"Hello...err, you're not...uhm. Is Captain Caulifla present?"
Chapter 3: Coin
The woman was a good head shorter than him, and her body language seemed shy. Why was it then that he felt intimidated by her meek gaze. Was this a friend of Caulifla's?
"I think she's still asleep. She… gave me a good warning to not wake her. Can I take a message?"
The Saiyan female looked upset at the news, choosing to stare directly at him before averting to the ground. She stayed quiet for an uncomfortable amount of time.
"C-could you tell her Kale stopped by?"
Gohan felt something was off about this 'Kale', not from her behaviour, but her energy. It felt different, heavy.
"Sure thing, Kale was it? My name is Gohan, nice to meet you." He extended a hand in greeting causing the woman to stare at him in wonder. She hesitantly returned the gesture.
"Oh...your name is Gohan? You must be new. I...haven't seen you around before." Her eyes flitted to his making contact for a moment before they returned to her feet. For some reason he felt like the air was suddenly less tense.
"Yeah, I just arrived yesterday, been off-world since birth. Are you a friend of Caulifla's?"
"Oh, uhm… She's my...teacher. We were going to have a lesson today. I must be early." Kale said.
Gohan felt like he might be getting in the way of things. It wasn't exactly his place to invite other people into Caulifla's house, but it should be fine.
"In that case why don't you come wait inside. I'm sure she'll be up soon."
"N-no, it's ok. We do our lessons out here." She gestured to the large expanse of cracked ground in front of the house. "I'll just warm up." Turning rather stiffly on her heels she walked a fair distance away before settling into stretches. What she didn't expect was to hear footsteps approaching her shortly after she'd begun.
"Mind if I join? I like to limber up in the morning myself." Gohan casually began stretching, focusing on his own movements. Admittedly he was doing this because the girl interested him. She was as courageous as a mouse yet for an unknown reason her energy seemed to have a chaotic feel to it. He hadn't felt anything like it before and it was extremely unsettling. He'd thought initially that she was somewhat hostile, but now it looked like she was just plain nervous. Minutes passed and both had finished their stretches, however Caulifla was still asleep.
"What's the usual routine?" Gohan said. Kale stared at Gohan with uncertainty.
"Well...we spar for an hour then do some meditation."
"Alright, how about we get started then, just here is fine right?" Kale's eyes widened at the casual request. A sound between a giggle and a squeal escaped her mouth as she looked at him incredulously.
"NO! Ah, I- I mean...usually only Caulifla spars with me." Kale appeared distraught.
"If you're worrying about me not being able to measure up to Caulifla, I can hold my own. Besides it's just a spar." She didn't seem fully convinced though.
"People... avoid sparring with me." Gohan could tell for whatever reason it was a sensitive subject.
"I want to spar with you." His insistence and sincerity quelled her doubts. Kale reluctantly agreed with a small nod.
"Ok."
Gohan raised into the air as an aura shrouded his body, keeping his energy low to start. Since Kale sparred against Caulifla she should be quite strong. There was also his gut feeling… but just in case, he'd start small and work his way up from there. To no surprise Kale matched his power quickly, but as her power rose the environment underwent changes. Gohan felt the air become heavy and oppressive, it was rippling and weighing him down. Kale's face had also morphed, a serious expression taking over. Her power rocketed far past his in an instant and her eyes had a glassy look, all previous hesitation flew out the window.
Kale blurred into action as she threw a leading punch right at Gohan's face. A thud resounded as he blocked the punch, grimacing at how his arm rattled at the contact. Momentarily taken off guard, Gohan managed to circulate his ki and surged his limbs with an increased amount of energy. Pushing back with his empowered limbs, he forced her arm aside only to take a hit square to the forehead. A flurry of heavy blows sent him reeling and he was made to keep up the defence as she continued her assault.
Gohan grunted whilst under pressure, deflecting as best he could. A small gap in her offense allowed him to slip a quick jab series to her body. He took the time to back up and disengage, air rocketing past him as he flew high into the sky creating a large distance between the two. Kale wasn't one to stay idle as she ascended hot on his tail. Energy coalesced on Gohan's palm, humming as it expanded in size. With a rough toss the blast rocketed downward, greeting the approaching Kale with an eruption of energy.
She wreathed herself in green as it exploded, obscuring vision with a glowing light. Expecting the blast to slow her down, Gohan had begun preparing a second blast when Kale appeared in front of him. A double handed hammer knocked the air out of him and smashed him hurtling to the ground. Disoriented, Gohan flared his energy as he plummeted in an attempt to stop his fall. A trailing energy blast however knocked the sense out of him, slamming him into the hard ground below. A large crater formed as earth split apart, a resounding boom followed by a smog of disturbed dust.
Kale remained on high, eyes glowing and locked onto the crater. Off to the side the door to Caulifla's abode flung open as the saiyan in question came rushing out.
"Kale, stand down!"
As if a switch had been flipped, Kale's expression fell and her power vanished on the wind. The heavy feeling she was emitting dissipated and her face returned to it's meek self. Looking like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar she quickly flew over to Caulifla.
"Captain Caulfila, this is… we were just sparring."
Caulifla eyed Kale with caution for a moment before brushing past her to the crater.
"Hey, you alright in there?" She got to the edge of the crater to spot Gohan sitting up rubbing his head. A sigh escaped her lips as the man seemed no worse for wear.
"That hurt." He said. Caulifla hopped down into the crater, squatting next to Gohan as she poked and prodded. She casually ran her eyes over his body, searching for any injuries.
"Did she attack you?" She said.
"What?"
"Did you agree to fight with Kale, or did she attack you?" Her tone was quite grave, it looked like Kale had some history.
"No, she didn't attack me. She came around for training and I offered to spar with her. It was my idea." Caulifla nodded her head as she stared off in contemplation.
"You didn't notice anything… off about her appearance whilst fighting?"
"If you're talking about her aura, it felt a bit wild, but otherwise no. She's not in trouble because of me right?" Gohan said. Caulifla eyeballed him in silence before giving a light slap on his shoulder.
"Nah, just surprised is all. How about you go have a bath, I'll come get you in a bit." Gohan realised the bath was just a reason to dismiss him, but noting the dirt on his person a wash sounded nice.
Gohan made his way to the house but as he passed Kale she didn't look in his direction, finding the ground more interesting. Realising he'd put her in a tough spot he decided to be amiable.
"Great fight Kale, you really pack a punch. I need to keep my guard up next time."
The address startled the Saiyan woman as she struggled to form a sentence. A light wave was her response and a mumbled 'yes', but Gohan was already out of ear shot. The smile that began to form vanished when she heard her name called.
"Kale."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After cleaning up Gohan waited inside for some time before Caulifla finally joined him.
"You're really something huh?"
"And why's that?" He said.
"Here I thought I was the only one Kale could stomach. It's not really my place to say but no one else is gonna warn ya. She has a real temper ya know and a reputation to match, all the power in the world but little control."
"You asked if she attacked me, care to explain?"
"Ugh, not really. But basically once she gets riled up there's no turning her off, I'm the only one she can fight and keep a level head with...and you apparently."
"That's unfortunate."
"It's a waste, we could have another captain on our hands. Instead we have a liability."
Caulifla pulled some food out for the two of them as they conversed. Gohan quizzed her about general planet know-how and after hearing the names of many native species he couldn't picture, Caulifla advised he might want to go hunting outside the city. Though it was noted to be near suicidal to do so at night, he would need a local to guide his first time in any case.
Having long finished her lesson with Kale, the duo made their way over to Eau sector to get Gohan set up in his temporary shared living space. Walking through a far more populated area, people were throwing looks in Gohan's direction, specifically at his lack of tail. The common fashion was to display your tail either freely behind you or wrapped around your waist. He figured the people he'd met up until this point had enough tact to not bring it up when they were in the presence of a Captain, seeing as Caulifla had always been escorting him.
A medium size compound came into view, four buildings making up the ensemble. Of course they all featured the red forked insignia Gohan had come to learn denoted military status.
"Well here's the sty. Your space is 322 so just go to the third building over there." Caulifla said. With a flick of the wrist she glided a card over to him which he caught.
"That there's got enough to last you a month, I expect you to pay me back once ya get your first paycheck, got it?"
"Of course, thank you Caulifla." Gohan offered her a smile which she waved off.
"And one more piece of advice. Just because you're as strong as a captain doesn't mean you have the authority of one. That being said, if some dipshit starts mouthing off at you, no one's gonna care if you show him what's what. As long as you don't break too many bones you're in the clear. But try to keep it civil if you can."
"I'll keep it in mind."
"Alright, I'm outta here. If you run into any problems, don't come to me. I don't wanna see your face for a good week." The good natured smile she wore worked at dispelling some of what she'd said, but Gohan was sure she was still serious. With a wave and a turn of foot, she was off. What a funny girl.
Gohan made his way to the building Caulifla had pointed out. He noticed a scanner on the entrance and positioned his chipped arm in front of it. With a beep the doors opened and he walked directly into a corridor with many doors. It reminded him of a hotel, there were even numbers on the doors, no doubt his room was 22. He walked past a couple Saiyan's wearing black form fitting uniform's who nodded his way. This was likely an all military housing, he could sense elevated power levels all over the place. On the way into the compound he'd spotted some training areas filled with soldiers, he'd have to go have a look later.
Arriving at room 22 he gave a knock out of courtesy before scanning his arm. The door opened and inside he was greeted to a reasonable looking living space. It was however a bit of a mess, likely the doing of the other tenants. He spread his senses out but found no one home, so he chose to have a quick look around. There was a cooler like he'd seen at Caulifla's as well as a large bathroom. Aside from the three bedrooms though it was rather sparse, the bedrooms weren't exactly big either.
With nothing better to do and no one to ask, Gohan went to check out the training grounds to potentially get in a workout. The subtle shaking of the ground was felt from all over the compound, he hoped the training area was closed at night or sleeping here might not be the greatest.
At the training ground there were at least a couple hundred people. Many were either solo or paired off, stretching, shadow boxing, practicing energy control. It was an amazing sight for Gohan, this really was a fighters paradise. A large crowd was gathered around a pair of fighters who had particularly impressive energy. A short haired female was facing off against a lanky man, the crowd had given them a rather wide berth as energy blasts were being flung left and right. Gohan made his way into the crowd and got a good view from up front.
"Hey, no tail, ya mind?" It took Gohan a second to realise he was the one being addressed and looked behind him to see a small female glaring at him. Apparently he was in the way.
"Oh, sorry." Upon seeing his face the woman's glare immediately disappeared.
"Ah, it's no big deal. A-are you new around here? I haven't seen you before."
"You could say that, I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about. What's the deal with those two?" He pointed at the two warriors fighting.
"Everyone always watches when Celeria and Cado fight. They're both Vice Captains who like to train at this compound. Actually Celeria-"
"Watch out!"
A stray blast hurtled right into the front of the crowd. The female saiyan talking to Gohan cowered in fear only to watch wide eyed as he casually swatted the blast back to whence it came. Cado, the lanky man who'd accidentally sent the blast, could only stare as it returned twice as fast slamming right into his face. The man was sent flying, landing hard on his butt whilst the crowd stared on in shock.