The Event of Being Reincarnated as Raditz, Chapter 4: Rigorous Training!
All characters belong to Akira Toriyama and Toei Animation. Please support the official release! On a different note...I'm super glad to be back! I know it's been nearly two years, but I've been having a serious itch to return to this story! So now, with the school year coming to a close, I'll be happy to re-introduce the journey of Shawn through his soul reincarnated upon Raditz!
On the last chapter of EBRR...
After having successfully warned the Z-Fighters of the oncoming threats of Nappa and Vegeta, as well as instigated the arrival of the two deadly Saiyans, Shawn took Gohan and went with Piccolo in order to train up for the invasion! Utilizing his inside knowledge of the show to reveal Gohan's latent potential to Piccolo, he sets off the course of action relatively closely following the original continuity, and even goes as far as to tell the Half-Saiyan of his heritage, and that he is Goku's brother!
Now, nearly four months into their training, we join back with Shawn and Piccolo during a sparring match, with the reincarnated High Schooler desperately trying to master his new body, as well as fighting in general!
"Damn!" Our long-haired Saiyan protagonist stumbled back in pain, clutching his gut after a particularly nasty strike from his partner in training, Piccolo. "What? I thought you Saiyans were made of sterner stuff..." He said with a mocking tone, egging Shawn on to continue their match. While the both of them had gotten stronger for certain, he still only had the basics down in the form of combat, and his usage of Ki definitely needed some polishing.
"Urgh, it's so annoying! To know you're doing something wrong, but not know how to fix it! I understand that I'm using Ki inefficiently, and I just keep ballooning it up instead of letting it flow like Piccolo's, but I just can't seem to get it right..." At this point, the main reason he hadn't gotten back up was more a mental issue than physical. However, after a short wait, he got himself back up and threw himself at the Namekian again, throwing punches as fast as he could manage.
However, as of late in their training, the Demon King's spawn had made it painfully clear the gap in combat prowess between the both of them as he near-effortlessly avoided the attacks and countered with a sudden blow to the face, sprawling Shawn across the grassy plains again. "Get up! You dwarf me in power, but you're letting me beat you like it's nothing! Put a bit of thinking behind what you do and you might get somewhere." Between his berating words was some honest advice, which he decided to take up.
"Think about it, huh... I suppose I'm pretty good at that." Getting up again, he carefully observed Piccolo for any signs of what he was about to do. The twitch of a muscle, the shift of his stance, anything...Then he caught it! It was something he had noticed from a few attacks, a brief change in his hand posturing before he struck. Seizing the moment, before Piccolo could even finish moving in for the strike, he had caught a vicious knee to the chest that sent him sprawling. With a few grunts of pain and the brief cough of blood, his instructor (for lack of better term) picked himself up. "Heh...Nice hit." It wasn't much, but from someone like Piccolo, it might as well've been the most glorious praise Shawn had ever received.
Suddenly the fighting stance was dropped from the Namekian as he seemed to look at the distance. Perplexed, Shawn turned to see as well...It was Gohan. Somehow, the young boy had found them far earlier than they anticipated. While Shawn couldn't hide a small smile, his trainer looked a bit spiteful. "We weren't expecting him this soon...And why's he wearing that ridiculous armor?" The long-haired Saiyan just rolled his eyes. "I'm sure it's fine...And what's so ridiculous about it?" Piccolo couldn't seem to meet his eyes about that, so he let it go as Goku's child finally had finished running up to them.
"M-Mr. Piccolo! Un-" Realizing what he almost said, Gohan seemed to catch himself and correct the statement. "Mr. Raditz! I finally found you!" He looked ecstatic, as Shawn would've expected. The kid had been stuck fending for himself for almost the better part of the year they had to train. Curious on how much the kid has grown, Shawn activated his scouter to scan his Power Level. Suddenly, he also realized that at some point he'd probably want to stop relying on this thing...
Regardless, he checked; a respectable 550. For simply living on his own and surviving a few dicey encounters, his growth was very admirable. Using himself as a reference, he had only grown to about 2,000, which wasn't too far off from what he was from the start. At this rate, he might not be strong enough to help them out...But that was besides the point for now. "Good to see ya, kid. Since you found us, I guess you're ready for the big leagues?" He gave what he hoped came off as a friendly grin, but considering the look on his nephew's face, it probably wasn't. Before Shawn could make a move though, Piccolo stepped in front of him. "I want to test the brat first, if you don't mind. You might be better for evaluating his raw strength, but I'll tell just how much this runt has to learn..."
At first hesitantly, Gohan seemed to tense up for battle. "Alright, I won't let you down, Mr. Piccolo!" As the kid launched into his first attack, Shawn could already tell the boy made the same novice mistake he did, having rushed into the strike without a second thought. It wasn't too long before Gohan was laid flat on the ground by Piccolo, to no surprise. "Jeez. He might've gotten stronger with his survival training, but he has a long way to go. Even compared to you." He said in a somewhat condescending voice as he glanced at Shawn, getting him an Elite Saiyan Warrior-level scowl. "Whatever! I'll take over for now. You can...Meditate, or whatever it is you do when we aren't sparring." The Namekian seemed to oblidge, flying off without a word.
The kid had gotten up, clearly pretty bruised and battered, but he wasn't crying. It was already an improvement from what he was like a few months back. Sitting next to him, he looked the kid in the eyes and took off his Scouter to seem a bit less...Alien to Gohan. At least, that was the effect he hoped it had on him. "Hey, kid...You don't know how Ki works yet, do you?" He got an immediate answer in the shake of his head. "No...But I remember seeing you use it! You used some kind of technique to blow up the moon. It was..." "My Shining Friday?" The kid nodded vigorously, seemingly entranced.
"C-Can you teach me it? I wanna be as strong as you and Mr. Piccolo, so I won't be a burden!" Shawn thought about it for a bit. He knew only a bit more than Gohan did, and his use of the Shining Friday was more muscle memory for Raditz's body than anything back then...But it couldn't hurt him to try, right? Maybe he'd get a better handle of Ki from it as well. So with that, Gohan and Shawn spent the rest of that day training to use Ki, and by the end of it, the kid even managed to produce a purplish Ki blast. Progress!
A few weeks passed like this, eventually turning into a month. By the end of it all, both Shawn and Gohan had obtained a good grasp on Ki usage, and he had actually managed to teach the tyke how to use Shining Friday! Not only that, but even Piccolo had smoothed out a bit...At least with Gohan, being just about as prickly as usual with him. However, he had planned for today to be a bit special. He was going to head to Kami's place with the kiddo to go check on the progression of Krillin and the others, curious on how they were faring.
When they arrived, they found the four humans lounging about, though they quickly jumped to high alert upon their approach and even looked surprised to see them. "Wow...It hasn't even been half a year, and they've both gotten way stronger!" Krillin remarked under his breath, surprised that even Gohan had changed this much. He was almost unrecognizable!...Which, granted, the Saiyan armor helped.
"Greetings. You all must be the Earthlings the bald one gathered up?" At this, Shawn heard a 'tsk' sound and saw Yamcha glaring him down. "What makes you think you can just talk down on us like that, huh?! We've been working our asses off here, especially Krillin! Give a bit of respect, sheesh..." He couldn't help but look at the 'desert bandit' dumbfoundedly. Where did HE get off talking like that? As things stood, his Power Level was barely breaching 500! Though, as he could tell, the claims of Krillin's hard work were no lie. He almost matched up to Gohan; impressive, considering the Hybrid Saiyan had been training with him this whole time and exponentially growing.
"I don't think Mr. Raditz meant anything by it, Yamcha..." Gohan brought up, even his voice not sounding quite as meek as it had a few months back. However, all the scar-faced Z-Fighter did was scoff and turn away, clearly unpleased with something...Likely the fact that he could feel just how strong everyone one compared to him. Shawn just sighed. "Anyways, we've got bigger things on our plate...I want you four to come at me!"
That's where we're gonna leave it off for today! On the next exciting chapter, Shawn faces off again Krillin, Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu in order to fully gauge their current growth! Will they prove the fruits of their trainings, or find themselves trumped by the raw power of a Saiyan like Raditz? Tune in next time!
Power Levels (A new segment I decided to add, so people could gauge the characters and their progress in comparison to one another. These are current Power Levels by the END of the chapter, so don't be surprised if they seem different from what you expect. In certain chapters, a lot of characters will fluctuate in their power)
Goku – 1,300 (Since I haven't brought Goku up much recently, be aware that he has just about arrived at King Kai's place and is only now beginning his training. By the time he arrives back to Earth, his maximum average PL will be around 8,000. Shawn has a long ways to go to be prepared!)
Raditz (Shawn) - 3,500 PL (5,000 current max with a powerful technique)
Piccolo – 1,900 (with weights), 2,400 (without weights), 4,000 (Special Beam Cannon)
Gohan – 1,000, 10,000 (raging) (Around 2,000 using a special move like Shining Friday)
Krillin – 900, 1,400 (Using a powerful technique)
Tien – 1,000, 1,600 (using a standard technique like his Dodon Ray), 3,400 (Tri-Beam)
Yamcha – 500, 1,100 (technique)
Chiaotzu – 340, 700 (technique)