Practice Makes Perfect

Whis and Krillin sat cross-legged in the middle of their war-torn training ground. Normally, the angel would restore the area back to its original pristine condition, however, Whis was too eager to teach Krillin how to utilize Ki Magnification, so the grounds remained in their depraved state. Whis leaned forward and asked, "Are you ready, Krillin?"

The brave warrior closed his eyes, breathed in deeply, then exhaled slowly. "I'm ready," he confidently answered.

"Excellent." The angel turned his palm upwards and extended it towards Krillin. "Look here," he said. Krillin obeyed and a medium sized ki ball formed and with a small flick of his fingers, the orb shrunk down to the size of a nickel. When this happened, the micro-orb generated a quiet high-pitched ring and a minor amount of heat. "This," Whis started, "Is the result of Ki Magnification. This skill is easy to learn, but hard to master."

Krillin looked attentively. "Okay, then. How do I do it?" he inquired.

"Very easily," the angel replied as he let the orb dissipate. "Give me your hand." Krillin obeyed and rested his left hand in the palm of Whis' right. "Form a ball of energy for me please." He listened to the letter and formed a swirling sphere of ki. "Very good. Now try to compress the ball and make it smaller without losing any energy as I did." Krillin tried to do so, but the orb wouldn't budge. He curled his fingers slightly and tried to crush the ball of ki, but it remained immovable. It reminded him of when he tried to crush a marble between his fingers when he was a kid. No matter how hard he tried, that little marble wouldn't budge. But after increasing his grip continuously for a little over 30 seconds, the sphere began to shrink. He kept squeezing his fingers as hard as he could and was able to bring the sphere to the size of a tennis ball. After this, he lost his grip and the ball released a loud whoosh-like sound with a few crackles of electricity and heat.

"Not bad for your first attempt", Whis congratulated. "Now the key to mastering this technique largely relies on two things," he explained holding two fingers on his right hand. "Them being ki control and grip. Since grip is the simpler of the two, that's what we are focussing on first. So here is what you will practice for the next few days." Whis extended his left hand and formed a ball of ki the size of a tennis ball, just like Krillin's from a moment before. "I want you to start off with smaller amounts of ki and compress them to a micro-orb," he says while demonstrating. His fingers flick and the ball immediately matches his desirable nickel size. He then lets this micro-orb dissipate and forms a larger ball of ki, roughly larger than an orange. "When your grip gets stronger, you will then work up to compressing larger quantities of ki, firstly like this," Whis demonstrates, giving the micro-orb its token nickel size. He crushes the ball in his hand and a tiny explosion burped from between his fingers. "Then like this," he continued summoning an orb, the size of a large basketball and then shrinking it to the desired size. When he crushed this one, a large explosion flew from his fingers, the wind of which threw Krillin to his back. And when he sat back up, Whis smirked, "And finally, this," and creates a mighty ball of glowing, magnificent energy. The diameter of this orb had to be at least 25 feet and when he compressed it, loud white light vibrated from it. It took around 10 seconds to fully compress, which Krillin thought Whis was doing for dramatic effect (which he was), but when it reached the nickel size, Krillin saw erratic blue sparks of electricity crackling all over the micro-orb. Whis then smiled slyly and crushed then it.

"Uh oh," Krillin said.

Compared to the explosions from the last two micro-orbs, they didn't hold a candle to this one. The mere wind of it struck him like a solid and hurled the dwarf through the air, bouncing off the ground a few times, and casually glided Krillin in one side of a crumbling plateau and out the other side. Had Whis not teleported and mercifully caught him, he may have flown all the way to Beerus' temple, and they couldn't have that.

"... Wow," Krillin wheezed. He rubbed the back of his head and then stood silent and dumbfounded for a noticeable 30 seconds after his "guardian angel" neatly set him on his feet. "... and about how much energy were you using on that last one?" he queried.

"Oh, that?" Whis started innocently, "That was about as much energy Freeza used to destroy Planet Vegeta, except my energy, was a little denser to begin with."

At first Krillin wondered at the power, but then he recalled the fact that he had surpassed Frieza's power at that time long after he arrived there. Then, connecting the dots, he stated "... So you're saying that, if my grip gets strong enough, I could make a micro-orb that puts your planet-erasing attack to shame."

"Well aren't you sharp," Whis grinned.

"... At this point I'm not even surprised anymore," Krillin sighs walking back to the training site with his hands behind his head. He takes a few steps and then stops and turns to Whis. "You mentioned earlier that I'll be working on my grip for the next few days, right?"

"That is correct," the angel simply responds.

Krillin crosses his arms and leans to the side and says, "This means you don't need to be present while I train, correct?"

"Right you are," Whis nods closing his eyes.

Krillin walks over to the cool-headed angel and, with an unimpressed expression, asked, or more accurately states, "You're heading to Earth to hang out with Bulma for a few days, aren't you."

Whis smiles a goofy, embarrassed expression and laughs, "You caught me red-handed, Krillin."

Krillin sighs, exasperated. "You know Beerus will probably kill me the moment you leave, right," he says matter-of-factly.

"Oh ye of little faith," Whis breathes, "If he wanted to, he'd probably have done that when you first came to this place." The angel walks over to Krillin and places his free hand on the dwarf's shoulder. "Be confident. Besides, I've made sure to place a week's supply of food, sorted by meal, in your room."

Krillin glanced up and irritatedly queried, "A week's supply? Just how long do you intend to be gone?"

"Nothing more than a week," Whis replied. "It depends on how satisfactory Bulma's delicacies are. She told me that when I arrive, she'll introduce me to a new meal called yakisoba. She says that there are numerous different kinds that vary in flavor in spice. Oh I just can't wait to try them!" He was getting excited.

"Fine, fine, fine, go see Bulma," Krillin concedes, "but before you head out, can I give you something to take to 18 and Marron?"

Whis returns from his reverie and kindly smiles, "Of course my friend."

Krillin returns from his bedroom to the dining room where Whis patiently stood, carrying a little white envelope. "Thanks for giving me some paper and a pen," he says. "This really means a lot to me."

"I can tell," Whis replies as he extends his hand to receive the handwritten message.

Just as the angel's fingers touch the letter, Krillin yanks it back and demands, "Give this to my family before you head to Bulma's, got it?"

Whis is briefly surprised by Krillin's sudden serious demeanor, but then he emanates a kindly warm smile and nods, "Understood."

Krillin's expression softens and as he places the letter into the angel's hand, he grabs the back of it with his left and holds his hand with both his two and gives it a firm shake. "Thank you," he says with a small and humble bow.

"There's no need to be so formal, Krillin," Whis chuckles as he gently pulls his hand from the short man's clasp. "This is just what friends do, am I correct?"

Krillin pauses and looks at the smiling angel with a bewildered expression. But then he smiles and replies, "That's right." And with that, he extends his hand for a fist bump which Whis jovially obliges.

The two walk to the porch and with a tap of the angel's staff, he disappears in a line of white light. Krillin stands there looking into the sky as the light slowly fades, wearing a confident smile. Then after a few more seconds, he claps his hands together and says, "Well I'm hungry. Might as well raid my little pantry."

Krillin strolled over to his room and opened a little chest Whis prepared. Inside were three columns with little pre-packaged meals stacked on each other. The column on the left was labeled, "BREAKFAST", the one in the middle was, "LUNCH", and the one on the right was, "DINNER". There was about 7 packages in each column and a little handwritten note on the inside of the lid. It read, "Make sure Beerus doesn't find out about my little gift. Otherwise, you won't have any food for a week. Work on your grip and you will master Ki Magnification in no time. Good luck," and he signed it with his little spiraled signature.

The dwarf shook his head and grinned at the corner of his mouth. "That angel is quite a character. Well I better keep this out of sight. Probably good to bury it just inside the training grounds. Don't want an angry purple cat god getting into my food." Then Krillin shut the lid, locked it, and flew the chest inside the training grounds just as he planned. He believed that if he kept it far enough, Beerus wouldn't smell the food.

Once he reaches his destination, he opens the crate and pulls out a dinner plate then shuts the lid. Setting the food aside, he glares a hole in the ground, a good 5 feet deep, and places and buries the chest next to a crippled tree, making sure he could find it later. With his stores successfully buried, he opened his dinner and ate a simple meal of eggs, rice, and grilled tofu. Felt more like a breakfast item than a dinner, but he was content either way.

With dinner finished, he vaporized the package and finds a spot, a good distance away from his food tree, to train. He does as Whis instructed and starts off with a smaller ki ball this time. When he tried to compress it he found that, as stubborn as the orb still was, the process was significantly easier compared to the first time and his results were equally successful. It took him a good 10 seconds to full compress his glowing sphere, but he was able to make it reach that dime-sized standard Whis had unofficially set.

The now micro-orb generated a quite high-pitched hum just like Whis' orb and the warrior beamed with pride. Then glancing upwards, he spotted a crumbling rock spire sticking up out of the landscape. Now having successfully reproduced the micro-orb, albeit a much weaker variation, Krillin set his sights on testing its power.

Just to make a comparison, he shot a standard ki-ball into the hill beside it and watched it erupt into a little explosion of rock and dust with small chunks of earth falling to the ground. Having set his standard, he then took aim and the lone spire and, supporting his right with his left, launched the miniature projectile at his target.

What first shocked Krillin was the kick he got from shooting the micro-orb; the force from it shot his arm back and he had to catch himself from falling over. But even more shocking was the power of that little ball of energy. He couldn't see the micro-orb after a short distance, but he knew when it connected because at one moment, the spire was sitting there crumbling in peace, but then the base of it vanished completely and a small white light quickly popped, about 12 feet in diameter.

The remainder of the spire fell unceremoniously to the ground and Krillin's eyes nearly did the same. With barely an inkling of energy, he was able to, merely by compression, erase granite from existence. Then he imagined what he could do when he fully mastered Ki Magnification and muttered below his breath, "So this is what it feels like to be important."

The dwarf, as one can expect, received a major boost in confidence from that little show of power and ended up practicing for 4 hours with no breaks. During that time the eternal day kept moving and the lights changed, however, Krillin pressed onward, strengthening his grip little by little, moment by moment. By the time he was done, he was able to form a micro-orb in a second with the smaller amount of ki. Krillin was satisfied with the humble results and decided to turn in for the "night". So once he finished stretching he took to the skies and quietly flew to Beerus' temple. Since it was just himself and the god of destruction he much preferred not to disturb the purple cat and make him angry.

Once he landed on the balcony, he silently crept to his room, showered, and went to bed with a happy smile on his face. He went to sleep immediately.

The following day Krillin woke up "bright and early" and got into gear. This time he wore a white gi with the scarlet sash around his waist and viewed himself in the mirror. Although his favorite was the traditional orange gi of the turtle school, he liked to vary his outfits from day to day and was pleased to see that he didn't look bad in the white and red uniform that Whis gave him. It was starting to grow on the dwarf a bit. He gazed at his reflection for a few moments and noticed something that looked a little off. The mirror that the angel gave him was about four inches taller than Krillin, yet now it seemed to have gotten slightly smaller. The appeared change was large enough to be noticed but also small enough to be passed off as a one "seeing things". Krillin saw it as the latter and decided not to be concerned with such a little matter. After a brief stretch, he leaped off of the balcony flew to his tree where his buried stores lay.

Upon arriving at his lonesome tree, he quickly dug up his deeply buried pantry with his hands like a dog. His palms easily sunk three the rough earth like a hot knife through butter and every time he threw the dirt behind him, he accidentally created a brown cloud directly above his spot which he didn't notice at first, he was too hungry to care. Once Krillin reached the sealed crate, he hoisted the box out from the ground and gingerly set it beside his marker. He opened the crate, grabbed a breakfast package, and closed the lid. He sat on the box as he ate breakfast which consisted of rice, miso soup, a grilled fish, and an orange. After he finished, Krillin vaporized the tray leaving a small plume of smoke and returned his pantry to its and buried abode. Once he nicely packed the freshly moved dirt, Krillin bolted a good mile away from his "pan-tree", which he named it, and after a quick stretch, he began his training with renewed vigor.

Before continuing to work on his grip, he decided to do some warm-ups, so he started with a 10-lap sprint around the temple's perimeter, continued with 1,000,000 jumping-jacks, push-ups, crunches, and squats, and finished with shadow boxing match in which each punch and kick generated a powerful shockwave just from the speed alone. When Krillin finished, he noticed that he had barely broken a sweat and that the lights didn't look too much different from before. Since he didn't carry a watch with him when Whis whisked him away, he had no idea how long all of that took. So he decided to make test just how fast he had gotten.

Krillin looked on the ground for a decent sized rock and lightly tossed it from hand to hand. It weighed less than a feather, which had already been the case for him for nearly 3 decades, but that wasn't the point. He tossed the rock about 10ft in the air, did 1 push-up, stood up, and caught the rock. Not a problem at all for the dwarf. He repeated the experiment and did 10 push-ups. Still not a problem. He again repeated the experiment and did 100 push-ups this time and again, still not a problem. A smirked formed at the corner of his lips. Krillin extended his hand with the rock straight in front of him and released it. The world slowed down. When he brought his hand to his side, except for the faintest movement towards the ground, the rock stood there in midair almost like a magic trick. Krillin placed his hands on the ground with his legs bent, cocked and ready to go. He pushed with his right foot and ground beneath it fell apart.

Krillin dashed back and forth across the plain, doing his best to stay on the ground, leaving large columns of powder in the air wherever his feet made contact. He felt the air pushing against him as if it were solid, but that did little to stop or slow him. The smirk grew into a grin. He dashed back and forth, doing laps and counting all the while. After he did a few, Krillin sprinted back to check on the rock. It had moved just 2 inches. He stepped a mile away and began to fight with himself, firing orbs of energy at each other, running in front of the orb's path and blocking it or taking the brunt of the force. To take things up a notch, he started launching micro-orbs instead of standard ki-balls and the exercise was much more challenging. The micro-orbs, even though they were much less potent than Whis', carried a lot more weight and explosive power and Krillin found this challenge to be so invigorating. He dashed back to the rock and it went down only 6 inches. His grin grew into a smile, then he got an idea.

Krillin stepped away from his makeshift hour-glass, generated a ki-ball slightly larger than average, and started crushing it. He gripped and compressed with all that was in him but the orb wouldn't budge. Veins started popping on his forearm and bicep and sweat formed on his forehead. However, he refused to be beaten and once he brought in his free hand to assist, the sphere, miraculously, began to shrink. Either he had saiyan biology or he was hyped on adrenaline, but regardless of the reason, the fact is that the larger energetic sphere yielded to his command as it probably shouldn't have, given his lack of experience, and slowly, ever so slowly, shrunk down to its desired size.

Krillin let out a strained breathe and gazed at his new creation, crackling with electricity and raw power. For a moment he got worried and quickly glanced back to his floating rock. It was now almost 5 inches above the ground which both filled Krillin with glee and dread. He needed to be quick if this was going to work. So he set his feet in a strong stance, the right foot in the back and the left in the front like a lunge, held forward the chaotic micro-orb, and launched it. The backlash from this micro-orb was monstrously greater than the first one he mastered and his entire body was shoved 15 feet away, leaving two furrows in the earth where his feet were. Krillin's arms were numb and his head was down for a moment which he spun back up to see the more-potent micro-orb hurtle along. He was smiling from ear to ear as he saw it go amazed that he achieved it so quickly, but then his gut fell down to his toes as he saw that it was hurtling towards Beerus' temple.

Horror coursed through his veins, into his heart, and then out to every limb in his body as he accelerated as fast as he could to catch up with the missile. Krillin knew that Beerus had come to tolerate his existence over the last 4 months, but he knew that the moment that that micro-orb connected with his home, no dragon balls in the multiverse could bring him back. He pushed himself forward and farther as hard as he could, mixing his flights with digging his feet into the earth to propel him just a little bit further. The more-potent micro-orb flung past the training area and eroded through anything within 3 feet of it. It bored a perfect tunnel straight through a mountain and created an almost lovely spherical path through the trees. It would have appeared more lovely had Krillin not been running for his life to stop the cursed thing.

The brave dwarf finally managed to fling himself in front of the deadly glowing dot and thrust his arms forward to stop it. If he thought that launching an unmastered micro-orb was hard, stopping it was nearly impossible. Before his hands even made contact, he felt what he could best describe as a loud heat emanating from it. His hands finally made contact and he felt as if his entire body was being carried away by a skyscraper. Krillin stomped his legs into the soil and pushed back as hard as he could, but to no avail. He tried to punch the thing to see if he could alter its course, but the more-potent micro-orb continued on. Then an idea came into his head. Krillin, "holding" back the one micro-orb, began to create a smaller one with his right. He formed the ki, brought it down, and perfected its miniscule size with it giving a high-pitched ring indicating its completion. Much to his surprise, he felt a quieter heat come from that less-potent micro-orb and for a moment wondered why he didn't notice it before, but he didn't have time to dwell on that. He saw behind him that he was coming near the palace's garden and he much preferred to keep from barrelling in.

Krillin's body was beginning to tire and he felt his arms getting weaker and his left arm buckling from the incessant weight. With the rest of his strength, he grits his teeth, planted his feet, threw his right into an uppercut, striking the more-potent micro-orb with the lesser one. At impact, the lesser orb cracked and erupted a large, powerful beam from the dwarf's hand. The beam didn't actually touch the more potent but wrapped around it in a 3-foot radius, the same that resounded the loud heat. It pushed against the more potent and slightly, ever so slightly, changed its path. Krillin pushed along with the beam, although it was all he could do to keep his arm from snapping off.

The beam abruptly ended its barrage and the dwarf quickly leaned back, getting cut on his right ear as well as shaving some hair. Krillin lost his balance and quickly scrambled to his feet to see where the micro-orb was going. He looked and saw the orb fly up and just past the magnificent tree which housed the god of destruction and out of sight towards the sun. "YES! Whoo hoo!" he yelled as he leaped and thrust a triumphant fist into the air. He successfully saved Beerus' temple and his neck in the process. He looked a little uneasy as he saw the destruction he caused on the way there, but he was happy regardless.

Remembering his experiment, he hurried back to his training grounds and back over to where the rock should be. He knew that it would have landed on the ground by now, but he just wanted to check to be sure. Once he reached the area, amid all the destruction and craters, he saw that his rock wasn't there. Sure there were many rocks strewn about the place by now, but that particular one was oddly shaped, which is why Krillin picked it in the first place. It was easy to recognize and the fact it wasn't there puzzled him.

"Now where could that rock be?" he questioned. "I know I was making a mess everywhere, but it should be about-"

"Looking for this?" The inquiry came from an unmistakable voice. Krillin slowly turned and saw a flustered purple cat tossing and catching his rock. "You made quite a mess around here, haven't yo-"

Beerus' sentence was cut short by the eruption of a very large celestial body. The Krillin gawked at the sight but the god of destruction turned his head and simply looked at the entire sky turned white. The dwarf blew up the sun, or at least one of them. Both of them stared in silence as the once proud star shrunk and then burst into a glorious supernova with little rings expanding away from the core and then slowly vanished from existence.

While the event was happening, these words repeated ad nauseum in the mind of the poor human warrior, "I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm sooo dead."

Once the spectacle ended, the day grew noticeably darker. Instead of three, now there were two suns orbiting the purple cat's palace and Krillin knew in his heart that his fate was permanently sealed. Beerus didn't turn away from the sun's former spot for a while. He just stared at it blankly all while holding the oddly shaped rock in his hand. Finally, the cat turned back to look at the trembling human. Only his profile shown. The eye facing Krillin has clearly locked on his two but the expression was still blank. This shocked Krillin because he was absolutely certain that the god of destruction would be livid that a puny human had effectively snuffed one of his three suns with his eyebrows bent into a furious furrow. However, his eyebrows were cocked up and looked more surprised, or even impressed, had Krillin not been fearing for his life. Then something happened that the dwarf will never forget as long as he lived. Beerus… smiled?