"Everyone always watches when Celeria and Cado fight. They're both Vice Captains who like to train at this compound. Actually Celeria-" 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.
"Watch out!"
Chapter 4: Tiger
A plume of smoke cleared as Cado picked himself up off the ground. With an abashed look he gave a wave in Gohan's direction.
"Sorry about that boss." The casual term of respect was due to the fact that if Gohan could slap his blast away with such ease, then he was likely a high ranking officer. He didn't recognise him, but his power at least was the real deal.
Gohan half expected the man to be angry at him, in truth he returned the blast to the man's face on purpose. He figured with the crowd around Cado needed a reminder to exercise some control. Cado's opponent on the other hand was rather amused and floated over to offer her greetings.
"Thanks for the help. Cado and I usually keep watch during spars, but it's a bit difficult when we both decide to fight each other. I'm Celeria, you must be the new Captain." Celeria was a small Saiyan woman with short cut spiky hair looking to be in her 20's. Gohan felt her power was somehow familiar, but what was this nonsense about him being a Captain. A lot of murmurs broke out around the pair at the statement.
"It's Gohan, but I'm not a new Captain. Where'd you hear that?"
"Ah really? Well I'm sure it's only a matter of time, afterall I saw you giving my Captain a run for his money." Gohan recalled three particularly strong energy signatures last night during his fight with Cabba. Apparently this Celeria had been a spectator. Gohan couldn't help the awkward chuckle that escaped his mouth at the praise.
"Yeah.. well I think I'm lucky the fight broke up when it did. He was definitely about to put me through the wringer."
A lot of chatter had broken out around the two by this point. The implications that someone could keep up with a Captain meant that a new Super Saiyan was to be named.
"If you say so. By the way, did you come to get a workout in?"
"I was just having a look around. It's my first time here." Gohan said.
"I can give you a tour, but you gotta' fight me in return." A big smile plastered itself onto Celeria's face at the prospect. Saiyan's really did love fighting, he'd been here less than two days and already found himself in a handful. For the last decade he'd rarely had time to enjoy a fight for what it was. It was either for survival or training for survival, there was no joy in it. He wasn't sure what to make of it, but even though it was something familiar, it felt very different. In any case he saw no reason to decline the offer and accepted. Celeria seemed ecstatic.
"Great, between you and me, Cado and I are the only ones who could make you work up a sweat in Eau anyways." Her tact aside, Celeria was straightforward. Gohan was also curious as to how strong she and Cado were, given the woman he was talking to before mentioned they were Vice Captains.
"Hey Celeria, we continuing?" Cado who'd been waiting on the sidelines called out, ready to fight again.
"Just a minute." Celeria answered back before turning to Gohan. "You don't mind do you? We could use your help keeping any stray blasts away from the crowd as well. I promise I'll be quick."
"That's alright, no hurry."
"Oh and one more thing." She straightened her back and reached out her arm to Gohan. "It's nice to meet you."
Gohan smoothly gripped her hand and offered a firm shake. Celeria in kind stared right at him with a warm smile before flying up to meet Cado in the air. As the two got further away to resume their spar Gohan could faintly pick up Celeria's voice.
"He's the one I was telling you about."
~Elsewhere~An electronic message appeared on the terminal of a high ranking military figure.
Sender:
Maru, Head of North Division Onboarding Head Captain, As suspected ID#0053 Captain Caulifla has attained Super Saiyan status. Requesting combat re-evaluation of Captain Caulifla's level 6 rating by a level 7 warrior. Five new Offworlder's have been debriefed with ID#3755 'Gohan' being of note. He has achieved Super Saiyan and also lacks a tail. When asked which planet he arrived from, his answer was 'Earth'. Requesting escalation on identification and further background check. Attached below are all pertinent files and footage of Gohan engaging ID#0039 Captain Cabba in combat evaluation. Regards, Maru
"Looks like I'm northbound."
~With Gohan~
The two Vice Captains' battle concluded in a more tame fashion. Celeria and Cado were both very strong fighters and kept it to mostly hand to hand combat. Both of them were holding back but Gohan got the feeling that Celeria was the stronger of the two. Maybe they could go Super Saiyan even? The exhausted Saiyans floated back to the ground with Celeria approaching Gohan. Her sweat covered body caused his gaze to momentarily deviate, eventually finding its way to her eyes.
"Let's start that tour then shall we?" She said.
"Sure you don't need a moment?" Celeria's short breaths with the fast rise and fall of her chest suggested she might need a minute or five.
"I'm good, actually I'll be better the faster we get a move on. Follow me." Gohan trailed by her side as she walked off of the main field and back to the building complex. Attached to the side of the building were multiple machines with people gathered around. They approached a machine that was vacant and with a wave activated a screen. Many pictures were on display and Gohan recognised the yellow regenerative drink 'wai' that Caulifla had introduced to him. To no surprise it was the item Celeria selected before waving a card over the screen. A slot opened on the wall and Celeria grabbed her beverage. With a loud pop she tore the top off the drink before taking a large gulp.
"Delicious. If only it wasn't so expensive, I'd drink it all the time." Celeria said.
"It's not an everyday drink?" Celeria paused her drinking and gave Gohan a strange look.
"Well… if you're rich I guess it is. Are you particularly well off or something?"
"Ah, no. I don't really know much about it, I only tried it for the first time yesterday." Gohan said. Celeria's strange look intensified.
"There's no way you only tried wai for the first time yesterday. You must be at least 20."
"I just arrived on the planet yesterday. All of this is new to me. I didn't even know there were other Super Saiyans." Many cogs seemed to be turning in Celeria's head as her gaze became unfocused.
"You mean to say, you became a Super Saiyan offworld, by yourself, without any help?"
"Yes…"
"Wow… you are...Ok putting that aside, so do you...know about, like anything?"
"Anything?" Gohan said.
"The military, occupations, city regulations, hunting."
"Well, Caulifla explained a few things to me, nothing in detail though." A sigh escaped Celeria's mouth at the answer. Leaning against a nearby wall she crossed her arms, staring fixedly at the afternoon sky.
"Are you free today?" She said.
"I didn't have anything planned."
"Good, let's leave the sparring to another time. Instead, I'm going to take you hunting. If there's one thing you need to survive, it's finding a meal." The woman tapped Gohan's shoulder and motioned to follow.
"Can't I just buy food?"
"Sure, but even those who can afford to buy food go hunting every now and then, especially if you can fight. A big part of it is helping out the city residents, a portion goes to the families with no warriors. The military organises a hunt twice a week, if we join up with the next group we'll be able to get you stocked up." Celeria said.
"Do we get to keep what we hunt?"
"It depends...It's more of a group effort deal. Everybody who participates gets a decent portion though. There's a list in the entrance hall over here that should tell us the details." Gohan saw a small terminal with many symbols that he couldn't read. He did however notice the featured picture was of someone he recognised.
"Looks like my Captain is heading this one, plenty of slots still open. Let me just...There we go. Give me your hand." Celeria grabbed Gohan by the wrist and pulled his arm over to the terminal where a scanner was located. With a flash the chip that Gohan had been implanted with was scanned and his details transferred across. Celeria gave the man a quick smile before repeating the process with her own arm.
"All sorted, it says here the hunting party leaves from South Gate in two hours. We have enough time for a quick bite before we need to get a move on. Let's go to a nearby Eatery, I'll show you around."
"Well I guess I can always find time to eat." Gohan said.
"I'd be surprised if you said otherwise."
Celeria had taken it upon herself to make sure Gohan knew exactly where and how to get food. He would have felt she was being overbearing if not for her enthusiasm, she really seemed to care that he knew what was what. He didn't know why though but she seemed friendly enough.
"...And that's why you make sure to come after noon, dry leftovers are never nice." The subject in question being the meat pastry currently vanishing from her plate. Gohan followed suit with his food also performing a disappearing act.
"Well I don't think I'd mind even if it was dry, the flavours were great. What meat was in that?"
"Dra. Well Dra mixed with Kra. Everything is Dra based around here, that's what we'll likely be running into later on the hunt." Celeria said.
"Dra and...Kra?" The confusion elicited a snicker from the female Saiyan.
"Yeah, similar names but you'll know the difference when you see them. For the record Dra are the big pain in the ass monsters. Kra are the small pain in the ass ones."
"Hey you have…" Gohan gestured to the corner of his mouth.
"Oh."
The collected crumbs at the corner of her smile were wiped away and Celeria gave herself a quick brush down.
"Good?"
A nod indicated so. The two finished up their beverages before exiting the sparsely populated building and venturing out onto the streets.
"South Gate is just a 10 minute walk from here. We can…" Celeria cut herself off mid sentence as she noticed a familiar figure walking in front of them up ahead. A young short Saiyan with a Captain's Pauldron was passing out pleasantries to the locals who stopped to greet him.
"Hey Captain!" Celeria's loud call drew the attention of many onlookers, as well as the person in question. The Captain, Cabba, came to a standstill as Celeria ran up to meet him.
"Celeria, hello. Has something come up?"
"No, nothing much. We're just going to join you on the hunting squad." A thumb over her shoulder gestured to Gohan as he joined the two. Cabba grew a wide smile seeing the older Saiyan as they exchanged greetings.
"Wow, already making friends huh? With you along I can actually relax, it's so stressful heading these missions alone." Cabba said.
"Hey, what about me?" Celeria said.
"Yes, what about you indeed. The last time you joined me on a hunting excursion was months ago, and I remember it going very smoothly." Cabba's tone indicated that it did in fact, not go smoothly. A half hearted chuckle was the reply.
"A-any notable additions this time around?"
"Didn't have time to check, Caulfila was supposed to be heading the hunt but something came up. Central delegated this one to me with a couple hours notice. By the way Gohan, this will be your first hunt right?" Cabba said.
"Yeah, Celeria's done a good job of talking it up. The food part at least." Gohan said.
"Ha, the best part of course. Actually I'd like it if you could help me out personally, specifically with protecting the squad." That was odd, Gohan had thought it would be an easy job.
"Is the hunt dangerous?"
"To a point, that's why a Captain always has to lead the hunting party. I can handle myself fine, but everyone elses strengths vary greatly. We always have to have a handful of men dedicated to butchering or transport as well, and they usually aren't the fighting kind. As for the beasts we'll run into...Kra are fine for the average Saiyan, but Dra can range from a level 1 to a level 6 in power."
"Level 6… isn't that around Captain level? Are these Dra as strong as Super Saiyans?"
"It's always possible to run into one, but the likelihood is about the same as walking down any street in this city and trying to point out a Super Saiyan. I haven't ever run into one myself but even a group of level 4's or 5's is a big threat. We try to hunt Dra that have strayed from their group whenever possible."
Gohan listened on intently as Cabba broke down in detail what to expect. Cabba wanted him to protect the rear of the group and help keep an eye on everyone. He wasn't going to say no but he did feel like he was getting a bit more than what he signed up for. His hands were tied, he needed food and he wasn't the type to sit around when he could help, especially when it involved the safety of others.
Gohan eyed Celeria as Cabba continued explaining, she seemed rather casual about the whole situation. She'd likely been in his shoes before, if anything Cabba and Celeria's relaxed attitudes helped ease Gohan's worries. They were definitely both experienced, he was in good company.
The trio rounded a corner and a large arch appeared. A low humming noise reverberated off of it and inside the arch, swirls of energy danced. This was the South Gate in and out of the city. Sat around the arch were a small group of Saiyans lounging, some were tinkering with equipment, others snacking. They all offered a verbal 'Captain' as greeting before going back to their own devices. The man Cado happened to be a part of the group and came over to greet Cabba personally. It sounded like some official business so Gohan detached himself from the group and made a nice spot for himself on the ground.
Eventually the two finished their conversation and it looked like things were about to get underway. With a firm voice Cabba called everyone up and started the briefing.
"Today's hunt is estimated to be return by nightfall. Due to recent outpost construction on the city perimeter, Dra sightings have become rare around the border. This time we will have to journey a bit further Southeast in order to encounter any activity. We are a smaller group than usual this time, so mobility should be acceptable." Cabba knew instinctively the group wouldn't be too happy about the hunt taking all day, but there wasn't anything that could be done. At the very least they knew better than to voice it.
"Joining us in the vanguard today will be Vice Captains' Celeria and Cado. We're also lucky to have Gohan joining us, who will be assisting me with overseeing the mission. Now that you've got the jist of it, please respond when I call your name for attendance."
Cabba pulled out a small tablet device from his pocket and brought up a list of names. One by one he called off the names and assigned the members roles based on their skill sets. Military personnel were either scouts or hunters who would fight, whilst butchers and carriers stayed inside formation. Cabba was 20 names in when he started reading out the next one.
"K-!" Only it didn't come out as Cabba stared at his screen in shock as he did a double take. He raised his head and began scanning the people present only to not find the person he was looking for. With one last look to make sure, he calmed himself before clearing his throat.
"Ahem, then next we have…"
The last person having been assigned, members were getting ready to set off. It was just about time to leave when rapid foot falls were heard approaching. The footsteps got louder as well as the sound of huffing, when rounding the corner was a certain ponytailed Saiyan.
"S-sorry I'm late…"
A strained expression was present on Cabba's face. The last arrival for the hunting squad had appeared.
"K-Kale...how nice."