Death.
One single word, that struck fear into the hearts of every single man, woman and child. No one in their right mind could say that they did not fear death, fear their own mortality. Death is the root of all fear in the world, and the sooner you realize this, the sooner it conquers you.
To me though, death was un-consequential, a mere inconvenience that would take at most a year to right. The dragon balls made this possible. Indeed death had no hold on me, and I relished this fact.
Death was my specialty though. Creating it, conquering it, and ultimately doing without it. Just a while ago I'd been given a weapon with which to excel at it even more.
When Krillin had come to King Kai's small lump of green a few months ago, he'd brought with him a bag, and within it a few items. Among them was a long bladed samurai type sword, which King Kai had given me to train with, and later on take back to Earth to use against the Caprians. The sword was thin, silvery-white, pointed on only one side, and extremely heavy.
It seemed like one of King Kai's many hidden talents was his mastery of the blade. He'd taught me how to control every aspect of the sword, so after only a few weeks I'd mastered it's basic uses. (ex. Slashing, blocking, stabbing, sheathing etc.) A little while after that he taught me a technique called the Doominator, which was very similar to the Triple Strike, except with a sword. The technique was fairly easy to perform since I'd previously mastered the Triple Strike, but the next attack King Kai taught me was much harder to learn.
It was called the Dragon Shock, and it was performed like so: The user holds the sword at shoulder height, legs bent, blade sticking straight forward, and faces the opponent. Once ready, they zanzoken in front of the target, and then quickly zanzoken behind them. They then repeatedly zanzoken literal circles around whoever it is their fighting, confusing their opponent beyond words. Occasionally they would stop and quickly slash their enemy with the heavy sword, but the trick was to not let the attack slow down the zanzokening.
The attack was truly a test of physical capability, and I had still been unable to master it after nearly two months of sword training. I came close to finishing it once or twice, but I usually just ran out of energy, collapsing to the ground. I was walking the path I hadn't wanted to, doing physical training a lot more than my usual mental discipline.
Almost luckily though, my training with King Kai was nearly complete. In the five months I'd spent with him, I'd mastered every technique he'd taught me, save one, and I'd become incredibly powerful as well. I couldn't wait to see what Cris would think of me when we met again, no doubt he would be impressed beyond belief. Little did I know, I'd be seeing him all too soon.
I was beginning to practice Dragon Shock, by the tree on the small green planet, when King Kai walked up to me, and asked me something. "Triono, what do you think you've learned from me in the past five months?"
I stopped on the spot I was on, placed my sword into its leather sheath on my belt, and thought about my question. King Kai seemed to be serious for the first time in a while, and it was kind of upsetting. After a few seconds I answered, "Well, I've learnt a bunch of different ki attacks. I've mastered how to use my sword, my body, and my mind." I frowned slightly, thinking of more to say. "I've learnt how to fight beyond my wildest dreams." Bubbles came out from behind the house to my left, and that reminded me of something else. "I've learnt to respect everything I see, not just what I think is worthy of my respect." King Kai nodded, a grim look on his face.
"Well," he started, before taking a deep sigh. "that's about all I can expect to teach a student. So it's with a happy heart I can tell you that the Z warriors down on Earth have almost collected all the dragon balls, and are going to wish you back; sometime tomorrow probably." As he told me, a rush of excitement ripped through my veins, and I smiled broadly. I'd be going back, to meet all my new allies, to train for the Caprians, to----- wait a second, I wasn't supposed to be wished back for another three months, so why was I going back so soon?
"King Kai, wasn't I supposed to be wished back in a few months? Why am I going back so soon?" King Kai looked at me, and a glare struck me from his sunglasses, causing me to squint.
"Well, there's a few reasons." He hung his head slightly and sighed before continuing. "First of all, if you go back now, you'll be back in time to start your heavy gravity training." That seemed like a good idea, considering how strong I'd gotten under 10 times gravity. "And, uh, well, there was an accident, back on Earth."
Like any inquisitive little saiyan, I immediately asked, "What kind of accident?"
"Oh, nothing you have to worry about." I thought King Kai knew me better than that. No way he was gonna leave me hanging like that.
"C'mon, tell me. I gotta know."
He just shrugged, and then replied. "Well, one of the Z warriors died."
I sighed. Now one of my allies would be behind in his training when he got back to earth, which could be a big weakness when the Caprians arrived. A question suddenly popped in my head. "Who was it?"
King Kai immediately tensed up, his head snapping up, his shoulders becoming rigid, and his hands trembling. I knew right then that I'd gotten King Kai right where he didn't want to be. When he didn't respond after a few seconds, I kept at it. "Well? Who is it?"
King Kai winced, almost as if he was in pain before whispering out a name. I strained my ears to hear it, but his voice was just too quite. I smirked; he actually thought he could elude me. I looked straight into his eyes and shook my head. He smiled, shrugged, and answered. "It was Cris."
A wave of emotions overpowered me, causing me to fall to the ground. Cris was dead, and now I was going back to take his place. The thought scared me, but worse still was when I realized with Krillin and Cris dead, I had no friends on the living plane. Did I actually consider Cris a friend? After everything we'd been through, up until I was killed, did I really respect him enough to call him a friend?
Yes, I did, he was a friend, maybe even my best friend. I shook my head at the pure absurdity of the thought. Just a year ago we were heated rivals with totally different ethics, but now we shared a common goal, and we would be forced to share a master, and a way of life.
Share a master, I thought, that didn't sound right. "King Kai," I began, tilting my head up to the blue-skinned "will Cris come to train under you?"
The martial arts master swallowed deeply before replying, "Yes, he should be arriving any day now."
I bowed my head again, and began to think. Cris was my friend, but somewhere deep down within me I needed to do something. I needed to show him up, to match and beat him at his own game, to prove to him, to me, and to everyone else that I was superior. I wanted to train alongside him and show that I could match him in every aspect of the word. I stood up, stared straight at King Kai and said, "I'm staying."
His jaw dropped, his beady eyes opened up underneath his glasses, and asked, "What?"
I stated flatly "I'm staying. I'm going to stay here and train with you."
King Kai shook his head at a rapid pace almost yelling out "No, no, no, no. You see the dragon balls don't come back for another year, so they have to wish one of you back right now and the other has to wait another year. If they wait any longer, the Caprians will have arrived, and we won't be able to wish one of you back."
"I don't care, I'm staying." I sounded like an immature little kid, but I couldn't come up with a counter-argument.
"But Triono, Cris is already running down snake way, we can't wish him back in the time necessary. Wishing you back will let you speed up your training considerably, this is what's best for you, and for Cris."
"No!" I screamed back at King Kai. "Staying here and training with Cris is what's best for me." It was true too. The entire time back home, all Cris and I ever did for each other was motivate one another. Most of the time he was pushing me to get stronger and faster, but I knew that I was the one reason he trained later on, I was the only one who could quench the challenge he desired. Now we would push each other once again, only this time it wasn't towards our petty differences, it was for the fate of the galaxy. "Trust me."
King Kai stared at me blankly, and I returned the favour. "One of you will eventually have to be wished back, and the other will be forced to stay here while the entire battle goes down."
"Then let whoever shows the greatest increase in a few months be the one that gets wished back." The idea had just suddenly popped in my head, but it instantly made sense. With a motivating factor like life at stake, we would surely drive each other to our limits. "You have to have faith in me King Kai, I know what I'm doing."
He dropped his head, his mind saturated in deep thought for seemingly hours "Alright Triono, if you really think that's what's best, let me contact Cris and see if he agrees."
I opened my mouth in protest, but realized I wouldn't be able to convince King Kai to not talk to Cris without revealing my little training scheme. I closed my mouth as King Kai turned to face snake way, his antennae whipping in different directions, and whispered to myself "It's up to you now Cris."
King Kai's black antennae flashed on and off several times, and I managed to pick up some of the telekinetic waves passing between the two. After a while the emissions ceased, and King Kai dropped his head.
I smiled, he'd said yes, and King Kai was pissed. The black clothed master turned around and confirmed my assumption before picking up Bubbles and heading back to the house slowly. Good old Cris, I knew he'd agree, in fact he probably even came up with the same realization I did. We were a lot alike in some ways.
I yelled over to King Kai "Make sure you tell Kami on Earth not to wish either of us back!" The little man made some sort of hand gesture I couldn't make out before walking into the house. I smiled; I knew King Kai wouldn't let me down. There was a slight rumbling in my stomach and I yelled again "Oh yeah, King Kai, when is supper?"