Dragon Ball Next Generation
The Grey Saga
Part 1: The Atrocity
Chapter 7
I was informed that my training would begin the next day; and I would begin under Maser Roshi. I had the rest of the day to myself, and I decided to watch the others train.
I watched them spar each other, dancing in the air, flames dancing off their skin, usually moving far to fast for me to see what they were doing. The only time they stood still was when they grappled with each other, battles of strength that Xander usually won.
I was in awe of them. John's mastery of his sword was breathtaking. It literally sung in his hands as he fought. Angelina was so agile, so fast; she was constantly a blur to me. Xander's complete mastery of battle was a sight to behold. Even with both John and Angelina attacking him, he still was able to hold them off. His power was more then enough to take on them.
As I watched them, I doubted myself. How could I do things like that? Would I ever be able to match any of them in combat? Would I just be pushed aside? It all seemed far beyond my reach.
But, even though I had doubts, I just as excited. I found the sight, the sounds, even the smell of battle alluring. I wished to be there myself, to do battle with them. It just seemed so. alive. I cast my doubts aside. I made a promise to myself that one day; I would be there, in the sky, doing battle.
My newfound thirst for fighting was soon drowned out by the rumblings in my stomach. While the healing tank had restored my energy and gave my body nutrients, it had not filled my stomach, and I had barely eaten anything for a week.
As the sun began to set over the ocean, I retreated to the house. I found that food had already been prepared, and there was quite a spread on the table. I meet Master Roshi at the door, who was heading out to call us in for dinner.
The others entered, all drenched in sweat. Breathing hard, Xander said:
"Well, John, you lost, again, so I guess you've got dishes tonight." John cursed quietly, and scowled at Xander. While passing me, Angelina crouched near my ear and whispered:
"This is the fifth strait time he's had to do dishes." She said, amusement in her voice.
"Hey! I heard that!" John yelled as he began to sit down. Angelina smirked.
"The truth hurts, doesn't it?" she said as she sat next to John, giving him a quick peck on the cheek.
I sat down and began to pile food onto my plate. Making no conversation, I began to eat with vigor. I shoveled food into my mouth, not even caring what I was eating. I was just grateful to fill my stomach.
I eventually slowed down enough to look up from my plate. Everyone else at the table was staring at me, in as much awe and surprise as I had been in watching them fight. I felt my cheeks redden.
"You're defiantly related to Goku." Master Roshi said with some amusement. I swallowed my mouthful of food and began to apologize.
"There's no need for that." Master Roshi said, "All Saiya-jins eat like that. I think it has something to do with your fast metabolism."
Then John stood up, opened a cabinet, pulled something out and sat back down. He placed two bottles of pills in front of me, saying: "Before I forget again, you need to take one of each of these, with a full glass of water."
"What are they?" I said, as I struggled to open one of the bottles.
"One's an antibiotic, and the other is and antiviral. You had open wounds for three days, and these will deal with anything you might have picked up. Also, we found some traces of mutated e-coli in your blood when we did the DNA test. It looked like the infection had passed, but I just want to be sure. What worries me is that it seemed to mutate to fit your Sayia-jin cells. Were you sick before the Greys abducted you?" he asked.
"Yeah, I threw up a lot, and I think I even hallucinated. Could e-coli do that?" I asked, starting to get worried.
"Well, it was a mutated strain, and I don't know much about your unique Saiya-jin structure, but as I said, it looks like the infection has passed. Just take these until you run out, and you should be fine." He assured me.
After dinner, the others went out to train (with the exception of John). I realized how tired I was, and went to bed. I opened up my window to let the sea air come in, and let the sounds of battle put me to sleep.
***
I awoke to the sounds of Master Roshi pounding at my door. I opened my eyes, looked up, saw that it was still dark outside, and went back to sleep.
The next thing I knew, Master Roshi was screaming into my ear, waving his staff around in a threatening manor. I opened my eyes slowly, saw it was dark, and closed my eyes again.
WHACK!
I shot up, grabbing my head. I looked at the old man, who was still standing above my bed, his staff raised for another strike.
"What the hell did you do that for!?" I screamed at him. The old man let his staff drop, positive that I was now awake.
"Well, it seemed like the only way to wake you up." He said.
"You could have just shook me!" I yelled, the pain subsiding from my head. Master Roshi just shrugged.
"What time is it?" I asked, getting out of bed.
"Oh, I'd say around four." He said. I groaned, as I realized that I had agreed to start my training today, and this was probably part of it.
I hoped out of bed, and got a pair of shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt from the suitcase. I pulled them on, and drugged down the steps. Master Roshi was waiting for me by the door.
"Before we begin, I want to get a sense of where you're at, so I know how to begin your training." He said. Then he put something on his ear. It had a white box with a button that fit on to his ear, and a green glass that came across his face and covered his eye.
"What's that?" I asked.
"A present from John. It's called a scouter. It reads a persons fighting power, and translates it to numbers." Then he pushed the button, and the glass blinked a few times, and then stopped.
"Huh. Tell me, have you had any training in martial arts, or any kind of physical sport?" I shook my head.
"No, I've never really played any sports or anything outside of PE, but I was usually pretty good." I said.
"Interesting. I suppose it's because of your injures. Your were in pretty bad shape before you got here." He reasoned.
"What do my injures have to do with my fighting power? And, why is it interesting?" I asked/demanded. I was getting tired of people talking about things I had no clue about.
"Well, first of all, your injures have everything to do with your fighting power. If a Sayia-jin recovers from a near fatal injury, then his power will increase a great deal. And, it is interesting because, although you have had no training in martial arts, you have a fighting power of 12. While that is not very strong compared to the others, most humans have and average fighting power of three to five. All those things you endured in Satan City must have made you stronger." He said. I stood there, not saying anything, just contemplating his words. It was extremely strange to think that I was stronger then most people on Earth.
"One more thing before we begin training, come with me." He walked out the door. I followed him. He stood on the beach, facing me.
"Scouters can only tell me so much. But I want to see your potential. If you're anything like your descendants, you should be able to go far." With that, Master Roshi brought his hands parallel to his chest, and moved his left foot backwards.
"I want you to try and hit me." the old man said. Was he serious! I was twice as strong as most people, and this guy looked almost ninety. There was no way I could hit this guy without nearly killing him! He saw my doubtful look and smiled.
"You think you will hurt me? Well then, here's your first lesson: never underestimate your opponent." He said confidently. I wondered why I had actually agreed to train under a senile old man. I sighed, it was his funeral, hopefully not literally.
I stepped into a stance I saw the others use last night. I raised my right hand to my chest and made a fist, the other I put behind my back. I moved my feet parallel to each other, my right in front.
I swung, and found nothing but air. The old man had disappeared! I gasped as I realized that he was behind me. I turned around and swung again. This time, my fist went right through him! The image faded, and more appeared. There were a total of four Master Roshis surrounding me. I realized that he was probably moving fast enough to create images, just a trick to fool my eyes.
I stood there, staring at the images, hoping that he would trip, or he would stop for any reason. Then I realized that I was staring at the same four images. If he could keep them up, then he had to be moving in a circle, or they would have faded like the last one. I looked closer, and realized that all his clothes, even his beard, were all pulled slightly to the right, so I rationalized that he had to be moving in a circle to his left! With that new revelation, I put my fist between two of the images, and swung right.
"OWWWW!" I cried in pain as my fist connected with Master Roshi's jaw. It felt like I had just tried to hit concrete. I grabbed my hand and began to do a little dance of pain. Master Roshi put his hand to his jaw, but didn't appear to really be hurt. In fact, he smiled.
"How did you know where I was?" He asked, his voice betraying his amazement. I told him how I figured it out. He seemed impressed.
"You have grate potential, this proves it. You already think like a warrior, which is more then I can say for some ten times your strength." He said. The old man's words instilled a great pride in me, and I became anxious to begin training.
Master Roshi went back into the house, and came back with a capsule box. He opened it up, took one out, and threw it on the ground. There was a puff of smoke, and it cleared away to reveal a jet-car. Then he went to the side of his house, and a moment later, it disappeared into smoke. It cleared to reveal Master Roshi, putting a capsule back in the box, and a large hole in the ground where the Kame House once was. As we boarded the jet-car, I remembered something.
"Wait! Weren't the others in the house when you capsized them!" I gasped, wondering if capsizing a person would kill them.
"Oh, they left some time after you went to bed last night." He explained. I sighed in relief.
I don't know how long it took us to reach our destination, because waking up at four in the morning took affect as soon as I was comfortable, and slept until Master Roshi woke me up (he shook me this time).
We were on another island, but much larger then Master Roshi's. There was a city a few miles from where Master Roshi had placed his house, but between the two locations was a thick jungle. I figured the Master Roshi like the privacy (he did live alone on an island, after all).
The next order of business was to get me some "equipment". That consisted of a large turtle shell that weighed fifty pounds. I put it on my back, and was surprised to find that it seemed quite light. And, so began my training.
The first thing I did was deliver milk. As strange as this sounds, it was quite a demanding task. I went house to house in the city, putting bottles at the front doors of houses. And, it was quite a big city. Not to mention that I had the turtle shell on my back, which seemed pretty heavy a half- hour into it.
After we finally returned to the house, with Master Roshi acting like it had been merely a brisk walk, and me barely able to take a breath, Master Roshi told me that I could rest while he got breakfast ready. I sat at the table, my legs singing praises to the angels for being able to rest. I wolfed down some eggs, rice, bacon, and some tea for breakfast.
From then, until lunch, I ran (sometimes in circles, sometimes from wild animals), swam, and jumped, along with some more traditional exercises, such as push-up, sit-up, squats, and pull-ups (still wearing that damn turtle shell).
I actually impressed myself with how much I did, and how far I could push myself. I found out I had quite a large threshold for pain (unfortunately). So many times, I wanted to quite, just give up and collapse, but something inside of me refused to give in. Perhaps it was from seeing the others spar the night before, and my desire to be with them on the battlefield.
As I sat down for lunch, I discovered that while I was tired and sore, I felt satisfied. It was satisfaction that no food, drink, or other pleasure could have given me. It was satisfaction of my Saiya-jin blood. I knew then that I had made the right choice.
After lunch, Master Roshi and I headed back to the city. Rather, I headed back the city as Master Roshi rode atop my turtle shell, adding his weight to it. It amazed me that he was able to stay on while I ran, stumbled, and tripped on the road to the city. His balance was incredible.
Master Roshi directed me to a construction site near the heart of the city. When we arrived there, he informed me that he had already made arrangements for me to work there.
I spent the rest of the time helping the workers carry large and heavy stuff, scrambling along the building's skeleton giving them tools, digging holes with my bare hands, and of course I didn't get to use any of the kick- ass machinery they used.
As I left the site, I found Master Roshi flirting with some twenty- something women (which ended up pretty badly, as one of them happened to have a can of pepper spray). After he finished rolling on the ground in pain, he jumped on my back and directed me through a new route through the city, which just happened to go by a hentai store.
As the Master Roshi jumped off my back, I saw a gleam in his eye, as if he was a little boy outside of a candy store, instead of the perverted old man he was. No, that irony was not lost on me.
That's how I found myself, a thirteen-year-old boy, with a large turtle shell on his back, outside a hentai store. Of course, I got a few bad looks from people.
Finally, Master Roshi immerged from the store, with a sack that looked almost twice as big as him! I just shook my head, until he jumped on my back. I almost collapsed under the weight.
When we returned home, I began more exercises as Master Roshi went over his new treasures with vigor. I was on my fifty-fourth push-up when Master Roshi, with a red face and a slight nosebleed (that merited a slight eyebrow raise from me), told me that I could come in for dinner. I ran him over as I raced to the house.
I finished dinner, greatly surprised that only one large plate of noodles had completely filled me up. I sat back, grateful for the full stomach and chance to rest, and asked him how he did it.
"I've fed Saiya-jins before, and I know how you eat. So, I just add a little dried Sensu powder, and I save hundreds of dollars on food." He explained.
"What's Sensu powder?" I asked.
"Just dried and crushed Sensu beans." He saw my confused look and went on, "Sensu beans are magical beans that will heal any injury you have, and will also fill you up for ten days. I just add a little sprinkle in the food, it's great for training because it helps you regain your energy." I realized he was right. I felt a whole lot better then I had before dinner.
After dinner, we went outside, and Master Roshi began to train me in martial arts. That first evening, he only went over a few basic stances and maneuvers, but I had to do them over and over until he was satisfied that could do them well. I would learn more advanced techniques in the future.
Never had a hot shower and a bed been so inviting as that first night of my training. I let the hot water pour down my aching body, letting it relax. As the grime and sweat of the day washed away, I felt like a new person.
It was then that the realization of what I had done actually came to me. I knew that, at least for the next three years, my life would only consist of more training, more pain, more tired and aching muscles. I had thrown away my life and taken a new one. No longer was I an orphan child. I was now Son Celic, a warrior who knew only strength and pain.
I realized that I had just used my full name for the first time. My whole life, I had only been known with a single name. Now, I had a full one. I had an identity, a purpose, a place in the world. That in itself was worth all the pain I had and might in the future endure. I cried tears of joy then.
I left the bathroom, said good night to Master Roshi, and went upstairs. I fell asleep before my head even hit the pillow.
Chapter 7
I was informed that my training would begin the next day; and I would begin under Maser Roshi. I had the rest of the day to myself, and I decided to watch the others train.
I watched them spar each other, dancing in the air, flames dancing off their skin, usually moving far to fast for me to see what they were doing. The only time they stood still was when they grappled with each other, battles of strength that Xander usually won.
I was in awe of them. John's mastery of his sword was breathtaking. It literally sung in his hands as he fought. Angelina was so agile, so fast; she was constantly a blur to me. Xander's complete mastery of battle was a sight to behold. Even with both John and Angelina attacking him, he still was able to hold them off. His power was more then enough to take on them.
As I watched them, I doubted myself. How could I do things like that? Would I ever be able to match any of them in combat? Would I just be pushed aside? It all seemed far beyond my reach.
But, even though I had doubts, I just as excited. I found the sight, the sounds, even the smell of battle alluring. I wished to be there myself, to do battle with them. It just seemed so. alive. I cast my doubts aside. I made a promise to myself that one day; I would be there, in the sky, doing battle.
My newfound thirst for fighting was soon drowned out by the rumblings in my stomach. While the healing tank had restored my energy and gave my body nutrients, it had not filled my stomach, and I had barely eaten anything for a week.
As the sun began to set over the ocean, I retreated to the house. I found that food had already been prepared, and there was quite a spread on the table. I meet Master Roshi at the door, who was heading out to call us in for dinner.
The others entered, all drenched in sweat. Breathing hard, Xander said:
"Well, John, you lost, again, so I guess you've got dishes tonight." John cursed quietly, and scowled at Xander. While passing me, Angelina crouched near my ear and whispered:
"This is the fifth strait time he's had to do dishes." She said, amusement in her voice.
"Hey! I heard that!" John yelled as he began to sit down. Angelina smirked.
"The truth hurts, doesn't it?" she said as she sat next to John, giving him a quick peck on the cheek.
I sat down and began to pile food onto my plate. Making no conversation, I began to eat with vigor. I shoveled food into my mouth, not even caring what I was eating. I was just grateful to fill my stomach.
I eventually slowed down enough to look up from my plate. Everyone else at the table was staring at me, in as much awe and surprise as I had been in watching them fight. I felt my cheeks redden.
"You're defiantly related to Goku." Master Roshi said with some amusement. I swallowed my mouthful of food and began to apologize.
"There's no need for that." Master Roshi said, "All Saiya-jins eat like that. I think it has something to do with your fast metabolism."
Then John stood up, opened a cabinet, pulled something out and sat back down. He placed two bottles of pills in front of me, saying: "Before I forget again, you need to take one of each of these, with a full glass of water."
"What are they?" I said, as I struggled to open one of the bottles.
"One's an antibiotic, and the other is and antiviral. You had open wounds for three days, and these will deal with anything you might have picked up. Also, we found some traces of mutated e-coli in your blood when we did the DNA test. It looked like the infection had passed, but I just want to be sure. What worries me is that it seemed to mutate to fit your Sayia-jin cells. Were you sick before the Greys abducted you?" he asked.
"Yeah, I threw up a lot, and I think I even hallucinated. Could e-coli do that?" I asked, starting to get worried.
"Well, it was a mutated strain, and I don't know much about your unique Saiya-jin structure, but as I said, it looks like the infection has passed. Just take these until you run out, and you should be fine." He assured me.
After dinner, the others went out to train (with the exception of John). I realized how tired I was, and went to bed. I opened up my window to let the sea air come in, and let the sounds of battle put me to sleep.
***
I awoke to the sounds of Master Roshi pounding at my door. I opened my eyes, looked up, saw that it was still dark outside, and went back to sleep.
The next thing I knew, Master Roshi was screaming into my ear, waving his staff around in a threatening manor. I opened my eyes slowly, saw it was dark, and closed my eyes again.
WHACK!
I shot up, grabbing my head. I looked at the old man, who was still standing above my bed, his staff raised for another strike.
"What the hell did you do that for!?" I screamed at him. The old man let his staff drop, positive that I was now awake.
"Well, it seemed like the only way to wake you up." He said.
"You could have just shook me!" I yelled, the pain subsiding from my head. Master Roshi just shrugged.
"What time is it?" I asked, getting out of bed.
"Oh, I'd say around four." He said. I groaned, as I realized that I had agreed to start my training today, and this was probably part of it.
I hoped out of bed, and got a pair of shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt from the suitcase. I pulled them on, and drugged down the steps. Master Roshi was waiting for me by the door.
"Before we begin, I want to get a sense of where you're at, so I know how to begin your training." He said. Then he put something on his ear. It had a white box with a button that fit on to his ear, and a green glass that came across his face and covered his eye.
"What's that?" I asked.
"A present from John. It's called a scouter. It reads a persons fighting power, and translates it to numbers." Then he pushed the button, and the glass blinked a few times, and then stopped.
"Huh. Tell me, have you had any training in martial arts, or any kind of physical sport?" I shook my head.
"No, I've never really played any sports or anything outside of PE, but I was usually pretty good." I said.
"Interesting. I suppose it's because of your injures. Your were in pretty bad shape before you got here." He reasoned.
"What do my injures have to do with my fighting power? And, why is it interesting?" I asked/demanded. I was getting tired of people talking about things I had no clue about.
"Well, first of all, your injures have everything to do with your fighting power. If a Sayia-jin recovers from a near fatal injury, then his power will increase a great deal. And, it is interesting because, although you have had no training in martial arts, you have a fighting power of 12. While that is not very strong compared to the others, most humans have and average fighting power of three to five. All those things you endured in Satan City must have made you stronger." He said. I stood there, not saying anything, just contemplating his words. It was extremely strange to think that I was stronger then most people on Earth.
"One more thing before we begin training, come with me." He walked out the door. I followed him. He stood on the beach, facing me.
"Scouters can only tell me so much. But I want to see your potential. If you're anything like your descendants, you should be able to go far." With that, Master Roshi brought his hands parallel to his chest, and moved his left foot backwards.
"I want you to try and hit me." the old man said. Was he serious! I was twice as strong as most people, and this guy looked almost ninety. There was no way I could hit this guy without nearly killing him! He saw my doubtful look and smiled.
"You think you will hurt me? Well then, here's your first lesson: never underestimate your opponent." He said confidently. I wondered why I had actually agreed to train under a senile old man. I sighed, it was his funeral, hopefully not literally.
I stepped into a stance I saw the others use last night. I raised my right hand to my chest and made a fist, the other I put behind my back. I moved my feet parallel to each other, my right in front.
I swung, and found nothing but air. The old man had disappeared! I gasped as I realized that he was behind me. I turned around and swung again. This time, my fist went right through him! The image faded, and more appeared. There were a total of four Master Roshis surrounding me. I realized that he was probably moving fast enough to create images, just a trick to fool my eyes.
I stood there, staring at the images, hoping that he would trip, or he would stop for any reason. Then I realized that I was staring at the same four images. If he could keep them up, then he had to be moving in a circle, or they would have faded like the last one. I looked closer, and realized that all his clothes, even his beard, were all pulled slightly to the right, so I rationalized that he had to be moving in a circle to his left! With that new revelation, I put my fist between two of the images, and swung right.
"OWWWW!" I cried in pain as my fist connected with Master Roshi's jaw. It felt like I had just tried to hit concrete. I grabbed my hand and began to do a little dance of pain. Master Roshi put his hand to his jaw, but didn't appear to really be hurt. In fact, he smiled.
"How did you know where I was?" He asked, his voice betraying his amazement. I told him how I figured it out. He seemed impressed.
"You have grate potential, this proves it. You already think like a warrior, which is more then I can say for some ten times your strength." He said. The old man's words instilled a great pride in me, and I became anxious to begin training.
Master Roshi went back into the house, and came back with a capsule box. He opened it up, took one out, and threw it on the ground. There was a puff of smoke, and it cleared away to reveal a jet-car. Then he went to the side of his house, and a moment later, it disappeared into smoke. It cleared to reveal Master Roshi, putting a capsule back in the box, and a large hole in the ground where the Kame House once was. As we boarded the jet-car, I remembered something.
"Wait! Weren't the others in the house when you capsized them!" I gasped, wondering if capsizing a person would kill them.
"Oh, they left some time after you went to bed last night." He explained. I sighed in relief.
I don't know how long it took us to reach our destination, because waking up at four in the morning took affect as soon as I was comfortable, and slept until Master Roshi woke me up (he shook me this time).
We were on another island, but much larger then Master Roshi's. There was a city a few miles from where Master Roshi had placed his house, but between the two locations was a thick jungle. I figured the Master Roshi like the privacy (he did live alone on an island, after all).
The next order of business was to get me some "equipment". That consisted of a large turtle shell that weighed fifty pounds. I put it on my back, and was surprised to find that it seemed quite light. And, so began my training.
The first thing I did was deliver milk. As strange as this sounds, it was quite a demanding task. I went house to house in the city, putting bottles at the front doors of houses. And, it was quite a big city. Not to mention that I had the turtle shell on my back, which seemed pretty heavy a half- hour into it.
After we finally returned to the house, with Master Roshi acting like it had been merely a brisk walk, and me barely able to take a breath, Master Roshi told me that I could rest while he got breakfast ready. I sat at the table, my legs singing praises to the angels for being able to rest. I wolfed down some eggs, rice, bacon, and some tea for breakfast.
From then, until lunch, I ran (sometimes in circles, sometimes from wild animals), swam, and jumped, along with some more traditional exercises, such as push-up, sit-up, squats, and pull-ups (still wearing that damn turtle shell).
I actually impressed myself with how much I did, and how far I could push myself. I found out I had quite a large threshold for pain (unfortunately). So many times, I wanted to quite, just give up and collapse, but something inside of me refused to give in. Perhaps it was from seeing the others spar the night before, and my desire to be with them on the battlefield.
As I sat down for lunch, I discovered that while I was tired and sore, I felt satisfied. It was satisfaction that no food, drink, or other pleasure could have given me. It was satisfaction of my Saiya-jin blood. I knew then that I had made the right choice.
After lunch, Master Roshi and I headed back to the city. Rather, I headed back the city as Master Roshi rode atop my turtle shell, adding his weight to it. It amazed me that he was able to stay on while I ran, stumbled, and tripped on the road to the city. His balance was incredible.
Master Roshi directed me to a construction site near the heart of the city. When we arrived there, he informed me that he had already made arrangements for me to work there.
I spent the rest of the time helping the workers carry large and heavy stuff, scrambling along the building's skeleton giving them tools, digging holes with my bare hands, and of course I didn't get to use any of the kick- ass machinery they used.
As I left the site, I found Master Roshi flirting with some twenty- something women (which ended up pretty badly, as one of them happened to have a can of pepper spray). After he finished rolling on the ground in pain, he jumped on my back and directed me through a new route through the city, which just happened to go by a hentai store.
As the Master Roshi jumped off my back, I saw a gleam in his eye, as if he was a little boy outside of a candy store, instead of the perverted old man he was. No, that irony was not lost on me.
That's how I found myself, a thirteen-year-old boy, with a large turtle shell on his back, outside a hentai store. Of course, I got a few bad looks from people.
Finally, Master Roshi immerged from the store, with a sack that looked almost twice as big as him! I just shook my head, until he jumped on my back. I almost collapsed under the weight.
When we returned home, I began more exercises as Master Roshi went over his new treasures with vigor. I was on my fifty-fourth push-up when Master Roshi, with a red face and a slight nosebleed (that merited a slight eyebrow raise from me), told me that I could come in for dinner. I ran him over as I raced to the house.
I finished dinner, greatly surprised that only one large plate of noodles had completely filled me up. I sat back, grateful for the full stomach and chance to rest, and asked him how he did it.
"I've fed Saiya-jins before, and I know how you eat. So, I just add a little dried Sensu powder, and I save hundreds of dollars on food." He explained.
"What's Sensu powder?" I asked.
"Just dried and crushed Sensu beans." He saw my confused look and went on, "Sensu beans are magical beans that will heal any injury you have, and will also fill you up for ten days. I just add a little sprinkle in the food, it's great for training because it helps you regain your energy." I realized he was right. I felt a whole lot better then I had before dinner.
After dinner, we went outside, and Master Roshi began to train me in martial arts. That first evening, he only went over a few basic stances and maneuvers, but I had to do them over and over until he was satisfied that could do them well. I would learn more advanced techniques in the future.
Never had a hot shower and a bed been so inviting as that first night of my training. I let the hot water pour down my aching body, letting it relax. As the grime and sweat of the day washed away, I felt like a new person.
It was then that the realization of what I had done actually came to me. I knew that, at least for the next three years, my life would only consist of more training, more pain, more tired and aching muscles. I had thrown away my life and taken a new one. No longer was I an orphan child. I was now Son Celic, a warrior who knew only strength and pain.
I realized that I had just used my full name for the first time. My whole life, I had only been known with a single name. Now, I had a full one. I had an identity, a purpose, a place in the world. That in itself was worth all the pain I had and might in the future endure. I cried tears of joy then.
I left the bathroom, said good night to Master Roshi, and went upstairs. I fell asleep before my head even hit the pillow.