Episode Seventeen
'Fighting is What Matters'
The Spring Games had arrived and it would be the big debut of the two wild Irredeemable Cannibal Aliens.
The crowds were gathering in droves. There was to be a Grand Melee at the start of the day, Young Bloods from all the Great Lords would be thrown together in a massive battle royal to fight it out until only one Lord's fighters remained.
Then the real matches would begin with the crowd's appetite properly whetted. Well known Named fighters from each House would compete, Tathy, Bacore, Poi, Neyho, Robstar, the very best of House Stobler would match their skill against the fighters of Lords like Barc and Pimlet and Sehll'shif, by the end of the day for the Premier Event the winner or winners of the Grand Melee would be able to earn a bit more recognition by battling the reigning champion.
Of course it would be something of an exhibition match, the Champion would toy with their inexperienced weak opponents, give them some openings to exploit so the crowd wouldn't become bored. A good Champion would rile the crowd's excitement even when fighting to a foregone conclusion.
But what the crowd expected and what the two Saiyans would actually deliver were two very different things, and Bass had assured Lord Stobler that his new acquisitions, properly healed and trained, would have no difficulty in the melee and would rapidly turn the tables on the reigning Champion, a fighter called Gasper the Ghostmaker.
Tathy knew she'd never forget the crowd's excitement as the Grand Melee approached, but she'd never seen Bass looking more nervous. He'd made promises to his Lord, and his wild charges needed to deliver or he would be the one to suffer.
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"Hold on, please!" Karuto interrupted.
"Hmm?" Tathy raised her gaze from the box of donuts she was consuming. Karuto had three more boxes to his side so he didn't mind that she kept eating even though she wasn't telling the story at the moment, especially since he had a bit of criticism for her.
"Well it's just . . . you skipped a bunch." Karuto said.
"How do you know?" Tathy asked. "Did you already hear this story?"
"No, but you went from when they were bought to their first arena matches. I want to know what happened between that. What happened to them when they got to the villa? How were they trained? You mentioned Bacore and Poi before but who were Neyho and Robstar?"
"Oh Neyho and Robstar don't matter, they lost." Tathy said.
"Lost?" Karuto asked.
"Yeah. In the Arena. When you lose in the Arena you die."
"What? You die?" Karuto gawked.
"Well not usually, but often enough. If the crowd is thirsty enough for it and they demand it loudly enough. And it's not just the disappointing fights, that was what they told us back then but eventually I knew it wasn't just the disappointing fights . . . sometimes it was the epic fights. Sometimes it was the fights so amazing that the crowd just . . . needed to feel like they had some measure of control, like they had any kind of a right to decide the fate of the legends they'd just witnessed."
Tathy laughed bitterly, "We were all out to make a name, to win titles, to make sure the whole War World knew who we were but really when the crowd knows who you are . . . the crowd gets a lot more eager to be able to go home and say 'I was there when Neyho died' or 'I was one of the voices that called for the end' or 'better Robstar went out with dignity than continue to fade after such a humiliating defeat'. So sometimes no matter how good you were . . . you lost. Neyho and Robstar lost in the Spring Games."
Karuto frowned, "Well that doesn't mean they don't matter."
"It does for our story." Tathy shrugged. "You wanted to know about Cauli and Rhuby, remember?"
"Well . . . yes. Did they get along with the other fighters?"
"Well not at first." Tathy said, grabbing another donut then rethinking it and choosing a different one even though the entire box was for her. She bit into the new donut, then grabbed her previous choice and ate them both at the same time.
"But I want to know about that kind of stuff too!" Karuto said.
"Why? Who cares?" Tathy asked.
"I do!" Karuto said.
"But the fighting is what matters, right?"
Karuto shook his head, "No!"
"Then why did you want to hear a story about arenas and fighters and a place called the War World?" Tathy demanded.
"I didn't ask for that," Karuto explained, "I want to know what happened to Cauliflora and Rhubara, I wanted to know what happened after Goulder, what things were like and why they got so bad."
Tathy's head tentacles twitched with irritation, "Thats' what I thought, I thought you wanted to know what happened. How long do you expect this story to be, little mister? When's your bed time?"
"I don't know." Karuto admitted.
He was sitting in his room . . . or rather in his cell. But the door wasn't shut and the gravity wasn't turned on because he wasn't a prisoner really.
"I'm with the blue thing," Chillax called from the next-door-cell, "Just tell me about the fighting, I don't care about how everyone got along."
"But that won't help me!" Karuto insisted.
"Help you to what?" Tathy asked.
"Understand." Karuto sighed.
"Well if I have to listen to it too you could at least keep it exciting." Chillax said finally.
"You don't have to listen to it, no one's making you!" Karuto said grumpily.
"Yeah well it's not like I can just turn my ears off." Chillax scoffed.
Tathy was visibly irritated, but she said, "Okay . . . okay . . . so . . ."
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Prior to the Spring Games of course the wild irredeemable cannibal aliens had to be properly trained to fight.
The physical conditioning on War World was intense, the gravity was most of the time twice what they would have been used to on their home world, but the gravity shield that was used to pull ships like theirs from the sky could be focused to increase the pull of gravity even further.
But it wasn't a refined system that Arena Lords could use for the training of their Fighters, no one had ever even considered such a thing, and it was all the better for the two Saiyans because for all their power they did not just breeze through training.
The Medic was Bass's brother Kazoo, the second of their kind in Lord Stobler's employ, very much like Bass but much smaller standing only a head above Tathy's own height instead of nearly doubling her. Kazoo's skin was a slightly lighter shade of green and his face was more angular with sharp cheek bones. He'd tended the injuries of both Saiyans but restoring their physical frames would only do so much to prepare them for the Arena.
And before they could be trained as Fighters they had to be made into suitable slaves. That meant daily exercises lifting heavy weights and carrying them either in place or while on a march for minutes or hours at Lord Stobler's discretion, and limited meals made up of only the food no one else in the House would eat; the slop of spoiling food or leftover pieces and ends that in truth killed no small number of slaves.
The Robusuta believed that subjecting new slaves to this sort of treatment left only the strongest but Tathy had learned that Lord Stobler had a different subtler reason for making a slave's first week unbearably unpleasant, and she was standing by his side as a guard when he made his move.
Bass was with him as well and Kazoo brought them in, both Saiyans had grown in the week since they'd been brought to the villa, and not only in height. Their limbs had grown visibly more muscular, though not overwhelmingly so as was the case with Bass or Poi, still one could tell their strength just by looking at their arms and legs. Their torsos were leaner from lack of food, whatever baby fat the two had possessed before was gone, which was actually not a good thing for Arena fighting.
In a single week they barely resembled the small creatures put on the market except for the look in their eyes. Those purple and blue eyes were fiery, defiant, aggressive.
Lord Stobler's excitement when they were brought in was well hidden but Tathy had been asked to act as her Lord's bodyguard often enough to tell the changes in his mood.
He said to the two girls, "I have been most generous with you these past days. Tell me, how did you enjoy your treatment? Don't fear your Sensei, you may speak freely in response to that question dear things."
"I'm going to kill every last one of you." The lighter skinned Cauliflora told them coldly. Tathy would never forget the almost prophetic nature the statement would have later, though in truth she doubted even Cauli really expected to make good on the threat at the time.
"If King Vegeta ever finds out about this, let alone Lord Frieza this whole world will be destroyed." The darker skinned Rhubara told them.
"Ah, you're important where you come from?" Lord Stobler asked, sounding as if he were sincerely curious.
"Important enough." Cauliflora warned him.
Lord Stobler clicked his claws and nodded, "Mm, yes this Lord Frieza, if he's anything like me I'm sure the chap would be furious if two fighters were just stolen away and sold on the market, it would be a tremendous loss of face for him to have his authority so challenged."
"Exactly right!" Rhubara said, "You have to understand-"
"Sensei." Lord Stobler raised a hand and dutifully Bass slapped Rhubara hard across the face. The girl didn't fly into the wall or anything but she did stop speaking to glare daggers at the giant.
"Allow me to stop you right there," Lord Stobler said coldly, "even if I give you permission to speak freely old girl, you will never tell me what I have to do or have not to do. I am the master, you are the servant. Now let me be plain . . . no matter how important you were out there in the stars here on this world you are trash. Your lives are worth only as much as I tell you they are and right now they're not worth much. You're nothing, dear things, and your debts to me are enormous. I have fed you, housed you, clothed you this past week but what have you done to pay me back?"
"Let you live?" Cauliflora suggested and Bass slapped her too.
"You silly little idiot, I'm letting you live." Lord Stobler told her. "But that ends today."
Cauliflora smirked ruthlessly, "Smart move. Get it over with quickly then."
Lord Stobler laughed for a moment, the gurgling sound wasn't quite so infectious as humanoid laughter but Tathy knew her role in this situation was to laugh along, and Kazoo as well. Only the serious Sensei would hold a straight face, no hints of joy could be seen on the face of a Sensei, at least not by new slaves.
Lord Stobler pressed some buttons at his desk and some numbers appeared. "I paid forty times base for each of you. Do you know what that means? I can tell that you don't so don't bother pretending. Each life on War World has a value, each slave is worth a certain amount, the base amount. Some could buy a home with that much, I choose to buy sentient beings instead. And I purchased each of you for the cost of forty others, but I daresay you shouldn't feel flattered, I've gone as high as two hundred times base for true prizes, you were just curiosities."
Lord Stobler smiled, "Now the cost of your upkeep each day is as follows, add to that the cost I paid to acquire you and the fact that you earn me nothing . . . well, it seems I'm running in a bit of a deficit where you two are concerned. Do you see the problem?"
"Sounds like it's your problem." Cauliflora scowled.
"Oh but it is. It is my problem, and because you are my property that makes it your problem."
"So you want us to earn you money?" Rhubara asked. "How are we supposed to do that in chains?"
Lord Stobler laughed again, but this time Tathy wasn't required to join in so she didn't. Lord Stobler said, "Well you have two paths open to you I'm afraid. I'm a flesh merchant but not a peddler of sinful delights, no. Not that you two disgusting creatures could earn much for me in that way, but there's always the oddball who wants to experience an evening with the bizarre. No no no girls, you're not of any use to me that way, that's not my trade and there aren't enough oddballs on the War World to see your debts ever paid that way. So that leaves you as I've said just the two options. You're strong, you could do well with hard labor, I can loan you out to my brother to dig ditches, build buildings, mine and carry ore, whatever he needs. But . . . well you'd likely never know freedom that way, and the living would be rough. Still, before I'm old and dead you might pay me back for my generosity."
The mention of freedom had sparked an interest in Rhubara though Cauliflora was still glaring sullenly. Rhubara asked, "Freedom? How can we know freedom?"
"When you work for your Lord you earn for your Lord." Bass told them sharply. "You are paid a wage for the work you do, that wage is deposited to your credit chip automatically and used to pay your debts to your Lord. The cost of your housing, training, feeding, and your initial cost of purchase. Your chips will remain empty for many years I think, but if ever your earnings outweigh your debts you will begin to save money of your own and in time, perhaps, you will even be able to acquire the funds to purchase your freedom from your Lord."
"What do we have to do?" Rhubara asked.
Lord Stobler smiled wickedly, he knew he had them now just as he'd had Tathy, just as he'd probably had Bass and Kazoo in their time as well. He leaned forward, his enormous gut resting on his desk and turning off the numbers display as he said to them, "Fight for me!"
"Fight?" Cauliflora was intrigued now.
"Fight in the Arenas! Become a Champion and earn more wealth than you can imagine not just for me but for yourselves as well. You've eaten the trash my Legends leave behind, you've slept on dirt and you wear rags. Become a Fighter and you'll eat and drink properly, you'll sleep on the finest beds with the finest company if you've got the funds for it, and you will wear clothes almost as splendid as my own save when you step into the Arenas where you will wear the Armor of my House and fight the mongrels fools like Lord Barc will send to you for the slaughter. And you will slaughter them, because you're mine and I expect nothing less from my Legends! Are you ready to be Legends?"
The two exchanged looks, Cauliflora asked, "You're saying . . . we can make money to buy our freedom . . . just by fighting?"
Lord Stobler smiled, "Oh yes my darlings . . . so much fighting. To the roar of the crowd no less. Please the crowd and see your fortunes rise high and fast, displease them and you'll find your worthless lives brought to a quick end, old sport. So what say you?"
"You don't know much about Saiyans." Cauliflora laughed. "You don't need to tempt us with fancy beds and clothes, if you want someone to kill for you all you had to do was mention the price."
"The price will be your freedom . . . when you've earned enough." Lord Stobler told her. "Until then I expect your undying loyalty and obedience, you will serve as part of this House, you will fight for me, you will win for me, you will earn money to pay your debt to me. Are we in agreement?"
"Absolutely." Cauliflora said with an almost eager look to her eyes.
"Splendid." Lord Stobler said. "Medic, see them properly dressed and fed, at noon they'll begin their training. I want them ready for the Spring Games Grand Melee."
"A Grand Melee?" Rhubara whispered to Kazoo as he led them out, "Is that what it sounds like?"
She probably judged him some form of ally, and she was probably not terribly wrong. The Medic was never unkind to anyone, whether they were free or slave. He began to describe the event to them as he led them away to be cleaned, dressed and fed.
When they were gone Lord Stobler turned his eye stocks to Bass and said, "I'm taking an awfully big risk with those two. They don't seem as broken as I'd like, are you certain a single week of the treatment was sufficient?"
"My Lord," the Sensei answered, "I fear a week or a year wouldn't break their warrior spirit because I sense their kind is made of little else. If they were properly broken I fear there would have been nothing left. They may be difficult to train, it may be dangerous to train them with the fire of rebellion still in their souls but I believe I can do it."
"And that fire will push them to even greater heights in the hopes of winning their freedom. Very well then . . . but if they fail me in the Spring Games I'll shift their cost to you."
Tathy's mouth dropped open at the threat, the cost of those two slaves would probably see the money that Bass had saved from his career in the Arena evaporate and still not be enough. Certainly the chances that he'd ever be able to pay off his own cost would be out the window.
But Bass just smiled. "I told you my Lord, those two can win you half the War World."
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"That's right!" King Kai cried, "Feel your energy flowing through you, feel your own strength, understand your own strength!"
"That's utter gibberish!" Pastel told him and he snorted angrily, but Gohan laughed before King Kai could get too upset with them.
The Half-Saiyan warrior had taken quite a shine to King Kai in the years he'd been dead, but he liked these new fighters too, so he'd taken to playing the peace keeper. He said, "Come on King Kai, you of all people should appreciate a good joke. And Pastel, I'm sure you understand the concept of understanding your own limits, right?"
"Of course." Pastel told him. The four students were all standing in a field on what amounted to the dark side of King Kai's planet with King Kai and Gohan standing nearby watching them as they continued to work on focusing their ki.
"So understanding your own strength should come naturally. Your ki lets you push past those barriers, break through the limit. So ignore your limit, focus on your true strength, let your ki flow though you and really stretch its legs."
"So this technique works by using our ki instead of our physical strength?" Gurein asked.
"Not exactly," Gohan said, "it'll amplify your physical strength with the help of your ki. Once you push past those barriers and those limits your body will redefine what those barriers are, your ki will get stronger and you'll go from Kaioken times two to time three, and so on."
"So the more we use the technique the stronger it'll get?" Bocan asked.
"It's not enough just to use it," Gohan explained, "Your body won't redefine its limits if you don't understand your limits, and you can't increase your strength if you don't understand your strength. If you break open the dam and let all your ki flow through it'll destroy you, thats why we say you've got to understand your own strength, understand how much of it you can use, how far past your limits you can go without doing irreversible harm to your body."
"So this is like being in a sports car and trying to floor it," Pastel reasoned, "if you don't know what you're doing you're just going to crash. The car's got the speed but you've got to get a handle for her before you get to use all of it."
"Everything is cars with you." Bocan sighed.
"Keep talking like that and you'll never get under my hood again." Pastel smirked.
"That just sounds like I'm a surgeon." Bocan smirked back.
"It's not a perfect metaphor." Gurein agreed, "But I think we got the point."
Gohan laughed again, "Actually that's not a bad metaphor. The car thing that is, not the other one. Just in this case the car doesn't have a limit, it can keep accelerating and every day you take it out for a drive you can push it further and make it run faster, it's all going to come down to how much gas you've got in the tank and how well you can control her at high speeds."
"I get it." Pastel nodded.
"You just had to speak her language." Gurein said.
The heroes of Earth went at it again, focusing their ki with careful control. Gohan smiled and said, "That's it, just like that! You're getting it!"
"Hey, who's teaching the lesson here?" King Kai squawked.
Gohan chuckled, "Sorry, King Kai," he told him, "I just thought I might slow it down a bit for them, really help them to get it, you know?"
King Kai snorted irritably, "Well don't let it happen again, I don't need some Teacher's Aide to teach students, I've been teaching the Kaioken since before you were born!"
Gohan smiled and nodded, "You're right, I'm sorry. Please continue, sir."
King Kai nodded and said, "That's better. Now the rest of you . . . just do what Gohan said, and don't drag your feet about it, it's almost lunch time!"
"There is just one thing I'm curious about though." Their fourth member spoke up, "Aren't we still going to be horribly behind everyone else when we're brought back? I remember you told us that living in ten times Earth's gravity would make us stronger than just training in it for a few hours, but aren't the others going to be training in a hundred times Earth's gravity before long?"
"For a few hours, sure." King Kai shrugged. "They'll be stronger than you, that much is certain. But with the Kaioken you can close the gap for short periods, and when you get you return to the land of the living you'll get your chance to train in up to a hundred times Earth's gravity as well and you'll not only catch them up you'll surpass them and still be able to use the Kaioken to come out on top every time! Why if you try hard enough then ten times gravity or not you might be a match for Trunks when you get out of here!"
"Let's not go that far," Gohan said, "it's important to have realistic expectations. Trunks has years ahead of you in training and Saiyan blood to boot. It's going to take hard work and dedication to catch him, and it won't happen fast. You're going to have to work and train hard and often if you want to catch him, let alone surpass him. Even I'm still behind him and I've had these eight years to train in the afterlife with King Kai."
"You haven't spent all eight of them here, if you'd been my student from the start instead of wasting time with Goku I could have had you strong enough to make Trunks look like a little kid!" King Kai said.
Gohan smiled, "He was just a kid before. I think we're almost the same age now though."
"So you don't age in the afterlife?" Pastel asked.
"Of course not!" King Kai said, "Can you imagine? We'd have ghosts too old to lift a cloud let alone throw a punch, the Other World Tournaments would be awful!"
"There are Tournaments in the afterlife?" Bocan asked excitedly.
"It's like this whole universe runs on Martial Arts Tournaments." Pastel sighed.
"Now you're getting it!" King Kai said happily, and even Gohan wasn't sure if he was joking or not.
To Be Continued . . .
Next time on Dragon Ball COED . . . Trunks comes to better understand why no one is that excited about his presence on Humanity's Hope, but does that mean he's not welcome? Roshi visits Anavill again, will he have better luck getting her to come back this time? Schip's team trains and he learns a shocking secret about his Saiyan comrades in the next episode of Chronicles of Earth's Defenders!
