All in the Technique
By Moonraker One
3. Early Dragonball Z
Chapter Two – The Regimen Begins
Raditz was unimpressed by his surroundings when he walked into the small hut that Maron lived in. He would expect better living conditions from the warrioress who defeated him, since she should be more than able to win lots of money from her fighting skills. In any case, he could not see how such measly surroundings could prepare him for such a battle as to fight against Prince Vegeta, the Saiyan that was more than capable of destroying them all in just a few simple actions. He was a high-ranking elite, and Raditz himself was just the son of a third-class low level warrior. Raditz wished that Maron had let him die, for that would provide for quite a painless end compared to having to face Vegeta's wrath. Maron didn't know, nor did she truly care; she was only concerned with getting this Saiyan strong enough to provide an adequate defense for the Earth.
"Raditz, this'll be where you'll be staying while we train together for the fight," she explained. She saw in his eyes that he was unfazed by this little hut that he had to stay in for the time being, but this was not where she stayed. This was Hebi-sen'nin's hut that she used whenever she needed to train. The place she lived in was the headquarters of the Shinhan Zaibatsu that she took over after making short work of Tenshinhan. She looked at the Saiyan, who was scanning the living room with his eyes, and rolled hers in exasperation. "Are you even listening to me?!"
Where he had previously been paying her no attention, turned and faced her, giving her his full attention. "Huh?" he said, uneager to do anything. "Oh, you said something about this being the place where I'm gonna live while we train together?"
She rolled her eyes again; this was going to take quite a while.
Inside the main training room, which had a gravity control panel on the far wall, she showed him the room in which they would prepare for what would seem to be the ultimate fight. She sealed the door behind her, and set the gravity to fifteen times normal gravity; his legs began to wobble as he struggled to maintain balance under the pressure.
"I've set the chamber to fifteen times normal gravity," she said. "Now try to attack me."
His frown turned into an evil smile. "GLADLY!" he shrieked.
He flew towards her with all of his might, but he knew that his best right now was weak. He tried to hurl a foot at her, but she ducked below it instantly. When she came up, he swung the opposite leg at her head, but she bent backwards to dodge it. His expression indicated that he was becoming frustrated, and thus, his attacks became looser and less powerful. She used this to her advantage, not even needing to power up to dodge his attacks which normally are quite powerful. After seven mis-kicks, he put all of his power into a fist headed directly towards her face. He smiled as he envisioned it taking her head off.
Plop.
Not a sound he expected; she caught the fist in mid air.
"Almost channeled your anger there," she explained, "but still far too loose." Upon saying that, she grabbed his fist harder, and pulled him towards her directly in the path of her knee. His mouth opened wide like a gate from the pain of her knee. Before he could react, she drew back her fist, and hurled it at his face, sending him at full speed in the direction of the back wall. As he lifted his head to look at her, she turned off the gravity. "That, my friend, is the proper way of channeling your anger into your focal point."
He spat some blood on her face. "Go to hell, bitch," he said, then drooped his head back down, unconscious.
He awoke to a sudden burst of cold water on his face; his wounds were healed, and he was lying in the bathtub completely naked, with his repaired armor hanging on the towel rack. When he saw who was standing at the doorway, he moved the shower curtain to cover his personal region, then became angry.
"What the hell happened in there!?" he shrieked. "You're only a human woman, and you kicked my ass!" Even though he asked, he knew exactly what happened. He knew that because he became frustrated, his attacks became sloppy like a child throwing a tantrum. That's the reason she so easily dodged his attacks, because he was not trying like he should have been.
"I get the feeling you already know," she replied, reading his mind like she always did. By now, she was used to reading his mind on a daily basis, seeing what his feelings were, and how he seemed only to care about two things: training, and food. She was amazed that such a powerful being that could use his powers for such good could have such a useless existence of destroying what had taken millions of years to create. In any case, she hoped that by the time this training regimen was over, he'd be different, or at least be able to hold down the destruction enough to be useful for the time being.
"Can you please give me some privacy!?" he screeched, trying to get her the hell out of the bathroom. She gave him a nod and walked out of the bathroom. Stupid onna, he thought. I can't believe that she fights like she does! Isn't there a limit for Humans?!
He slid his black underwear on then put his armor on over it, noticing that the large gaps in the front and back had been repaired; why would she fix his armor just for it to be destroyed again? Perhaps she was being nice, but why be nice to a warrior that tried to kill her? He just couldn't comprehend. Having exited the bathroom, he noticed that she was on the couch, sleeping with her eyes open. He decided that this was enough. No longer was he going to put up with this; he decided to try and attack while she was off-guard. He crept slowly towards the couch, carefully raising his fist over his head in attack position. Once he was close enough to the couch, he prepared to deliver the death blow.
Bang; it was caught in mid air.
What the hell!? He thought. How can she fight while she's asleep?!
She obviously was asleep; he could see a bubble hanging on her nose. While he was examining her sleeping pattern, a fist flew up and caught him right on the chin, sending him sailing backwards, stopping short of the back wall. In anger, he grasped her throat tightly, hoping to choke the breath out of her. He smiled wickedly; it seemed he was finally rid of her, considering that she was not responding.
The shock of impact he felt almost a second after the smile; she drove her fist into his gut. Not hard enough to penetrate the skin or even crack the armor, only hard enough to force all the wind out of him. Once he backed off and she retracted her fist, he noticed that through all of this, she was still sound asleep. He was utterly dumbfounded as to how she could be fought-and fight back-without being woken up. He didn't expect it, but what else could he do. He was amazed by the way she could go from violent combat into peaceful slumber in only a short period of time; it would take him quite a while to discharge from high-level fighting. Oh well; there were a lot of secrets this woman held, and he was dead-set on finding out every one of them. He believed that she was able to react through her subconscious while asleep, and that was why she could fight back without being woken up. To test his theory, he moved his hand towards her as if to grab one of her breasts. In response, her hand flew up and clasped itself tightly around his neck, then fell limp again once he retracted his hand. He smiled; even though she was in dream land, she could sense everything that was happening around her. This was one skill of a true warrior.
Halfway through the smile, he caught himself smiling. It seemed strange to him; why would a Saiyan warrior like him smile at the thought of her being a true warrior? Wasn't it true that he didn't care what happened to her? He decided he was tired, so he fell asleep floating a few inches above the floor. It was off to the land of battle dreams for him. As he faded into slumber, the area around him seemed to get heavier.
A few second-to him-after he was asleep, his eyes burst open; he could feel the air around him to be far heavier than it should be. He tried to stand up, but found it took all of his might just to reach a horizontal position, much less walk any distance. Once he was upright, however, he scanned his surroundings. Somehow, he was in the training chamber, and the gravity was set to fifteen times normal gravity. He looked forth at the woman who had brought him in here.
"Why did you wake me up?!" he shrieked. "I only was asleep for a few seconds!"
She shook her head. "When you fell asleep," she corrected, "it was sometime in the afternoon yesterday. You slept all night long; I woke up to do my midnight jog, and you were floating above the floor, drool seeping from your mouth."
Angrily, he flew forth, again realizing that he was not going to go very far. He hurled a punch at Maron, the same way he usually did. What he noticed this time, however, was that she had a little more difficulty dodging it.
"Not bad," she replied, rapidly dodging more of his punches. "You're actually channeling your power better than you did before. A little more training and you should be a force to recon with."
He hurled a kick at her head, expecting her to again easily dodge it. What surprised him was that even though she tried to move, his attack actually connected. To her, it must've felt like a flea bite, but he was happy that it still connected. She smiled, indicating that she was pleased with his quick skill increase. A sudden jab to the gut, however, indicated that he still had quite a bit of ways to go. Then, a sideways kick sent him in the direction of the back wall. He managed to use the force of the impact to propel him towards her faster, hoping to land a punch. He threw it with all of his might, landing a blow directly on the cheek. To his amazement, it actually caused her head to move slightly.
"Once you manage to knock me off of my feet from a standing position," she replied, "you will have passed my training regimen."
"I hope you'll be ready when I do," he added.
He made the mistake of letting his guard down; a quick head butt had him sprawled out on the floor.
"Oh I think I'd be ready," she responded.
The next morning, she got up and looked out the window at the beautiful day, just like she always did. She slid off her clothes and showered, just like she always did. Afterwards, she dressed and ate, again, just like she always did. What she noticed, however, that the door to the training room was sealed, and the light was on, indicating that the room was in use. A few minutes later, the light came off, and the door came sliding open. Standing in the middle was a sweat-covered Raditz, hands on knees, trying desperately to catch his breath.
"G…good..morning," he said, in between breaths. "I..decided it would…be best to get some training."
She looked over at the panel; he was training at thirty times gravity?! Shocked she looked at him. "How long have you been training at thirty times gravity?!" she screeched. "I didn't think you could survive that long!" The answer to her question came when she looked at the bag of senzu beans lying near the corner; half the bag was gone.
"I trained for about six hours at forty-five times gravity," he replied. "Whenever it got too intense, I'd eat a bean. Once I realized forty-five was too much, I lowered it to thirty. That was about two hours ago."
"W…wait," she stopped him with. "You've been training since midnight!? How'd you know the beans would heal you?"
He gathered his thoughts. "I woke up at midnight, hungry with one hell of a headache," he explained. "I saw this bag of beans, and I ate one. Instantly, a major cut on my arm and my headache disappeared, along with my hunger. I figured, hell, why not train with these?"
She smiled and entered the chamber. "How's twenty times sound to you?"
He nodded and assumed his stance. She sensed that his power had drastically improved, allowing her to use all of her power in the fight against him. He burst forth with a series of punch flurries, almost all of which she barely had time to block. Even at this level of gravity, all of his punches came at her with the weight of a Buick. She was impressed how on only the third day, he would so greatly improve. When he hurled a kick at her, she put her hand up and caught it in midair, but he was still able to connect with her head. She smiled at the thought of what she'd have to do to survive this fight.
"DAIMAOH-KEN TIMES TWO!" She yelled, increasing her power with a sudden burst of dark ki around her. Now, they were more equal than they were before.
He channeled a lot of ki into his focal point of attack; a right-handed punch. She barely had enough time to catch his wrist in midair, stop his punch, then retaliate. She quickly whirled his arm around so that his knuckles were facing down, effectively breaking his arm at the joint. He screeched loudly in pain, then used her temporary decrease in guard to delver a sharp kick to her side with his left leg. In response, she attempted a straight punch to his jaw, then stopped an inch short. He was confused as to why she'd stop, and why she had a surprised look on her face.
She looked down; her feet were two and a half inches off the ground.