"So, you want to play ping-pong?" the question was asked by the ping-pong coach, who is called Ruttager, despite the fact that Ruttager is quite clearly not a Japanese name. The question was asked with a degree of sarcasm, as the coach glared at Trunks and Goten with his one eye.
Trunks tried not to look directly into his eye, or the eye patch obscuring the other. Another student had once told him that Ruttager only wore the eye patch to intimidate students, and he had full use of both his eyes when not in school. Trunks had also heard rumours about how exactly he lost his eye. Some students say that he stabbed his own eye with a 2B pencil in frustration when the ping-pong team lost the finals in an inter-school tournament. Others say he lost the eye in 'Nam, despite the fact that he was five years old when 'Nam ended. But most people believed that he lost the eye in a car accident a year ago, since he didn't wear the patch before then.
Regardless of what Trunks and Goten believed, having a one-eyed Gym teacher/Ping-Pong coach glare at you is an intimidating. Both boys nodded their nervous responses to the coach.
"Well why don't you show me what you've got," Ruttager suggested, the sarcasm never leaving his voice, as he gestured towards one of the many ping-pong tables set up around the school gym. It was quite clear that Ruttager didn't expect a couple of martial-arts toughguys to be able to play ping-pong.
Trunks and Goten made their way over to the table and grabbed their paddles. Trunks took a ping-pong ball and served, "Ping."
"Pong."
"Ping."
"Pong."
"Ping."
"Pong," the ball got caught in the net.
"So how'd we do?" Trunks asked his one-eyed coach. He was confident that he and Goten had astounded everyone with their skill.
Ruttager adjusted his eye patch while he thought of his evaluation. "Have you two ever received ping-pong lessons?"
"Yes, sir," Goten replied, flattered that the coach thought he'd be that good naturally.
"Well, considering the fact that you've had lessons, I would be safe in saying that you two are the least talented players that I've ever seen."
Trunks and Goten did that anime falling thing we all know and love. Trunks got back up and looked at his coach angrily.
"What do you mean 'least talented'?!" Trunks almost yelled at the one-eyed man.
"I'll show you what I mean," Ruttager pulled a student out of the small group of dedicated ping-pong players, "See if you can beat this kid."
The player rolled his eyes at being referred to as "kid". Ruttager referred to everyone as "kid" or "guy" or "champ" – it was easier than remembering names, but it sure was annoying. The player served the ball… and it was over. Trunks didn't even see the ball coming. He… lost…
"Your previous coach showed you how to do all the right shots, but failed to teach you the most important lesson in ping-pong," Ruttager explained, "You have to develop your own style. Ping-pong is a sport of uniqueness. You try too hard to imitate your coach's style, and it's bringing your game down. I want you two to stop getting lessons off your old coach – he's doing more harm than good. We meet again in one week. I want to see some serious improvement by then."
On the flight home, Trunks got to thinking. All his life, he had been on top. Even as a child, he could enter any martial arts tournament in the world and walk out with the trophy in a matter of seconds. But ping-pong… this was something he could work towards. Saiya-jin strength and speed wouldn't be any good to him on that table, but with practice, he could work towards becoming good at ping-pong.
* * *
Pop… pop… pop… [A/N: It was the closest thing I could think of to the noise a ping-pong ball would make]Vegeta woke up to hear a noise in the kitchen. He listened for a few minutes before getting up and storming downstairs, wondering what the hell could possibly make such an annoying noise. When he got to the kitchen, he saw the kitchen table had been pushed right up against a wall, and Trunks was at it, hitting a ping-pong ball against the table, so that it would bounce up, hit the wall, and come back towards him. Vegeta approached his son and saw the concentration on his face.
I suppose it would be cruel to break his concentration, Vegeta thought as a small ki blast destroyed the ball. "Get back to bed, brat," Vegeta growled, "There's a tournament coming up soon, and you need to train."
"I quit," Trunks said calmly.
"NANI?"
"I quit. There's no fun in being the best, and no one in those tournaments ever comes close to beating me, so I quit."
* * *
"…And then he dragged me into the gravity room and beat the crap out of me for three hours," Trunks told Goten the next day before serving the next ball, "Ping."