All in the Technique

By Moonraker One

Dragonball

Chapter Three – The Real Training Begins

As the teacher and his student sat parallel to each other on the floor of the training room, Hebi-sen'nin was contemplating whether or not to try and teach her the full aspect of his training or not. If he decided that she was not to be taught the power of the gods move, it would make her not as strong as she could be if she were taught to her full potential. If he decided that she was to be taught the ultimate power-up, would she be able to wield such power acutely, or would she turn evil and destroy everything? The last thing he wanted was to have to stand up against his own pupil simply because he taught the ultimate technique to the wrong person. Reading her mind, however, he saw that she was not going to use the technique for evil if she learned it, because she was only interested in his training for revenge of her village that was destroyed. Interested in her story, he read further into her mind for the complete details of her village's destruction, and saw that her village was killed by a man by the name of Tsuru-sen'nin; the crane hermit. The thought of a fellow martial arts master using his pupils' power for the purpose of evil was to be punished with the utmost punishment.

"Hebi-sen'nin!" She cried. "You were right! I can go without eating with the use of ki!"

He smiled and ruffled her blue hair. "See?" He replied. "I told you. See what happens when you believe in me?"

He couldn't help but smile as he thought of his disciple learning some of the techniques that he had mastered all those years ago. He also noticed that when she spoke a few moments ago, she referred to him simply by his name than "Mister Hebi-sen'nin." He was the snake hermit; as a master of the martial arts, he did not understand why someone would call him mister.

"Now," he said, moving on to a different technique. "It is time for me to teach you the most difficult aspect of your training. None of the training you are scheduled for from this point forward will work if you don't learn how to master this technique."

"How long do you think this'll take, Hebi-sen'nin?" She asked, hoping that this would, like the others, not take long.

Hebi-sen'nin shook his head. "I'm afraid that even you, who seems to be learning at a rapid pace, will take at least a week to master this one. It took me a hundred years, and for you, this will be the single hardest part of this training regimen."

Hebi-sen'nin stood up straight, closed his eyes, and held his arms firm at his side. For almost an entire twenty seconds he stood still with eyes closed, silently concentrating on what he was doing. Once a minute had passed, he opened his eyes and looked straight at his pupil; his eyes were glowing a dark glow. A dark field of ki surrounded him, giving a demonic feeling to his pupil. All of a sudden the field of dark ki expanded, and she felt his power skyrocket. He'd easily gone from a hundred fifty to a thousand, in an instant.

"DAIMAOH-KEN TIMES ONE!" He shrieked, the field of energy expanding to their normal stage. The surge of power almost threw Maron off of her feet. After he was finished charging up, he let his power return to normal. One distinguishing characteristic of Hebi-sen'nin was that he did not look old like Kame-sen'nin did. Hebi-sen'nin looked like a buff sixty-year-old man, even though he was over a millennium old. He was not bald, and his hair was still a dark shade of gray. So, when he powered up, the dark field only made him look evil, not old, shriveled, and evil.

"Wow!" Maron yelled. "That was amazing, Hebi-sen'nin!"

"See?" He replied. "I told you that I still had some life left in me!"

"How can I do that, Hebi-sen'nin?"
Then, he moved closer to Maron, and held her wrists as she closed her eyes to concentrate. He closed his eyes as well, hoping that it would aid in her learning this technique. Unlike other training styles, the Snake method only had two techniques: learning to use ki for personal purposes, and the Daimaoh-ken. Also, unlike other techniques, this was also the best if you wanted to have a battlefield advantage.

"First," he explained, "go back to your main reserve of ki. Now, this will be harder because it will involve your entire ki reserve instead of one section, so be careful."

She nodded her head. "I'm ready," she replied.

"Imagine your entire pool of ki turning black."

She did as she was asked, with some difficulty.

He continued. "Turn it white again."

She nodded, and did as instructed, although sweat was forming again on her forehead.

"Turn it black again," he added, "now this is the hard part. You need to keep it changing between white and black so fast that it appears gray, but is still shifting.

"Couldn't I just turn it gray?" She asked.

"No," he replied. "I tried it, and it is far weaker to the point of being useless. Just do as I instructed."

She gritted her teeth as she changed it back and forth between black and white, and when he opened his eyes, he knew that she was not going to learn it today. He also noticed that blood began to trickle from her nose, indicating that if she continued struggling, it would cost her her life.

"Stop!" He yelled. "It's too much for you!"

It was useless; he could not stop it once she started. She was either going to learn or die. He just hoped that she would be able to withstand the surge of power that would ensue if she were to actually manage to pull off the technique. She was learning the style of the snake at such a pace that not even he had learned it that quickly. How could anyone, he thought, learn the snake method this quickly?

"EEEYAHHH!" A scream let out by Maron echoed throughout the empty room. The blood was really flowing now; it was obvious that he had taken this a little too quickly.

"DAIMAOH-KEN!" She yelled, and much to his amazement, she actually pulled it off. As the blood stopped running down from her nose, she looked up to her master in utter glee; he looked back down at her in a complete state of shock.

M...my god! He thought. She actually did it!

Yes, she had. It was still the first day, and she'd already mastered the primary technique of the snake style. It was the technique of the Daimaoh-ken that was the main aspect of the snake style o f martial arts, and that meant that she was almost done with the training on the very first day. Was it skill or was she simply that good? He had to know.

When the next day came, Maron was up three hours before her master and was already ready for the next stage of training. They woke up, did their morning exercises outside, then proceeded into the training room for training. Today, it was how to go about performing a high-octane battle.

"Today," Hebi-sen'nin said, "you will learn about what to do when fighting against strong opponents."

"I'm ready, Hebi-sen'nin," Maron said, readying herself for combat.

That would be one of many days of training where she would learn ever more from the eternal master of the snake method. She had come here seeking a way of attaining revenge for her destroyed village, yet after a few weeks of training, she had all but forgotten about her desire for revenge, and became more and more focused on her training. Hebi-sen'nin, a man who had not had a student in almost more than half a millennium, was just as happy as he had ever been.