"Oh, young lady…!" a maid stiffened in place when Videl dressed in a karate gi turned the corner and strut through the main hall of the Satan Estate. The puffed cheeks and sour look on the young lady's face made the maid freeze like a timid mammal caught in the sights of a great cat that was so fast and unbelievably powerful that it had the power to decide the poor critter's fate from that point on based on how hungry and merciful it felt.
"Gohan-kun didn't show up for martial arts training today, where is Chayote-san?" Videl stopped in place and pressed her arms with clenched and shaking fists to her sides. Ever since Chayote and Gohan introduced her to the higher world of martial arts, Videl felt like she'd wasted her entire life playing and pretending like she was a true fighter and that she needed to catch up already or else she'd never be an accomplished martial artist. Just surpassing her father wasn't enough. Videl wanted to be genuinely good and to be taken seriously as a martial artist by one of the greats and to do that, she needed to push herself every waking hour of the day to compensate for the lost time and squandered opportunities.
Her esteemed tutor not showing up for practice was unacceptable and Videl wanted to never stop letting Chayote hear about it. Even if Videl was more than satisfied with the strength and character of her tutor that Chayote spoke so highly about, if her tutor not showing up was something she needed to be worried about, Chayote may as well have kept on teaching her herself like old times. The Saiyan woman just kept trying to wash her hands off of Videl to spend more time with her son, even though the maids and butlers could've done more than a good job taking care of little Navy. Chayote had an earful coming her way once Videl found her…
"Young lady… You look angry, it would not be a good idea to confront Chayote-san now. She just isn't feeling well these past few days…" the maid frantically shook her hands out in front of her.
"Huh? Not feeling well?" Videl scratched her head. "What's that supposed to mean? Is she with Navy or something?"
"No, young lady, in fact, Chayote-san hasn't checked up on Navy ever since she came back from her trip after the fiasco that was Yamcha's wedding," the maid shook her head. "She's just been spending time alone, all spaced out. We've taken over taking care of the young Navy ourselves. Sometimes… Sometimes it feels like Chayote-san is… Well… Afraid to see him, or something. That is why I ask of you to please calm down before you see Chayote-san. Nothing will be gained from a heated argument with her current state of mind."
"I see, thank you, I will use my Ki sensory to check where she is," Videl bowed her head and excused the maid. Upon feeling her lungs freeing up and air once again coming in and going out, the servant elegantly scurried out the main hall while Videl closed her eyes and concentrated on feeling Ki around her just like Chayote and Gohan had taught her.
"The roof?" Videl emerged from the front side of the mansion's roof by rising above with a controlled hover and checking up on her mentor just sitting on the roof and staring off into the sky. "You know, people rarely sit on the roof and look at the sky, unless they've got serious issues. My dad's about to be the King of the World, so if the press sees you hanging out on the roof of his mansion, they'll think he's abusive or something. Cut it out."
"Videl…" Chayote acknowledged that her little pupil pet project joined her on the roof with a dull statement. "Maybe you're right. There are better places to gather my thoughts."
"We used to be able to work through our issues with our fists," Videl pulled the sleeve of her gi back, exposing her knuckle fitted with a fingerless leather fighting gloves. "We used to understand each other that way and we first connected by fighting each other too. When I first saw you, I thought you were some barracuda that came to our house to suck my father dry and leech off of his wealth, success, and fame. It took me just a few exchanges to realize the person you really were."
"You never fought me at my best. You don't know the real person that I am. Just the one I pretend to be by stomping on my own head and shoving it down into a deep black hole…" Chayote replied in a husky and spiteful tone. Videl's serious look softened and became worried about her mentor's well-being. The young martial artist approached her teacher and sat down by her side, crossing her legs and looking at Chayote from the side to see what was troubling her this much. "What's the matter? I thought that Earthlings normally don't sit on rooftops," Chayote sneered back at her pupil.
"They don't, but if I sit by your side, it's okay," Videl smiled. "We can just chalk it down to a teaching experience. I'm wearing my fighting outfit, so there's only one way the press can take this, right?"
"I don't much care about that," Chayote stood up and cracked her neck to the sides before rolling her fists around, itching to go for some challenging workout, but there was nothing challenging left to do on Planet Earth. If she wanted to stress herself, she'd have to go talk to Bulma so that the woman let Chayote use the gravity chamber or lend Chayote one of her spaceships equipped with a gravity machine and some drones for Chayote to thrash.
"You seem to be going through something. Do you want to talk about it?" Videl wondered. "Gohan-kun didn't come to today's training, so I've been wondering that maybe you could teach me like old times?"
"Right, things got pretty wild on Planet Vegeta, so I guess Gohan is still recovering and working things through with his family. You shouldn't blame him for missing one training session. He fought an actual devil out there so he deserves a few days off…" Chayote flexed her arms by stretching and spinning them around by the shoulder and pulling a few warm-up exercises, vaulting over on one arm, and doing some overhead push-ups before vaulting back on her feet and continuing to stretch. "Come on then, I'll stretch you out."
With a wide smile stretching out across her face, Videl took off into the sky, following her mentor to warm up like old times. It looked like Chayote needed to get something off her chest and work through something and Videl felt excited to be able to help her teacher as opposed to the usual interactions and training that mostly benefited Videl.
Chayote's meteoric rise came to a stop somewhere in the upper stratosphere as the Saiyan hovered with her arms crossed over her chest. Videl's breathing picked up as she never had to struggle for every breath before. It felt like the few subtle moves she's made drained her of every ounce of her energy before she could even throw a single punch. Just what kind of training is this? How can this be useful when Videl won't get to push herself to the limit and tire herself out when she's struggling to breathe even just standing still?
"You'll notice that all the way up here, flying is more difficult. You need to spend more Ki to sustain yourself and breathing is difficult because air is incredibly rare here. It's about half as bad as training in God's Temple would be. If you can pull your weight here, I'll let you climb the Korin Tower and train with Upa. That should multiply your battle power a dozen times in just a few years, even if you're way stronger than when I did that training," Chayote relaxed and lowered her hands. She still wasn't looking at Videl, which irritated the young martial artist as she took a fighting stance and attacked without waiting for permission.
Videl rushed forward, driving her forearm and elbow into Chayote's face, and leaned back to avoid a potential counter before slamming her forearm into the face again. Thinking she had Chayote stunned, Videl went down for a low thrust kick that was supposed to force her opponent to trip by hitting them in the shins. The problem was that these attacks just bounced off of Chayote like Videl was punching at an immovable wall. Videl had never seen Chayote like this. Worry and hesitation crept into the young woman's eyes as she rolled back in mid-air and began struggling for breath. Painful twinges resonated Videl's elbows and her forearms but also her legs. Somehow, she managed to get hurt by merely punching her opponent.
"Air…" Videl gasped.
"That's odd, you were doing great managing your breathing before you lost your control at the end," Chayote stated with an apathetic tone. "I was a bit surprised by how you seemed to have naturally taken to this lesson, but then you wasted that impression in the end."
"I… I can't even hit you. You didn't even bother to defend yourself, you just powered up like crazy. Just what's the point of this training if I can't hit you and you won't defend yourself? You're more than just a punching bag, Chayote-san!" Videl stretched her back out and straightened herself after some heavy panting, regulating her breathing back to normal in a snap.
"I've been wondering about that myself. If I'm something more than just a monster…" Chayote looked down at her hands. Without warning, she extended her hand and sent a stray Ki blast in Videl's direction. The poor girl freaked out. She could've easily taken the blast and crashed back down with a nasty sear stretched all over her front that would've required a Senzu or healing magic to take care of. Videl's eyes began gleaming with crystal clarity just before the shapeless blast took her out. The perky martial artist vaulted over the Ki blast and rolled over the sky with a flying overhead kick to Chayote's forehead.
This time the young teen confronted her mentor and began thrusting punches and whipping some stiff kicks her way, mercilessly pelting her own body with painful backlash twinges since Videl failed to leave a dent in Chayote's natural defenses even though just stonewalling blows like this burnt through stamina and Ki. It was just that by now Chayote had those in spades and as a Legendary Super Saiyan, she had a mean habit to recover all of those the more she fought as opposed to the other way 'round like it was usually the case. Videl jumped up with a solid vertical kick to the bottom of Chayote's jaw that jogged the Saiyan's chin up but left no lasting impression.
Videl flickered back with afterimages, mirroring Gohan's evasive move while maintaining her breathing throughout. She's learned from the last mistake she made.
"Just what happened on Planet Vegeta? It's clear that it's weighing down on you, sensei. Please, talk it out, and let's spar like old times. You've got some heavy feelings weighing you down and I want to help you work through them," Videl nodded to herself as if convincing herself that she was strong enough to help Chayote get through her blues.
"We met another Legendary Super Saiyan. Or… At least he seemed like a Legendary Super Saiyan to me, he had the same transformation as I do, except his father could trigger it whenever Broly needed it as opposed to me achieving it when I lose myself in rage. This angel guy Whis says that Broly wasn't a Legendary Super Saiyan but… If he wasn't, then what was he? I know the Legendary Super Saiyan transformation when I see it," Chayote explained. "Whis said that he wasn't a Legendary Super Saiyan, but he was just like me…" Chayote blabbed on while throwing reserved blows and setting up a trap to test Videl's quick thinking skills and her ability to maintain steady breathing while under duress.
Videl seemed to neither let herself get trapped in Chayote's setup nor willing to fall for any traps or sweeps. The feisty girl vanished a short distance back before lashing straight back with a rushing kick. Chayote leaned to the side, turning around the flying kick before throwing a lax elbow, but Videl wasn't being sloppy. Extending both her hands with open palms, the young martial artist expelled a shock wave from her left hand while stopping Chayote's elbow with the right. Then Videl turned her entire body around, bringing a double turning knee strike to Chayote, but the Saiyan brushed it off with a simple block from the side. Seeing her teacher actually engaged in martial arts exchanges and training instead of just stone-walling attacks and talking back with her made Videl gleam with cheer and this vibrant energy outburst translated into some creative movement and attacks.
"You said he was a Legendary Super Saiyan… And you fought that guy?" Videl muttered with picking up breaths. That was something, Chayote didn't count on her pupil being able to talk while being carefully pushed to her limits, but Videl did her best both as someone trying to console Chayote and as her pupil.
"He was completely off his rocker. Wrecking shit was all that was on his mind. He said that he loved his father and that he loved me, but he seemed almost excited to rip those two out of his heart and leave a void to be filled with destruction. He described himself as the devil incarnate and he may as well have been right. There was no man inside of that brain of his, he was an absolute monster. Nothing but rage and hatred…" Chayote described with a bitter look on her face, gently pressing on a controlled offensive to test Videl's reaction and skills. The Saiyan didn't use any patterns or combinations that'd have been unseen or unfamiliar to the teen martial artist. Surprising her was no longer the case, now Chayote wanted to test how long Videl could last while maintaining steady breathing.
There it was, Videl was finally running out of breath. She was trying to act tough by placing blocks as usual, but Chayote knew better. Putting just a bit more strength into the punch, pushing and powering through the block, the Saiyan thrust her fist diagonally down and smashed through Videl's block. This made the teen martial artist hang her arms down heavily and wince in pain while being wide open. Chayote's kick to the side bent Videl and blanked her out for a second before a double-hand hammer slam from above sent her crashing down below.
Not wanting to let Videl blow up the estate by crashing through its roof, Chayote vanished and appeared directly above her pupil. The Saiyan wrapped her arms around Videl's from her front and tilted Videl over her back, placing the teen into a bridging submission over the back of Chayote's neck and her shoulders while amplifying pressure with each second. Videl grunted and yelled out in pain at first before frantically tapping at Chayote's shoulder only for the Saiyan to release the hold and let Videl stabilize her hovering while panting in pain after the bruising she took.
"But you won, right…?" Videl asked. "All of you came back a few days after you left. Why are you letting this get to you? It's hardly the first close call you've ever had…"
"It's not a close call," Chayote shook her head. "I've been fighting meaty blockheads that thought that power triumphed over everything else all my life. For half of it, I was that meaty blockhead who had to learn martial arts herself to learn how to fight right. Broly was the ultimate embodiment of that belief. The very worst possessor of it and the ultimate edge to which you can take raw power and toughness without skill. There's nothing particularly impressive about him other than that…"
"And yet, you're lost in thought all the time. The servants said you're afraid to see your son yet you won't train me anymore either… It's like you've begun avoiding everyone and hiding from other people," Videl called her mentor out. "So I'm just trying to understand what the heck gives, because you're important to me, Chayote-san. I… Damn… I can't believe you're making me get into this sappy stuff but… My mother died when I was pretty young so I don't remember that much about her. In a lot of ways, over these last few months that we've been training and living under one roof, I'm beginning to feel like I can think about you that way sometimes too. In a lot of ways, I'm looking up to you, Chayote-san, so it hurts to see you acting like that."
"I'm not your mother and I never will be," Chayote crossed her arms and shook her head with a distant look on her face. "After meeting Broly, I'm wondering if someone like me can ever be a mother. Broly seemed to be nothing but a force of nature, raw power itself. He cherished the thought of liberating himself of bonds and feelings to replace them with more hatred. And he's the only other Legendary Super Saiyan I've ever met…"
"I see…" Videl freaked out. "Because this Broly had the same genes as you, you think that he's an example of what the Legendary Super Saiyans are like… You think that this is all that you're ever going to be like."
"Maybe…" Chayote slumped and shrugged her shoulders with a defeated expression. "I mean… I can talk shit all I want about how messed up and mad Broly was, but… I actually understood him. I knew where he was coming from and I struggled my entire life to not become like him. Seeing the only other Legendary Super Saiyan and facing him… Seeing him push my back to the wall in battle despite having little to no combat experience, just pure wrath, and bloodlust… Maybe I shouldn't have struggled against my nature. Maybe my nature is all that I can ever be, and maybe I'm just wasting my time trying to be anything else but a ruthless, inexhaustible war machine. Maybe I'm meant to be exactly like Broly? Maybe my place really was wearing that crown and standing by his side?"
Videl rushed forward with a mean yet pain-ridden face. Turning her entire body around with a roundhouse, Videl forced Chayote to put up a block to defend against it, transitioning the kick into a step, Videl turned her entire body in the opposite direction and reversed the roundhouse only to grab her rattled ribs and stagger back in pain. Still, the teen pushed through, taking it higher and darting toward Chayote with a flying kick and transitioning into a mad flurry of jabs. Feeling like she wasn't about to have any more of this, Chayote yelled out while knocking Videl aside with an explosive energy wave that reduced the teenager to a crumbling and sweating blazon of submission.
"And what about me?" Videl yelled out. "What about dad and what about your kid? What about all your friends and all the people you've met? Do they get a say in what you're supposed to be and what they feel like is best for you? I got to meet plenty of your friends during Yamcha-san's wedding and I don't think a single one of them thinks you're mad or unstable or that they're afraid you might hurt them. They think about you as a friend. They can't imagine their circle of friends, even their families with you smiling in that mental picture and neither can I. That little baby sleeping or eating in his room, you're that guy's entire world. You're his angel and his demon and I bet he wouldn't have it any other way, either. Maybe being a Legendary Super Saiyan is all that Broly was and more, but the truth is that you're none of those things. You're you, and that's all you need to be."
"I think you're ready," Chayote pressed her hands to her hips.
"Ready? What for?" Videl blinked a couple of times, even opening the bruised right eye out of surprise.
"I'd like to show you to Upa. Gohan can keep training you there," Chayote closed her eyes with a tranquil look on her face. "I've taught you enough for the moment, and it's important to study under different masters and learn as much as you can. Up there, you can study with all sorts of crazy people considered the gods of martial arts in our world. Eventually, you can come back to me and show me what you've learned."
"Upa? You mean God's Temple, don't you? I can't go to God's Temple? School starts in a month, plus, dad's going to go crazy if I leave by myself off somewhere," Videl scratched her head. Her face didn't look like it was objecting all too much, she just wanted to be calm about all those things before she started some serious training that'd put her on the same level as Chayote and her friends and would stop making her feel like a weak link when standing by their side.
"You can fly. You're not perfect yet, but you can fly around the planet in no time at all. With enough skill, you'll learn to move around the planet in an instant by flying. I'll talk to your father about it. I'm sure he'll understand, he's met Kami Upa and the other guys, remember? That's where we've sheltered the remnants of humanity during the Android Conflict," Chayote calmed Videl's fears down somewhat. The teen seemed pumped enough to straighten up and cheer with a fist shooting out into the sky.