Orion's Perspective
Well, this sucks. I can't believe I died again. And after all that training too. Guess Vegeta was too out of my league. Oh well, maybe I can actually enjoy this afterlife. I wonder if they'll wish me back. I don't think I could blame them if they didn't. I'm not as close to any of them as people who did die, and I'm not important like Piccolo. I was just some random stranger who suddenly came into their life. It's probably best if I stayed dead and let them live their lives. Not like I would be too bothered by it if I wasn't brought back. I died finally being able to save someone. That makes me really happy. And don't get me wrong. I don't dislike the fact I was reborn into this world, but ever since I came here I've been working nonstop. It might be nice to take a breather and just relax. I don't even have my body now, so I suppose I can do just that. Before I could start relaxing, however, a familiar sensation came over me. "I'm. Not. Done. With you." My eyes shot open, now being able to do so, and saw I had my body again, though I now had a halo above me. "Oh...goodie..." I muttered, a bit dissatisfied. I sighed and looked around. Yep, this is the Other World, if the yellow clouds covering the ground outside and the Japanese palace I was in. Why do I have a body though? People who died can be granted their old bodies or new bodies to use in the afterlife, but that's only under certain conditions, and I'm sure I wasn't good enough for that privilege. And...who was that? They sounded...familiar.
"You're finally awake." I turned and saw the massive man who was sitting at a glorious desk made from the finest mahogany.
"You're...King Yemma, right? The one who oversees all the souls that enter the Other World?" I asked nervously. Not only was this guy a big deal in Dragon Ball's after life, being the judge of whether or not a soul goes to heaven or hell, but he's also based on the figure in Buddist culture, King Enma, which was an interesting story to read about for fun in my old life. I always did like learning about different cultures and religions.
"I see you know who I am. Good. That makes things easier. King Kai and Kami have asked that you be granted your body and go train on King Kai's planet along with the others." He told me.
"Others?" I asked.
"Over here!" I turned and found myself smiling when I saw Yamcha, Tien, and Piccolo, each with their own halo above them as well. Yamcha waved to me as they walked towards me.
"So you died too, huh?" Tien asked.
"Yeah. Sorry I couldn't help any of you guys. I should have been there to help against Nappa. I hope you can forgive me." I told them.
"Don't worry about it. You had your hands full with that Vegeta guy, right? It's our fault that we died, so don't blame yourself." Yamcha told me. I didn't really feel better about letting them die, but I nodded and gave him a smile.
"Thanks."
"We already know how each of us died, since we've been here for a little bit already, but how did you die? You were the strongest out of all of us." Tien asked me.
"Did that Vegeta bastard kill you?" Piccolo asked.
"Y-Yeah. N-Now I know this might sound crazy, and you might think it was stupid, but... I died saving Nappa from Vegeta." I told them, a bit of shame showing on my face.
"WHAT!?" Piccolo yelled.
"Vegeta attacked his partner? And you saved him?" Yamcha asked.
"Yeah. Goku arrived after Piccolo died, and he easily beat Nappa to the point where he couldn't move. Vegeta then said he had no need for a Saiyan who couldn't move, and tossed Nappa into the air and fired a blast at him. I...moved on instinct to try to save him. I knocked him out of the way, but got caught in the blast. Honestly, even after having died, I don't really regret it. Even after what he did, I didn't want to watch one of the last Saiyans die in front of me. I'm tired of letting people die in front of me when I can do something. So I guess...I'm just happy I finally was able to save someone who was right in front of me." I told them, averting my eyes from them. "I know how that sounds, considering he killed you all, but-"
"Say no more. We understand." Tien interrupted. "The Saiyan Race is gone. It only makes sense you wouldn't want one to die. Besides, you must have seen some good in him, like you did in Raditz. If that Nappa guy turns around, I won't complain about what you did."
"He was strong, so if he becomes a good guy, then that would be awesome!" Yamcha said. "Same with that Vegeta guy too, right? If you, Goku, and Raditz can be good Saiyans, then Vegeta and Nappa can be too. I mean, if Piccolo could turn good anyone can, right?" Piccolo scoffed at this and turned around.
"Whatever. I don't really care. As long as everything's been settled and it's done." Piccolo said. "You made your choice and stood by it. What's done is done. No reason to be upset about what can't be changed."
"Right. Thank you guys. Now, we all were given bodies so we could go to King Kai's place, right? That's where Kakarot went to train."
"That's right. King Kai asked for us all personally, it would seem." Tien said.
"That's right. Even Piccolo, who wouldn't normally be given the privilege of having a body in the Other World due to his sins, has been given one because King Kai and Kami insisted." King Yemma explained. He then looked at me. "You must be wondering about yourself then. You may have committed a few sins in your life, but they were forced upon you by others so that you could survive. You never enjoyed a moment of it, nor have you ever killed anyone, and you've done enough good in your life to at least end up here naturally." I couldn't help but feel relieved at that. "Besides, there's something...we'll say unique about you that both me and King Kai were curious about. I'm sure King Kai will ask you about it when you get to his planet." I tilted my head at that, but shrugged. I wonder what they find interesting about someone like me.
"Thank you. I appreciate you telling me that." I said. I then turned to the others. "So King Kai's waiting for us, right? We should get going. The sooner we get there, the more we get to train before you guys get wished back to life."
"Brought back to life? But Piccolo is dead. That means so is Kami, and that the dragon balls are gone now." Yamcha said.
"Yeah, but remember how Piccolo is an alien called a Namekian? That means there's a whole planet of Namekians full of warriors just like Piccolo and dragon ball makers like Kami."
"So Piccolo and Kami's home planet have dragon balls?" Tien asked.
"Most likely. I bet the others are already discussing plans as to how to get to Namek." I told them.
"Namek, huh. I wonder what it's like." Piccolo said thoughtfully.
"I've never been there, but from what I've heard, it has blue grass, a green sky, and green water. I've also heard it's a nice place with nice people." I told him. Piccolo nodded at this as he pondered about it more.
"If Orion is right, then we should get going immediately. Training with King Kai will be instrumental in getting strong in case something ever happens in the future." Tien said.
"Yeah! And if Goku got so strong that he easily beat Nappa and beat Vegeta, then who knows how strong all of us can get!" Yamcha proclaimed.
"Yeah! Maybe we can learn the Kaioken technique too!" I said.
"Kaio-what?" Piccolo said.
"It's a skill Kakarot was using that engulfed him in red energy. When it was active, his power and speed were amplified like crazy!" I told them.
"If it can do that, then it would be in our best interest to learn it. It could prove useful." Tien said.
"Hmph. You can go ahead and do that. I don't think I'll bother. It sounds ridiculous. I'd rather use my own techniques that I make myself." Piccolo said with a scoff.
"Suit yourself, Piccolo." Yamcha said.
"If you all are done here, then hurry and make your way to King Kai's place! You're getting in the way of my work!" King Yemma yelled at us.
"Right, we'll be going now. Hey guys! Let's see who can make it across Snake Way and make it to King Kai's first!" I said as I got a running start and began to fly across the twisting road.
"H-Hey! No fair! You didn't say anything about making this a competition!" Yamcha said before chasing after me.
"Heh. Orion seems carefree." Tien said while smiling.
"He's always like this. It's tiring." Piccolo said. "Did you notice something about what he said?"
"About what?" Tien asked.
"...Nevermind." Piccolo muttered as the two of them flew off. We quickly made our way there, and after what felt like an entire day of flying, we finally made it. At the end of the road was a small planet floating in the air. We nodded and flew up to it. Yamcha and Tien were completely surprised by the strength of the planet's gravity, and were having a hard time even moving at all, though they were doing better than how Goku was doing when he first got to the planet. Piccolo was also struggling, but not as much. I was the only one unaffected by the gravity change.
"Orion, how can you still be completely fine here?" Yamcha asked me.
"Oh, the Saiyan home world has 10x Earth's gravity, which is the same as this planet. I lived on that planet from the moment I was born until I was hired by the Cooler Force and left before the planet was destroyed. Being here actually makes me think of home oddly enough." I told them.
"So how long were you on the planet?" Piccolo asked.
"I left when I was 7 I think."
"Th-That's incredible." Tien said with wide eyes.
"You all are here. Finally." We turned to the new voice, seeing King Kai and the others that lived on the planet, Bubbles the pet monkey and Gregory the cricket. "I can see most of you are having trouble adjusting fully to the gravity."
"Yeah. I guess you can say they've finally realized the gravity of the situation." I said with a grin. Everyone was silent after I said that.
"Was...Was that supposed to be a joke?" Tien asked. I couldn't answer as King Kai began to burst into laughter.
"H-How did you know I love jokes?" He asked.
"Just a hunch. It's nice to meet you, King Kai. I hope Kakarot wasn't too much trouble while he was here."
"Well, you know how Goku is." King Kai responded before chuckling some more. "Now then, Yamcha, Tien, Piccolo, and Orion. I'm happy to welcome you all here. I'll be happy to train you until you all get brought back with the Namekian dragon balls."
"All?" I muttered. He must be mistaken. The other's probably won't bring me back, after all.
"So they do have dragon balls." Yamcha said.
"They do. Your friends are preparing to set off to the planet soon. That Saiyan Nappa gave them the direct coordinates to Namek, so it's going relatively smoothly." I smiled when I heard that. I'm glad Nappa is helping them. "As such, it is prudent that we start your training."
"Perfect. If you don't mind me asking, can you teach us the Kaioken? I believe that technique could be useful for all of us, though Piccolo isn't interested in learning it." I asked. King Kai nodded.
"Of course I can teach you three the Kaioken, but I must warn you that it is incredibly hard to master. Not even I could master it. Goku was the first to do that." He told us.
"Is that so? Well I wouldn't worry about that. There's 4 of us here to train together, so I'm sure we can figure it out between all of us." I told him. King Kai nodded at this.
"If you're that confident, then I'm sure you all will learn it. By the way, Orion." He then walked up to me and motioned me to get close. I crouched down to him and he leaned to my ear to whisper. "I have to ask, since me and King Yemma have been wondering about it, but you've died before this, haven't you?" I stiffened at this. I quickly turned to look at Piccolo, who was standing nearby, but I couldn't tell if he was listening to King Kai or not. Piccolo has much better hearing than others due to being a Namekian. I couldn't let him hear about this, so I quickly pushed King Kai as far away from the others as possible before answering him in a very quiet whisper.
"How did you...?" I asked quietly.
"You be a Kai or the guy in charge of the dead and you start to notice a thing or two about certain souls, especially ones that have died before, thanks to what can happen with dragon balls. Speaking of which, you've pretty much admitted to it, but how? King Yemma's records don't say anything about you dying before this. Yet your soul says otherwise." He told me, noticing what I wanted and also whispering even more quietly, so Piccolo couldn't hear us.
"Well, it's a long story. It might be hard to believe, but you could say I was reborn."
"Reincarnation?"
"Pretty much. Don't know how it happened, since dragon balls weren't a thing where I'm from."
"Interesting. Perhaps a Kai, or some other deity had pity on you, gave you another life."
"Who knows? I'm not complaining about it."
"I see. Thank you for telling me. I won't tell anyone if you don't want to. I just asked because of curiosity."
"I would appreciate it if you did keep it a secret, so thanks for that. I wouldn't know what to do if the others ever found out. And Honestly, I couldn't be happier being in this world. I got a new family that I couldn't love more." King Kai smiled warmly at this.
"I'm happy that you were given that in this world. Especially for a Saiyan, that kind of family is rare."
"Yeah. You could say my entire family is made up of strange Saiyans." King Kai nodded as we returned to the group and he moved to talk with the others one on one for a bit, getting to know more about each of us to get a better grasp on how to train us. After that, the training began, or at least for me it did. The other 3 had to first get completely used to moving with the increased gravity. They were tasked with the catch Bubbles and Gregory training that Goku was given at first. While they did that, I began learning Kaioken. I have to say, I don't know how Goku learned this move. Learning this technique is so unintuitive! King Kai 'teaching' the Kaioken is really him just telling me how to use it but not being able to show me anything, since he hasn't mastered it himself and can't use it like Goku can.
How the hell did Goku learn this!? Luckly, I had extra time and was forgoing learning the spirit bomb, since the practicality of that move is far and in between. I don't want to waste 10 episodes- I mean multiple hours just charging an attack that might finish the job, though I will admit the properties of the Spirit Bomb are very interesting. Maybe I can take the concept and improve on it? Either way, I spent a lot of time just trying to understand the basis of the Kaioken. Eventually, I somehow started to get a grasp on the technique. I don't know how long it took, maybe a couple of weeks, but I finally was able to use it for the first time.
"Kaioken!" I shouted it's name and the red aura engulfed me. The power was incredible, but I could feel the strain it was causing my body, even at it's normal power with no multipliers. I didn't hold it long before I felt the need to stop for my body's sake. This move was incredible. The move multiplies the user's ki in an instant, allowing for enormous growth in power, speed, instinct, mental fortitude, and defense. Of course, the Kaioken can be made stronger with the use of multipliers, but the Kaioken's amplification of ki makes the ki unruly, causing major backlash on the user's body, since the body wouldn't be used to their ki suddenly being powered up within just a second. Fortunately for me, my ki control sort of fixes that issue a bit. With my incredible ki control, my body and ki can adapt better to the sudden amplifications of the Kaioken, allowing for less strain then what Goku would feel at the same level. At least that's what King Kai has been telling me.
"You're catching on quick. You learned the basics of Kaioken much faster than Goku did. You might even have the potential to take the Kaioken to even further levels!" King Kai praised me.
"Yeah I can imagine. I wonder what sort of things I'll be able to do with this once I get better at using it." I said, taking a look at how the other 3 are doing. They had adapted pretty quickly to the gravity. They've been keeping up with Bubbles and Gregory easily now. After catching them today with ease, King Kai began to teach them Kaioken and trained us in other ways. It was going well. Since I had begun to understand the basics of the Kaioken and could actually use it, I was able to help Yamcha and Tien better understand the Kaioken. Soon, we all were able to use it for a bit, but we needed more training to sustain it. We were certainly getting stronger. I was actually really impressed with my own growth, though that's probably due to how extreme I was training. I was having Yamcha, Tien, and Piccolo attack me at the same time. It was good training considering how strong they were getting. We continued training like this for a couple of months. Eventually, Yamcha, Tien, and I finally mastered the Kaioken. Yamcha and Tien could only go up to Kaioken x4 and x6 respectively, but I could go up to Kaioken x15, though the strain is really bad, like Goku's x4 during his Vegeta fight. One day, while I was fighting the other 3, King Kai interrupted us.
"Krillin, Gohan, Chiaotzu, and Bulma have made it to Namek!" King Kai announced.
"That's great!" Yamcha exclaimed.
"Now they just have to find the dragon balls that are there." Tien said.
"Not sure it'll be that easy." I said. "Hey King Kai, is anyone else on Namek right now?"
"Hmm?" King Kai thought for a moment, seeming to check the planet, before he started to tense up and shake. "N-No! It can't be! Frieza and his men are on Namek too! Not only that, but his brother, Cooler, is there as well!"
"Frieza? You mean the one Orion said destroyed the Saiyan's planet, along with all the Saiyans on it? And Cooler was the one you worked under, right?" Piccolo asked.
"Yep. They must have heard the discussion about the Dragon Balls through Vegeta's scouter. Why the hell didn't he turn it off?" I said a bit angrily.
"What's done is done. What matters now is what's going to happen because of this." Tien said.
"Well if Frieza and Cooler know about the dragon balls, they are most certainly going to try to gather them for themselves." I told them.
"Meaning to get to the dragon balls, Krillin and the others have to go through him?" Yamcha asked nervously.
"Possibly." I said. "Nothing we can do about it now. All we can do is hope they can handle it. By the way, King Kai, you said that only Krillin, Gohan, Chiaotzu, and Bulma were on Namek. What about Kakarot, Raditz, and Nappa?"
"Those three are still on Earth. The fight left them in the hospital's emergency care. They're supposed to be resting, though I suppose that with this news, Goku and the others will have to speed up their recovery and hurry to Namek themselves." King Kai said.
"I see. I'm sure they'll get unbelievably strong once they do arrive at Namek. For now, all we can do is train ourselves. I believe that they can do this." I told the others.
"You're right. We can't be worrying about them right now. We have to focus on getting stronger." Yamcha said with confidence. We began training again, getting bits of what was happening via King Kia. Apparently, Vegeta had also arrived on Namek and was trying his best to get the dragon balls as well, which was expected. Goku, Raditz, and Nappa were given Senzu Beans and had started heading to Namek on a powerful spaceship with gravity training settings. After talking to the three for a bit, King Kai said that they would arrive in a few days. We actually got to talk to them while King Kai was talking to them as they were traveling. King Kai told us how he could allow us to communicate by placing our hand on his back. I was the first to do this, as I placed my hand on King Kai's back.
"Speaking of crazy stuff, Goku, I have some guests here that you know quite well." King Kai told Goku.
"Wait, you don't mean-"
"Hey, baby bro! How're you guys doing?" I greeted him.
"Orion? Is that you!" I heard Raditz exclaim.
"Woah! How're you doing that?" Nappa then said in surprise.
"King Kai is allowing me to talk to you guys. Me and the others are all here. King Kai apparently asked King Yemma himself to allow all of us to go train on his planet. We're training as hard as we can to prepare for when we come back!"
"Really? So everyone is there? Even Piccolo?" Goku asked.
"Hmm. I'm not about to let you be the only one to get stronger in all of this." Piccolo said.
"That's great! I'm glad to hear you all are doing well! Don't worry! We'll get the dragon balls and you all will be able to come back!" Goku said happily.
"All of us?" I asked, slightly shocked. "Even me?" Everyone else on the planet seemed to raise an eyebrow at my question, as if it was dumb. Goku didn't hesitate at all with the answer he gave me.
"Of course! We're actually training ourselves while we make our way to Namek too. We had Bulma's dad make us a ship that can simulate 100x gravity for intense training."
"100x gravity!?" Yamcha exclaimed. "It took us a while to get used to 10x gravity, well, except for Orion."
"I figured you guys would do something like that." I said with a sigh. "If I don't increase the intensity of my own training, I'll fall behind each of you."
"Well, if we don't get stronger in the next 5 days, we won't be able to help at all on Namek." Raditz explained.
"Speaking of which, I wanted to let you know to stay away from Frieza and Cooler at all costs! I imagine you've heard about those two from Raditz, Nappa, and Orion, but I'm telling you right now, don't fight either of them! They're too dangerous for you to fight! I'm telling you this, not just for your safety, but for the safety of Earth and the whole universe!"
"Th-They're really that strong!?" Goku cried out. "I...I kind of want to meet them now..."
"Kakarot..." I groaned. "Look, you'll probably have to fight at least Frieza anyway, whether you want to or not. When that happens, just do everything you can to end the fight as fast as possible. Frieza is a monster who won't hesitate to kill you and everyone else on the planet if he feels as though he's in danger. He might pull a Vegeta and try to blow up the planet. But if you really are going to bring me back, I'd rather fight Cooler myself."
"Wait...How did you know Vegeta tried to blow up the planet?" Goku asked me.
"I have a good understanding about the prince's ego and personality."
"Well, since you're telling me all of this, I'll make sure to do my best if I fight him." Goku told me. "And don't worry! I'll leave Cooler for you!"
"Good. I know you'll do well." I said contently.
"Orion! Don't encourage him!" Raditz and King Kai both said at the same time.
"Relax. I'm sure Kakarot will be able to handle himself. Besides, he's got us to train with to get even stronger!" Nappa said, seemingly excited at the thought of this intense training of theirs.
"Well, we'll let you get back to it. We still have to train too, but if you guys get to Namek and wish us back, then we'll see each other soon, I'm sure." I said.
"Right. That's a promise." Goku said before I lifted my hand from King Kai's back and turned to look at the group.
"Alright. Let's get back to it. All of you, come at me with everything you've got! Don't hold back against me!" I shouted at them, causing them each to have sweat drop from them.
