched and tightened. The wind around him began to sway and move, obedient to his very own power's whim. The sun was rising; it was as if his energy was beckoning the energy from the sun and other being around him. The water over the cliff, the energy within the sharp boulders he was surrounded by, even Gohan himself. The temperatures of his body traded off from hot from the sun that seemed to burn down his back, to freezing, for the wind was winding around him, as if he were the very eye of the storm he seemed to be causing.
He couldn't help it anymore. It hurt too much. His soft grunts became agonized cries. He kept his head forward, staring towards Gohan's black eyes just looking at him. The gaze was confident, he didn't know if it was surprised or proud, but he seemed to be pleased with his overall power.
"Hey.... not bad." Gohan nodded to the boy, "I didn't know he was this far along..."
The dirt of the boulders could no longer take the torture, and disintegrated into soft, cool sand. The sand was picked up by the wind as Trunks let out a cry that hurt his voice to bellow out. It formed a thick curtain of dust around the boy. Little kinetic energy sparks cracked all around him, they stung his arms and chest and legs and even his face as they touched him. The dirt got in his eyes and hair and soon his hair was flying up, obeying the power.
"Oww.. ugh...NOO!" He cried, but already there was a fist connecting to his chin. Trunks felt his chin snap back, but he didn't feel the pain. Gohan was standing before him, a confident smile on his face, waiting for him to counter.
At first he was terrified, but then he understood. This was training. If he couldn't handle a spar against Gohan, then he wouldn't be able to last a second against the androids.
Trunks sent a sharp fist back at his master, who lifted his head to avoid, while grabbing his fist. That smile... it was so confident. So annoying. He felt like he'd seen it somewhere before, on another person, but when he snapped himself back to his senses, Gohan was leading him off towards the higher, steeper cliffs.
Flying ahead, he dodged random boulders flying towards him, even broke straight through one, ignoring the searing pain in his head. A tiny cut formed, blood threatened to trickle down, but nothing came, and he caught his target.
He lifted his right fist, trying to get a direct blow to Gohan's chest, but Gohan wouldn't have that. He narrowed his eyes and countered with his lower arm. Leaving his other arm to rest confidently at his side, Gohan blocked every blow with that single arm, and Gohan was more annoyed by the moment.
Then, Gohan just phased out of sight. Before Trunks knew what was happening, he whipped around to meet with the tip of Gohan's boot, his back slamming harshly against the hard rocks and skidding off of the steep cliff.
He was too preoccupied to even notice they were fighting on a cliff! But he tasted the salty water, overpowering even him with the crushing waves as he struggled to keep above the water.
His eyes closed, the salt water got to his eyes, so he blindly let out his arms, "Gohan! Help me!"
The man was standing on the edge of the cliff, staring coldly down at him with that same annoying smile that Trunks wanted to smack off of him.
He could only leave his eyes open for that second, closing them to brace before the powerful waves of the whirlpool he landed in.
"Okay. Make circles with your arms and kick real hard." He chuckled and Trunks glared.
"You bum!"
"Are the androids going to help you out?" With that, Gohan laughed.
Trunks closed his eyes and slowly started to power up. It was hard, so much force trying to move him, he needed to brace his own self for his own power, but with such a great second power disturbing him, it was almost too hard. The power came, slowly but surely. The waves calmed as well.
He slowly kicked his way out of the water, 'First I'm going to get out of here,' he tilted his head in the general direction of Gohan's laugh, 'And then I'm going to kill him.'
One hand clinched, the other paddling towards the shore, he slowly made it. He'd never been so happy to taste muddy sand before.
Coughing uncontrollably, he managed to crawl towards a rock to sit and calm himself, but he let in too much water and felt sick, ready to throw up. His body heaved and he had to bend over, still coughing out the water.
He looked up as he felt a mass blocking the sun from his burning eyes to see Gohan's outstretched arm with a little white towel in hand.
"Here ya go, Trunks."
"First.... You stand there and watch while I almost drown," He was talking so fast, he had to stop to cough, "And then you offer me a towel?"
"Yup." Gohan shrugged, but Trunks accepted the towel as Gohan smiled brightly and sat next to him.
Trunks dried his face and chest, nothing he could really do about his sopping wet clothes. Mom would get him for that one. Great. 'We went.... Uh.... Swimming, Mom. I dunno why Gohan's not wet.... Oh… alright.... Bye, Mom....' He snickered, 'That'll go over well.' He sighed and continued to wipe at his face, 'Ugh. So much for the royal treatment.'
Which reminded him....
"Uh, Gohan?"
"Yeah, Trunks?"
He looked away timidly, "You, uh, knew my father pretty well, right?"
Gohan froze. "Yeah."
"Well, my mom doesn't say much about him," He looked ahead, "and I can't remember anything from when I was a baby..."
'Here it comes. Vegeta, if you weren't dead I'd kill you about right now.'
"Do you think you could tell me a little bit about him? What he was like?"
"He was tough. Extremely powerful." He looked towards the boy with his same calm smile, 'Alright, I like the kid so I'll give him a few nice things to say about the bastard father.... But that doesn't mean I can't tell the truth either.' With a cooler smile he added, "Arrogant. Very proud."
"I see. That's about what Mom says about him."
Gohan looked dead ahead. The subject of how much Bulma loved Vegeta was something he wanted to stay as far away as possible from. "Yeah. She's changed a lot over the years."
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing." He shook his head, tilting it to the side, "Nothing at all, Trunks."
A LONG chappeh! YAY!
Next Time: Every night she looks in her dark lab for something, for some sort of hope, but that does not change what she feels inside. She is almost completely faithless, and it always refreshing to find something great when you are faithless.
Reviewer's Corner:
Vegeta Goddess: That just means I have to work harder to continue impressing you. Oh, and you really should just ignore me when I throw my temper tantrums and say I'm gonna leave. You know I won't.
AnnaK: That's why most of the time I don't do it with paragraphs unless it's only one person thinking about another and it's usually someone of the opposite sex. I'm glad that you think it's "refreshingly original". I strive to be original as I've stated before, so it's always a compliment from anyone.
Celeb Ryu: Yeah, inspiration came and lalala... Oh, and you of all people should know that I say crap when I get mad. God, I need to stop doing this to people. I'm so damn dramatic. But thank you for your kind words towards my fic. (Sound familiar?)
VTurnip: -Sniffles- That was so beautiful. Well, I figured that I had to come back. I am NOT leaving any of my fics alone. I will complete them all. I swear it. And, on that matter, people that want to copy my fics can burn in Hell. It really is a compliment that someone would want to be like me that much, I suppose, but when it gets to someone taking credit for the work I wrote, when they write it half-assed, using all but the fic's name, which was a cheap rip-off of my name, too.. You know? But I promise you all I'm not going anywhere. Keep on reading, VTurnip.