Ginyu
Chapter 66: The Weight of Two Worlds
There was an instant where Jeice, Recoome, and Nail forgot about their exhaustion, their cuts and burns, and the blood they had shed today against each other. As a whole, the three of them couldn't have made an odder group; and yet they all made the same stunned expression at a sight each and every one of them had thought they'd never see: the Captain of the Ginyu Force, a man who had seemingly never been challenged and who could take all of them together blindfolded, was on his knees, cowed by a crimson ki as powerful as a raging inferno.
But, like all instants, it passed, and the instant that followed it had an altogether different tone from the one that preceded it.
Dark purple ki enveloped Ginyu's kneeling figure, wrapping around him and rushing across the ground around him and Krillin in waves. Powered by his newly summoned reserves of power, Ginyu tightened his grip against Krillin's hands and pushed himself back to his feet.
'You've come here to win, then?' Ginyu said in a low, jagged voice. Krillin's face, colored red by the Kaioken, looked hellish- but was soon surpassed by Ginyu's. 'A peon stumbling into a fight?!'
Purple and red pressed together, and the ground underneath Krillin and Ginyu was pushed back and away, forming a crater with them at the center. 'My scouter's got you at 60,000!' Ginyu roared above the din. 'So I hope that this isn't all you-' Ginyu stopped, and with his gaze trained over Krillin's shoulder and his eyes bulging out of their sockets- 'JEICE, NO!'
A rush of wind hit Krillin's back. Eyes widening and streaked by red, Krillin jumped up, slamming Ginyu's jaw and popping the alien's head up, separated one hand from Ginyu's loosened grip, and spun.
Jeice was charging him from behind, his hair and armor being flattened back by the energy pouring out of him and Krillin. Grimacing, Krillin pulled back his free hand and swung.
His limb smashed against Jeice's chest, cracking his armor in two, and catapulted the PTO soldier- driving him into the side of a rocky plateau a mile away.
Before Krillin could finish moving his arm, a fist crashed off of his other one, degripping him from Ginyu. 'YOU'LL REGRET THAT!' Ginyu bellowed as another purple-wreathed strike crashed into Krillin's gut. But just as Ginyu was about land another strike, a blast of red floored him and skidded him backward.
The crimson flames surrounding Krillin loomed higher than ever. Ginyu unconsciously registered the flashing 80,000 on his scouter.
'No,' Krillin said through a strained expression, as he rushed forward and slammed an upwards kick so hard into Ginyu that he was launched into the sky, 'I don't think I will.'
0o0o0
Awed, Nail watched as waves of energy rose and fell from the two fighters in front of him. By now he had been pushed far away from the battle, and felt like an observer as he saw this new fighter, the ally of the humans, Krillin, go toe-to-toe with Ginyu and swat away the red-skinned soldier like it was nothing. The same soldier who Nail had pushed himself to his limits to try and win against.
And this was all before Nail felt Krillin's power tick up again and saw Ginyu be punted into the sky. Without missing a beat, Krillin zoomed up after him.
Is there any limit to his power? In the sky above, Nail saw the purple outline around Ginyu billow, and when Ginyu and Krillin next clashed together- meeting limb-to-limb, aura-to-aura, like two stars exploding- they both held their ground in the air. Is there any limit to either of them?
A string of coughing interrupted Nail's thoughts. Confused, he cast his gaze to the ground.
At Nail's feet and flat on his stomach, Piccolo breathed weakly and ran his fingers through the dirt. Nail could spot purple marks around his neck. It seemed that Piccolo had yet to regenerate his injuries.
Too injured. Nail crouched down and examined the small, blood-smeared holes that dotted his sides and back. Far too injured. He must have spent the last of his energy flying here. Nail remembered how Piccolo had charged Ginyu. Stubborn fool.
Before he knew what he was doing, his hand reached down to help turn over Piccolo onto his back. He started, and quickly pulled back. This was how he was when Leera died. Moori told me not to touch him. Nail eyed his right hand, turning it over again and again. Not once.
He tightened the hand into a fist and examined Piccolo more closely. The Earthborn Namekian seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness. Nail remembered what he had said to Piccolo when he first met him atop the spire- how he would have liked to kill him if he didn't need him. Then there was Moori's words, his advice- kill Piccolo if given the chance.
He said that- even knowing that doing so would deprive the Earth of their dragonballs. With Krillin here… we know that our wishes were fulfilled. He was our second wish. Before him, Namek would have been moved.
Nail glanced up at the sky. He couldn't see much of anything different- he could see a lone sun in the Namekian sky pushing parallel to the horizon. Hard to say, now that I'm looking, though…
He fixed his vision on a spot at the base of Piccolo's skull. One ki beam in the right spot could kill Piccolo instantly. Nail knew Namekian anatomy well enough. We would never revive him. He'd stay dead. And our kin could rest, knowing that no-one like him is out in the galaxy with the power to consume us.
That was, anyway, how'd his thoughts would have gone if he was actually going to go through with it. Placing his hands on his thighs, Nail stood. He wasn't a damn fool. His gaze fell on a familiar shape getting to his feet at the far end of the plain. There were more pressing tasks at hand.
When Nail came to the end of his short flight over, Recoome was still watching the epic brawl happening above them. 'You ever get awed sometimes?' Recoome asked, striking a remarkably earnest tone.
Nail wasn't in the mood. With a growl, he dug his feet into the ground, lowered his arms to his sides, and called on his ki. White energy burst into the open around his body.
Recoome, his attention caught by Nail's actions, turned his gaze to his opponent and grinned. 'You wanna go another round? Even after the pounding I gave you?' As he said this, Recoome ran his eyes over Nail and noted the torn gaps in his clothing and the still bleeding wounds patterning him.
'There's more to a fight than strength,' Nail replied, his energy still kicking around him. 'I've lived on his planet my entire life- you haven't been here for more than a day. I'm fighting for my people's very existence- you're fighting, it seems, for fun. So it's not a question of if I beat you.' Nail drew back his arms and turned himself sideways, pushing his back foot into the ground to charge if needed. 'It's a question of when, because I must.'
Recoome's grin grew. 'Big talk from you,' he said, dropping into his guard. 'Hope you have a big game to back it up!'
0o0o0
The strike had come out of nowhere- One second, Ginyu was grappling with a powerful but manageable opponent with his feet firmly on the ground. The next second, he was rocketing up through the atmosphere at a ludicrous speed. The blow into his body had done something rare- he had felt a crack form in his armor. Armor tailor-made for the strongest soldier under Lord Frieza in the galaxy! Armor rivaling his own! Armor-
Ginyu failed to complete his thought as Krillin appeared above him, his entire red-colored body streaking through the sky like an otherworldly comet, and smashed another kick into Ginyu. His body buckled from the hit, and before he could understand what exactly had hit him, another strike crashed into him, and another, until he was being pummelled from all sides in the sky. What!?
Gaining speed, Krillin continued his rapid-flight through the sky, bouncing and jumping between different positions when needed. Wherever he went, Ginyu was right below him, juggled in the sky like a cannonball.
I've got him! Pushing his fourth level Kaioken, Krillin flashed into existence above Ginyu, who was zooming up from Krillin's last blow, and dove, leading with one arm cocked back, and swung.
Purple aura, bursting into the sky around Ginyu, preceded the soldier righting himself in an extraordinarily short amount of time and catching the blow. Both of them looked into each other's eyes, and a cocky Ginyu saw dread creep into Krillin's face.
At least, that's what he thought he saw, because soon after Krillin muttered something under his breath and turned even redder, and with the same expression, he slammed a blow into Ginyu and sent him flailing into a body of water below them. His impact made a mighty booom and shot a magnificent plume of water into the air.
0o0o0
Consciousness came back to Jeice in slow bursts. What fully awoke him from whatever state he had been in, however, was sensing the rigid, cold material pressing against his skin. What drove him to action was his panic surrounding the awful lack of air in his lungs.
He opened his eyes, closed them from the blurriness and wetness he felt, and ignited his aura. Blindly, he swung out and up through the water, rushing towards the surface as his lungs burned hotter and hotter. When he felt he could take no more, he burst out of the water and into the open air, gasping for breath, and crashed onto solid ground from exhaustion.
He pulled himself to his knees, slowly getting a grip on his breathing, and watched water drip off him and pool around his hands and knees. What the bloody hell was that?... Jeice took stop of his body- there was pain present in every part of him. I feel like I got hit by a shuttle!…
Jeice then remembered what had happened- barely. The mystery fighter, who had appeared out of nowhere, had decked him- hard. Hard enough that he didn't recognize his environment at all. He was somewhere in the middle of nowhere, with the small lake he had come out behind him and a crater that looked large enough to be his in the side of a plateau behind the lake. He must have been whacked into that, fallen unconscious, and dropped into the water.
The thought of someone that strong hitting him was not only caused Jeice a lot of pain- which now came in debilitating waves as his mind kicked into full-gear again- but also made him feel ashamed and angry. With the Captain behind us, there's nothing our squad can't do! And, and, for that cretin to do what he did!... grrr! Out of nowhere, too! Just, pop, and he's there, making a mockery of us! The Ginyu Force won't stand for this! We won't! What gives him the right to interrupt our poses? -and- and!-
Jeice launched himself into the air, charging back to the battle he could see in the distance. He'll pay! He'll pay!
0o0o0
As soon Krillin saw the body of water below submerge Ginyu, his crimson aura winked out and he let out a heavy exhale. They had barely begun their fight and he was already gasping for air. Still, throughout this, his eyes never left the calming surface of the water below, and after a time, he began to descend.
Things were going okay in Krillin's estimation. Not bad, but not great either. He had a rough idea of where Ginyu was in strength, and he was pretty sure he could equal his maximum power with his fifth or sixth level of Kaioken. The problem was that he had never used that high a level of the Kaioken in training before, and for the levels he had used, he had built up to them by using lower levels first. King Kai had always stressed that familiarizing the body to stress in its low-level form would help it handle it at its high-level form. But Krillin wasn't sure if that principle held true for levels of stress his body had never experienced.
So… I've hit the highest level I've ever been at. Kaioken X5. Hit a pretty high level of exhaustion, too. Yikes...
Another fact he had learned upon being brought to life- his stamina now was so much worse than what he had grown accustomed to at King Kai's. It seems that he just used less ki and felt less pain with a halo over his head.
But what had been the rudest awakening for him so far was the severe cut in time he could comfortably use the Kaioken. While dead, it had been easy to maintain a first level Kaioken for hours at a time. Here, he didn't want to try that for more than a few minutes.
All of this meant that he was potentially stronger than Ginyu, but he had a much narrower time frame to work with and a higher risk of not using his strength to his advantage. He couldn't even imagine how this fight would be going if he hadn't maintained his edge over Ginyu up until this point- how much pain, on top of his exhaustion, would he have been in if Ginyu had actually hit him by now?
Krillin landed. Not a single ripple ran across the water. Maybe there was a Kai- a specific Kai, maybe- that was looking out for him.
As soon as he thought this, the water started shifting, and drawing back one foot to brace himself, Krillin remembered that King Kai was, in Roshi's words, not much more than a CCTV camera.
He expected water to rush past his ankles- he didn't expect the entire body of water in front of him to leap up, raging at some unseen entity, and push out, throwing massives waves of water out in every direction. Krillin couldn't do much except take a big breath and clamp his mouth shut as a tsunami enveloped him.
Using his ki, he was able to keep himself mostly upright as the wave of water carried him across the land. His white aura shone a little light into the deeper parts of the wave. It was because of this that Krillin saw a small and far-off point of purple and flickered on his Kaioken aura.
The water sizzled and steamed as the red enveloped Krillin in tandem with a charging Ginyu, swarmed by purple coloring in the water, crashed head-first into Krillin's block. Even with the Kaioken, Krillin felt shallow gashes open up on his arms, mixing the nearby water with tinges of red.
The force of the blow pushed Krillin back faster, accelerating his movement through the water- but Ginyu kept in pursuit, slamming a chop into Krillin's right forearm, a kick into his shins, and soon enough a full-out brawl occurred between the two of them. Their auras zipped and zoomed around in the water, hot enough to evaporate it in any place it bordered, as strikes blurred and melded together. Their styles, with Ginyu favoring stocky, compact strikes and Krillin favoring quick, agility-focused movement and placement, blended into one unending procession through the water. Ginyu's face was taunting, threatening, dangerous even as he, like Krillin was forced to hold his breath. Krillin, saddled with the weight of the Kaioken, could manage nothing more than a near-constant showing of exertion.
Diving, Krillin rushed underneath a waterborne sweep of and cocked back a ki blast, shading them both with bright blues. As he swung it up at Ginyu, the PTO soldier hastily whipped around his leg, smacking Krillin's arm away and the blast along with it. Unprepared for such a quick counterattack, Krillin was left unguarded for the first time in their fight, and received a rapid-fire wave of punches from Ginyu. The last strike, a fist wreathed into an exuberant amount of purple and pink, swung through the water and lodged itself in Krillin's diaphragm, forcing out all the air Krillin had held in his lungs and springing him backward. To his fortune and Ginyu's displeasure, however, the strength of the wave had died out- Krillin traveled only a few feet before exiting the water and splashing onto the ground.
Ginyu stopped himself and sunk down to the ground. The last of the wave petered out and fell away from him. He took this opportunity to unclasp the latches on his shoulders and let the front and back of his white armor clunk to the ground. With a quick use of his aura, he flung away all the moisture accumulated on his skin and in his jumpsuit.
As he clasped his armor back on- despite the severe damage done to the front- he glanced over to his opponent. Krillin, panting, took his time to stand.
'I'm not quite sure how you're doing it,' Ginyu said as he repeatedly pressed a button on his scouter. Eventually, a side compartment opened up and a decent amount of water sprung out. 'My scouter clocked you at 60,000, 80,000, even 100,000 before, and now…' he prodded his scouter a few more times, and smiled. '20,000. Far below where you were before. And yet I have a sneaking suspicion that that number will jump up again soon.'
Sopping wet, Krillin looked to be too consumed with catching his breath to respond. From a kneeling position, he worked himself into a crouch. He did, however, throw a blank, vague look in Ginyu's direction.
'I assume I have your attention,' Ginyu said, noting this. 'So I'll give you mine- while I may not have encountered a fighter before of your caliber, I must say- I admire your power and poise. Very few men have ever sparred evenly with the Captain of the Ginyu Force, and those who have are dead.' Ginyu made a show of smiling. 'I am not suggesting anything- well, I am suggesting something- but not what you think. My point is this: no matter what your loyalty is to who or whatever drove you to appear here and challenge me, it is not too late for you to not turn out like the others before you. Due to recent events, and… the certain actions of certain, incompetent people,' Ginyu's smile cracked briefly, '...I have vacancies to fill in my Force. You have demonstrated your worth as a fighter.'
'...No.'
One of Ginyu's horns dipped curiously. Krillin had breathed his response more than actually saying it. 'Just like that? You reject our offer?' Ginyu's tone was not angry- it sounded more offended. 'The Ginyu Force is one of the most highly regarded fighting forces in the galaxy- and you say no? Well, let me say this, then- you should know that my power level clocks in at 120,000. If you do not agree to serve under me, then you must beat me and that number.' A confident smirk returned to Ginyu's face. 'And, judging by where you are now, I don't think you can go much higher than what I've already seen.'
Krillin's gulps for air had slowed to a loud breathing. 'Yeah?...' he said. 'What makes you say that?...'
The smirk on Ginyu's face took on a stranger, almost reminiscent quality. 'Throughout my life I have made it a talent of mine of when to spot the potential in every opponent I've faced- pegging them, so to speak.'
One of Krillin's eyebrows rose. But he decided against acknowledging whatever Ginyu might have said.
'And, so-' Ginyu continued, 'I know you've reached your limit.' He placed his hands on his hips and shot a look of amusement over to him. 'I mean, just look at you! You can barely stand! Need I say any more?'
As soon as Ginyu said this, Krillin realized he was slouching. With some effort, he corrected that. 'I still don't get the point of telling me this- other than to delay the inevitable for you.' Krillin's voice regained some of its previous severity.
Still grinning, Ginyu closed his eyes. 'The mission is coming to an end- sorry if this is news to you. My men and I have defeated or will soon defeat every opponent offered to us, and once that's done, we'll enact a purge on this planet, drag our prisoners back to our Lord Frieza, and receive spoils by the ship-full. But,' he said daintily, and opened his eyes. 'Fights with worthy opponents do not come by every day, and I fear that if I pass up the one given to me today, I'll have to wait several more years for the next one.' Ginyu fixed a predatory look on Krillin. 'So, please, do give it your all. I really do want to see your potential. If you can- though I know you can't- I want to see you break 120,000.'
Krillin stared at Ginyu. '120,000…' he mumbled.
'I'm sorry?' Ginyu said, cupping a hand behind one of his ear holes and pointing that side of his head towards Krillin. 'What'd you say? I didn't quite catch that.'
'You said before that 120,000 was your maximum power level- and that my highest recorded power level was measured at 100,000.'
'Give or take a few units, yes.'
'Well.' Krillin said as he flicked away the moisture on his body in the same manner Ginyu had. 'You confirmed my math.'
'Math?' Ginyu searched Krillin up and down. 'What kind of math are you doing? You don't have a scouter on you,' he said, tapping his on the side of his head.
'Don't need one. I can do it well enough in my head.' Krillin replied, clenching his hands into fists. 'And my head is telling me that your chances aren't that good.'
'Oh?' Ginyu titled his head. 'I'd like to check your math.'
'Give me a minute…'
Ginyu took a step forward. 'Let me say this, then!' he yelled, shielding himself in his purple aura. 'Today, Captain Ginyu-'
Across the plain, oblivious to whatever Ginyu was about to say, Krillin's lips formed two words.
'-of the Ginyu!-'
Streaking crimson across the ground, Krillin appeared in front of a shocked Ginyu, hands tied into a fist above him, and swung them down on Ginyu's head. Legs buckled and crumpled underneath the purple alien as the force of Krillin's blow drove him into the ground, tunneling him deep under the surface. The land beneath them shook and cracked, and Krillin, reeling from the strain of the sixth level of the Kaioken, hastily released it and lifted himself higher into the air, charging a blue energy attack in his palms.
'Kaaa…. meee….
0o0o0
Jeice watched as the red-cloaked fighter appeared in the air above his Captain and landed an earth-shattering blow. He suppressed his growing rage as that same fighter then started ascending, charging a ki attack in both hands. The Cap's in trouble!... Which made what Jeice was about to do all the more necessary. Ginyu might think less of him for this- but Jeice was past the point of caring for civility. Extraordinary situations required extraordinary solutions. What mattered now, more than anything else, was maintaining the current composition and respect of the Force. And Jeice was prepared to do that through any method and for any cost.
He'll regret challenging us! His and his friends will regret killing us! I'll make sure of it!
Lifting his captive by his clothes, Jeice pooled his ki into his right pointer index finger and shouted.
0o0o0
'Haaa…. Meee!...'
Energy crackled in his palms, snaking up and down his arms in blue, twisting vines of ki. Light billowed and poured out from his hands, throwing spotlights of color into the air around him. He had enough energy gathered that, once combined with his Kaioken at the seventh level- which would put him at 140,000, 20,000 points higher than Ginyu's maximum of 120,000, if Ginyu's device was right- would decimate Ginyu utterly as soon as he popped his head up from the ground below. At the slightest sign of movement...
'STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!-'
A voice, booming through the sky, startled Krillin. The human warrior snapped his head down.
On the ground beneath him and to his right, Jeice- one hand gripping an unconscious Yamcha by the back of his gi, other shaped like a gun pressing into the side of the human's head- shook his captive threateningly. '-OR YOUR FRIEND GETS IT!'
The image burned into Krillin's memory. The folded lines Yamcha's jumpsuit made as Jeice's hand gripped around the black fabric. The ki fashioned in Jeice's hand that held itself back mere inches from Yamcha's head. The bloody, dangling arm on Yamcha's last side that looked halfway severed. And the anger, and fear, that filled every inch of the Jeice's face- it burned bright enough to rival the light of Namek's three suns.
Krillin flinched, and started positioning himself towards Jeice-
'NOT ANOTHER HOP!' Jeice yelled, pulling Yamcha closer to him and jabbing a ki-tipped index finger into the side of Yamcha's head. 'I'M SERIOUS!'
Too far. Krillin's eyes swept the distance between him and Jeice. He would never get there before Jeice had an opportunity to fulfill his threat- and stopping his fight with Ginyu, who'd appear any second now, wasn't an option. He could guess-
'COME DOWN NOW, AND SURRENDER!' Jeice demanded, feeling emboldened by Krillin's hesitation. he yanked at Yamcha's gi. 'AND THIS ONE LIVES! YOU-' Tears streamed down Jeice's cheek, and he vigorously shook his head and flung them from his cheeks, '-YOU RUINED THIS FORCE! YOU AND ALL YOUR STINKING FRIENDS!' Jeice shouted into the sky. 'BEFORE WE CAME TO THIS PLANET, BURTER WAS ALIVE, GULDO WAS ALIVE- EVERYTHING'S GOING TO CHANGE NOW BECAUSE OF YOU! I- I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO- COME DOWN NOW!'
Fear swept into Krillin's heart. He wasn't prepared for this. He was ready- had been ready to give his life if doing so would give them a better chance of winning. He'd done it before. But, this-
'FIVE SECONDS UNTIL HE DIES!' Jeice pulled Yamcha closer to him and drew his finger closer to his head. 'LAND AND SURRENDER, AND HE LIVES- FOUR!'
Krillin closed his eyes and let the Kamehameha fade from his hands. Despite this, he didn't budge from his spot in the sky.
'THREE!... TWO!'
He never really had a choice. He couldn't have made a better one, anyway.
When he first arrived, he hadn't known whether Tien and Yamcha, stranded on the battlefield, were dead. He couldn't sense them. That made him afraid, but more than that, it made him focused, because he didn't know what the margin of error was. He would have to give everything he had from the beginning. But there was a difference between not knowing whether a person he cared for was dead and watching that person die right before him. The fear of the latter happening was overwhelming- and it demanded action.
Krillin took a deep breath, and his mouth, dry and wet, moved and spoke before any thought went into what he was doing.
'Times 10.'
A crimson bonfire lit up the sky, throwing near-irresistible waves of energy over Jeice and the plain around them all. Krillin disappeared, reappeared between Yamcha and Jeice, and flung his hands forward. A dark red blast left Krillin's palms, and Jeice, far too slow to perceive what was happening, held the same fearful expression as the blast expanded, struck him, and tore him apart. Jeice's arms- arms still oriented to Yamcha, ready to kill at a moment's notice- were severed just above the elbows, and wrapping like a blanket, a red wave carried away his body for a time before consuming even that and throwing his dust into the wind.
Krillin did not witness this. His aura collapsed as soon as what he saw of Jeice was blotted out by his attack, and he fell gasping face-first to the ground, limbs twitching and muscles spasming.
On the other end of the plain, however, Captain Ginyu- freshly freed from the ground, his scouter a metallic cloud of debris around his expansive, dumbfounded face- witnessed for him.
0o0o0
As the last of Jeice's body was transformed into cosmic dust, and his arms, burnt into stubs halfway up, released their death grip on Yamcha and fell with him to the ground, Krillin was wracked by insufferable pain. Sweat poured down his body, staining his gi and pattering on blue blades of grass, while his teeth gnashed and bit on every open surface inside his mouth. Every single part of him felt like it was burning- like a thousand little fires were racing under his skin, causing him mind-numbing pain. That was a mistake. Krillin tried, and failed, to stand. He got halfway up before stumbling and falling onto his hip. That was a massive mistake.
It felt like his body was shutting down. His vision of the ground just a fool below him flickered and wavered, as if he was trapped in a constantly turning prism.
I've lost. Krillin couldn't move- him keeping himself conscious was proving to be the only struggle he equal to. I didn't need to use that high a level of the Kaioken. I shouldn't have used that high a level. Times ten… what was I thinking?
But he knew what he had been thinking. He had panicked, and while in that state, he thought that any level of Kaioken below his destructive, back-breaking, absolute maximum just-below-dying level of ten wouldn't have been enough to save Yamcha. Even when half that probably would have been enough.
Looking at his friend now- his friend's still body, lying repose on the ground like a hewn statue- Krillin wasn't even sure he if he had actually saved him. His left arm appeared to have bled all that it could have ages ago; it and every part of Yamcha was covered in dried patches of blood. He could have been dead before Jeice laid a finger on him.
Where willpower had failed, futilely succeeded in moving Krillin's hands and pressing them into the dirt. No… this can't be happening. Please...
A banding sound, cropped and faint, filtered into Krillin's mind. At first Krillin thought he was hallucinating, but the sound of laughter, from what he could tell, grew louder with every passing instant. Soon enough Krillin pinpointed where it was coming from, and with painstaking effort and sweat rolling down his body, he pulled his head around.
As his vision moved, he caught a glimpse; Jeice's arms, two burnt stumps, were left on the ground like discarded toys. Krillin was horrified of himself. Then he was horrified with Ginyu.
'Haha! Haha! HAH!' Krillin inched his head around, face clenching and unclenching, and saw Ginyu laughing as loud as probably any person on Namek had ever done. His face turned dark purple and he grabbed his stomach. 'HAH! HA, HA, HA! Of course! OF COURSE!'
Trembling, Krillin whipped his gaze away from his opponent and back to the ground. He tried to stand- he managed to twist his fingers.
'I can't believe- I can't believe I didn't see it sooner!' Ginyu continued to bark laughter. Judging from what Krillin heard, he was also moving closer.
King Kai… I screwed up! I really screwed up!
'These moments, you should know, don't come around often,' Ginyu drawled, his voice drawing closer. 'In fact, since I've assumed a command of my own- it has only happened once, on my Force's first mission. And life from there was an easy cruise.'
A hand, to his surprise, gripped Krillin by his shoulders, lifted him to his feet, and spun him around. He stood only because Ginyu, who had his hands on his shoulders, seemed very interested in talking to someone who was standing. 'I see it,' he stressed. 'This will be that moment. You're stronger than me.'
Krillin's eyes widened. He tried to speak, but found he couldn't. What!?
'I get it now,' Ginyu shook his head, 'all the struggle, the stress, the fighting… it's been so long since I've last gone through this.' He raised his head to the sky. 'Decades No- more than that. What feels like a lifetime, at least. So long…' He looked down on Krillin. 'I had forgotten what precipitates it. The anxiety. The indignation. The fear. What forces me to do what I'm about to do…' Ginyu looked Krillin up and down, and then pushed Krillin away. His expression kept changing.'I'm not sure yet whether I'll miss being this tall. Reaching things on high shelves was always a plus, but by the opposite side of the same coin, low doorways were always a pain.'
Krillin thought for a moment that he would fall, but for once, his willpower won out over the agony and kept him standing. His white aura, sparking in and out of existence around him, felt as broken as him. Such pain!...
For a long second Ginyu held his hands on his hips and almost… admired Krillin. 'But enough of this- enough of all of this!' he raised his voice, sweeping his arms over the land around them. 'There is no reason for me to drag this out any longer. I, Captain of the Ginyu Force,' Ginyu began humbly, before his right hand slid smoothly through his armor and into his chest, shooting an immediate spray of viscera into the air,'... he thanks you for your contribution,' he finished, gagging.
Krillin's mind flared; his aura grew more stop and start. Something was very wrong. 'Why- why'd you do that?' he forced out, hoarse and groggy.
With two unsteady steps backward, Ginyu bled a purple line into the ground between him and Krillin. His smile, stained with his blood, flashed in the day's light.
'For you!' Ginyu replied, his enthusiasm drawing more blood from his self-inflicted wound. 'For all of this- for power, status, pride- for everything, I say: CHANGE NOW!'
0o0o0
Ginyu felt his flesh leave him, deserting his mind of pain and suffering, and traveled across the air. He could see nothing, hear nothing, know nothing other than who he was and that he was moving. He had memories from his youngest age, of being terrified of these moments- the helplessness they entailed. He had cured himself of this by reminding himself what the destination, with all the succor it held, promised for him.
And the destination, when Ginyu finally found it, was sweet indeed.
'Aaaah!' Ginyu opened his eyes, bathing in his newfound energy. Tan arms flexed at his command, as didorange cloth anoint his skin, and he felt the cool breeze run across his skin. 'A certain feeling comes around… how scintillating! How refreshing!' Grinning, he looked away from his theft and across. 'Now then… would you be a dear and hand over my scouter, please?' Ginyu asked in a sickly sweet voice.
Krillin- trapped in a body not his own with a host of foreign sensations and parts- looked down as his hands. They were purple and veiny. Purple.
'Hellooooo?' Ginyu said cheerily. 'Anyone in there? Come now- you're not dead yet.'
In disbelief, Krillin moved his attention to a body he inhabited to… himself. His body- what he thought as his own- was staring back at him, its face a distorted parody of every expression Krillin had ever made. He… must have been dreaming. Maybe some kind of out of body experience. But… I blinked. And now I'm here.
Something sharp reached Krillin's conscious. Absentmindedly, one of his hands rose up and groped his chest. The pain was coming from there- the open chest wound. The open chest wound he had seen Ginyu inflict on himself. He… I am...
'You… you took my body,' Krillin muttered in disbelief. To his ears, his voice sounded warped and odd- and yet still felt familiar. 'How… what?...'
'Correct!' Ginyu chirped back. 'I took your body. It was better than my old one- even more so now with that nasty wound in it,' he added, motioning his open hand towards the maw of a wound on Krillin-as-Ginyu's chest. 'As for how; I have to thank a simple ability I've picked up in my travels. Quite basic, as you can clearly see, but startlingly effective.'
Krillin heard Ginyu's speech- speech that simultaneously resonated with familiarity and disgusted him with perverseness- like a distant sound, like the sound of waves crashing against the bottom of a cliff. Sequentially, sensations revealed themselves to him, filling his mind with novel experiences. It was impossible to describe- he felt like a child again, in a body that he didn't know, let alone understand.
Ginyu watched Krillin visibly struggle to come to terms with what had happened. 'Anywho,' he said, digging his feet into the dirt, 'we have a fight to finish, don't we?'
Haggard, Krillin lifted his head. 'A fight?' His chest injury flared in his mind. 'We're going to fight?...'
'Well, of course!' Ginyu replied, laughing. 'Can't well leave my old body to run around- would confuse my men too much! They wouldn't know who to be led by! So…' Ginyu balled his hands into fists, 'let's finish up, shall we?'
Krillin watched as thick curls of purple gathered around Ginyu. Like tendrils, they swept and wrapped around his original body, clothing it an aura of malice and… wrongness. He also saw, beneath, the visible injuries spanning his body from his previous use of the Kaioken.
Something occurred to Krillin. Despite his chest injury, he managed a short, pained laugh. 'I was exhausted- I was beaten. My body was broken- and you took it!' He exclaimed. 'You switched bodies with a defeated man!'
One of Ginyu's newly gained eyebrows arched. 'You'd think that, wouldn't you? But have you considered that energy resides with the soul-' Ginyu flared his ki, surrounding himself with an even larger purple aura '-and that my soul, compared to yours, has gone through a lot less today?'
Krillin's face dropped. 'No, can't be, no... that doesn't make any sense. My body-'
'Is injured, yes,' Ginyu cut in, 'but when factoring in your injuries in that body, my new residency in your old one, and my superior skill at fighting in a newly gained body compared to you-' Ginyu's voice lowered, and pebbles skittered away from his feet. 'Things aren't looking too good for you, I'm afraid!'
The aura around Ginyu tripled, throwing waves of purple energy towards the sky. Horrified, Krillin locked up and failed to react as Ginyu swiped the scouter from his head and affixed it to his own. 'Now, witness your end at your own hands!' Ginyu yelled, pulling his arms closer to his body. Howling in a manner Krillin never would, he pulled on his stolen body and ki, throwing his aura into chaos. 'You'll die by your own crimson aura! HRAAAGH!'
Waves of wind and energy buffeted Krillin as Ginyu's energy continued to rise- until stopping far below where Krillin thought it would end up. Ginyu himself looked confused, and with his purple aura silhouetting him, he pressed a button at his scouter and looked at its display.
'18,000?' Ginyu said aloud, frustrated. 'I… why isn't it higher? I powered up! I did everything I was supposed to! Where's your strength! Where's your crimson aura!' Ginyu demanded, snarling. He turned his anger on Krillin. 'What have you done!'
Krillin gaped at him. He was as confused as him. Wait... of course!... he's trying to use the Kaioken- but doesn't know it! He didn't train with King Kai! But he thinks… he thought it was something he could just access once he got my body! But, instead, he only has my base power to work- and not even that!
'What's with the blank face!?' Ginyu barked, shaking a fist at Krillin. 'What's going through your head! Answer me!'
Thoughts drifted through Krillin's mind. He's weaker than he thought he would be… and I… by the Kais… Krillin felt his new ki for the first time, and was amazed by his body's base strength compared to his original one. Can't compete with the Kaioken, and I'm pretty injured… but I can access a good chunk of Ginyu's previous strength. I've got this chest wound to worry about, which will kill me given enough time- but… Krillin curled his hand, forming a purple fist. He turned his gaze on Ginyu. I think!...
'Damn body!' Ginyu complained, his gaze turned back to him, while pushing his ki against what Krillin knew would be its limit.
Quietly, Krillin called on his own ki and compared it to what he felt from Ginyu. He suppressed a smile. More than enough.
'Damn this! Damn-' Ginyu whipped his head to Krillin, and found a dead man smiling back at him. The display of his scouter was rapidly beeping. Ginyu saw the number displayed, and his eyes went wide. 'Nooooooo!-'
With a quick step and a yank back of his arm, Krillin swung and smacked down his fist onto Ginyu's head. Krillin's eyes rolled around in Krillin's skull and the bodystealer fell to the ground, unconscious.
0o0o0
In the end, it came down to a last-ditch move, as it always seemed to happen whenever Recoome fought. His opponent, after getting the worse end of their fight for a commendable amount of time, did something clever; Nail feinted a leg strike and instead rammed his palm against Recoome's forehead, stunning the giant and sending him tumbling into a ravine beneath them. From there, Nail charged an attack- an attack of the highest caliber he could muster. Gi torn with blood running down his arms, the Namekian poured everything he had into it, aiming to unleash an energy wave on the ravine like a flood rushing through a valley.
For the last time in their fight, Recoome found himself impressed by his opponent. He imagined that, if they had fought 1 on 1 from the beginning, they would have had an epic encounter. As it was, however, Recoome kept his best for last.
When the attack- pink colored, crackling, consuming huge chunks of the ravine's sides- roared down on Recoome, the giant dragged his back foot through the dirt, held his arms above him like a pylon, and charged his ki.
'RECOOME!...' Pink energy swirled around him and his black jumpsuit, drawing into a point just above his flattened hands. 'SPEAR!' And he jumped.
Nail, exhausted, barely managed to hold himself in the air as Recoome spun through his attack and smashed the edges of his hands into his last desperate block. A few more strikes landed, and it was over.
Eventually, Nail crashed down into the ravine, impacting hard enough for his body to embed itself halfway into the ground. Recoome landed next to the unmoving Namekian a few seconds after that, panting. Even at the end, he had been pushed. 'Stay… down,' Recoome huffed.
With his business concluded, he took stock of his body. He wasn't close to 100%- but, in terms of the mission, he'd achieved as much as could be asked of him. He took out an enemy near-equal to him in strength with energy to spare. There really wasn't anything else to do, except to watch the Captain defeat the one who had challenged him.
With this in mind, Recoome pressed a button on the side of his scouter and scanned the surrounding area. He might as well not have bothered, though, as a golden flash, appearing on the horizon to his right, raced through the air, throwing the entire area around Recoome into a riot of light and shadow. He lifted his head to the sky and squinted.
His mind caught on what he saw. There was something familiar in the blinding glow that had swept over the land. He thought on the present, on the past, and it hit him.
'Oh, Captain… things got that bad, huh?'
A/N: Hi all; this was my attempt to get the length of these chapters under control (and update on a weekly basis for the first time in forever!). I think it went… okay! But with it out of the way, we have one more chapter of Ginyu. See you next week.
power levels!
note: these are for characters at full strength! Not accurate for the entire battle as damage and fatigue are factored in!
Nail: 45,000
Recoome: 49,000
Jeice: 48,000
Ginyu (original body): 120,000
Krillin (original body): 20,000
Krillin (Kaioken X4): 80,000
Krillin (Kaioken X5): 100,000
Krillin (Kaioken X6): 120,000
Krillin (Kaioken X10): 200,000
Ginyu (Krillin's body): 18,000
Krillin (Ginyu's body): ?
and Reviews!
Rowan Citrian: Krillin definitely stretched the Kaioken too far. One of the problems of doing training in Otherworld- you think your limits are much higher for certain techniques than they are in practice. Though, for the first couple uses of the Kaioken, he was using it at low levels to get a feel for it and to slowly ramp up, and so he could hold them a bit longer than if he was using his max level from the get-go. It if helps with clarity, the whole grappling scene between Krillin and Ginyu, in my mind, took place for about a minute in total.
As for how the Kaioken works, see King Kai's explanation in Chapter 52. The short version is that the Kaioken draws on the ambient spiritual energy around the user in the world and combusts it with the user's ki for quick, powerful energy boosts. This process, however, exposes the muscles and the body to a lot of stress and damage, and as a result, the technique can't be used for long periods of time (at least for higher levels if the user is familiar with controlling the Kaioken at lower levels).
LWexe: :). And y-ouch indeed. Krillin has done something, alright...
Tienfan99: Fixed the typo!
All good points on Tien and the Kikoho! The only thing I'd add/ put into the discussion was that, yes, Tien's Kikoho is capable of some serious damage, but in this case, he didn't know where Guldo was in the village- so it wasn't like he could focus the blast in a specific spot and kill Guldo outright (though he still managed to damage him a fair amount). He was trying to cast a wide net, so to speak, and because of that, the destructive power of his attack was spread out, not focused on one area or person. As a result, Recoome got by mostly okay, too.
Hah- that "Goku" entrance in canon was too good to not do some variant on it.
Cityracer: Like always, thank you for the detailed review.
Baba always struck me with that weird dichotomy- seems very attuned to the world material matters even when her day job was communicating with the dead.
Agreed! Probably a bit too convenient. Was hard for me to think of another place where he could have that realization, though, and snap back to his previous persona- or, at the very least, show some development or nuance in his character in how he responds to strong (or not so strong) opponents.
Yamcha did indeed use the Wolf Fang Fist to dig himself underground. Turned out to be a good idea in hindsight.
Guldo was fighting tactically at the beginning by using the many buildings in the village to strike from- he just let his guard down after surviving of a near-death experience. And, yeah- he got way too cocky. And I loved writing Yamcha's moment there! Felt like such a smart move by him.
The Ginyu Force is an odd bunch- I've enjoyed writing them from the beginning, even if I didn't get to lean into their zaniness as much as I would have liked.
Lol! Helps to make Krillin out as a badass when he has no senzus- and when, as mentioned in this chapter, he had no idea if his friends were still alive or not. He was here to bash heads, and that was what he was going to do.
I think the number they're going for is 30 or so years- however long between the Saiyans coming under Frieza's rule and the events of DBZ- but, yeah, could be a bit outlandish for the Ginyu Force to hold onto every member over that time period. Who knows, though? Maybe people left and came back between those events, or service in a group like that is permanent until retirement or death, or the Captain didn't let them leave- my point being is that it really depends on, ignoring what Super puts out (because I'm not the biggest fan of it either), what interpretation you want to use for a fic. In this case, I liked the idea of them being a cohesive unit for so long, which emphasized the shock when some of their members died. Totally legit for you to advance an alternative interpretation, though. Just, IMO, depends on what you want to explore with your fic.
Guest (chapter 7): Glad you're enjoying it so far, as for power levels- they're there, every few chapters or so!
