Zero rested really well that night and was feeling really good the next morning. After feasting during breakfast he takes on a few bounties and rushes out of the city, not realizing there were people looking to meet him. But he moved far too quickly for them to catch up to him. His first hunt was a skeletal warrior in which he decapitates with a single kick and incinerates the remains with a ki blast. Next he rushes off to hunt down another variant of rot warriors that focus on attacking at a distance with ki blasts, but he deflects their blasts with his hand and blasts them away with a riot javelin. One after another he hunts down and kills each single target bounty on the 1 star bounty list easily, although there were a few targets that put up a decent fight but in the end they fell prey to his might.
"Phew! That's everything on the list." Glancing at his physical condition he sighs, "Cutting it close again like last time."
Physical Condition: 8%.
Ki: 100%
"Hehehe! This is so much fun!" Zero rushes off back towards the city where he turns in his bounties, claims his rewards, and turns in at the recovery center. He recovers nicely and leaves the next morning helping himself to breakfast before rushing off to the bounty counter again to collect a few more bounties. This time his bounties consist of groups of enemies that excited him to no end. He had already gotten use to single opponent fights, but now he finally gets a chance to fight larger numbers at once. So with his new bounties he rushes back out of town with a scary, light hearted grin on his face.
He makes it to a group of rot warriors that had four among their group and charges right in delivering a straight punch into one's face sending it flying back, then sweeps another's feet tripping them to the ground. The other two finally notices him and rush at him in which he retaliates with a ki blast to the face of one and a duck to avoid the punch of the other. He goes back and forth with this rot warrior before another joins into the fray. He is familiar and comfortable with his own strength, endurance, and stamina but he needs to get used to his body's flexibility more and dodge more often. He wants evasion to be more instinctive so instead of attacking them at this point he just moves around and avoids their attacks.
"I can do this..."
Punches, kicks, head butts, claws, the rot warriors send all kinds of attacks his was as he uses them to work on his adaptability and ability to dodge. Predictably enough he is hit multiple times and takes damage but as the attacks continue less and less attacks reach him and he moves around as nimbly as a monkey can, even going as far as using his fluffy tail to grab and throw them around playfully. Even with his blood covered face, that crazy grin still remains on his face causing passing saiyans to shudder. Finally he decides that it is enough and gets serious. He flares his aura and stuns the rot warriors around him before charging up a tyrant lancer and thrusting it into the face of a stunned rot warrior, obliterating it's head and half the upper torso in the resulting explosion.
As the other rot warriors were knocked back briefly they were able to regain their balance only in time for one to receive a full powered riot javelin reducing it to dust. He charges at another and unleashes a barrage of punches and finishes it off with a powerful kick that crushes the rot warrior's skull. He leaps into the air, twists his body upside down, and releases a volley of ki blasts that batter and tear apart the final warrior leading to his victory.
"Ha... This is awesome. Being able to fight and not be stuck in a bed all the time. Now that I think about it the Naruto and Fairy Tail worlds were awesome too." He shrugs his shoulder and shakes his head, "Forget that! This series was my only retreat from my frailty. I was frail once and will never experience weakness ever again!"
He sits down weakly and rests, wiping the sweat and blood from his face. Taking out a bottle from strange dimensional bag tied to his waist and takes a drink quenching his thirst. He had been going back and forth with these interesting undead warriors for most of the morning before killing them, but he doesn't mind it too much as it improved his reflexes and instinctive ability to avoid attacks. If this wasn't considered a success then nothing else would to him. Looking at his physical damage he lets out a wry smile.
Physical Condition: 4%.
Ki: 21%.
"I do expect to die a few times anyways but..." He considers his actions carefully, "Maybe I should do this when a bounty isn't involved. I'd really hate to add a failure to my record."
"Hehehe! Is a bounty failure added to your record really all that bad?" A girl's voice distracts his self reflection. He glances back and finds a cute girl of 12 years old standing there with a smile on her face. Long, straight black hair that flows naturally down her back reaching her waist just above her buttocks. She glances at his condition with a playful smile and giggles, "In your condition your more worried about adding a mark to your record?"
"Maybe I'm a perfectionist?" He only glances at her briefly before laying back on the ground and staring up into the sky, "Who are you?"
The girl shrugs at his indifference as if it doesn't bother her, "Not a people person are you? Oh well. My name is Minerva. I already know your name little one, after all your name is making it's way around Necropolis a lot nowadays. A fearless little monkey who rampages about in the wastelands outside of town slaughtering legions of the undead without a shred of concern for his own wellbeing."
She selfishly sits down on the ground next to him while ignoring the gory remnants of Zero's last fight and continues talking away much to his displeasure, "Lets see, first the fact that your bloodline is a perfect purity of 100%, next the fact that you completed the rookie killer bounty as your first bounty even if you died due to your injuries."
"Friggin' expensive medi-care..." Zero mumbles under his breath.
"Then when some of the other rookie warriors, hell even some veterans myself saw your vicious fighting, they became increasingly motivated and started fighting with more vigor than before. Now the warriors who previously lost motivation started getting more pumped up. They once upon a time had forgotten that is place was named 'Paradise' after all. A warrior's paradise of battles and growth."
She then looks at the weary and blood soaked Zero with a questioning look, "What is your motivation kid?"
"... Freedom. To escape this world of endless fighting, killing, and dying. I want to fight and kill on my own terms and not by some entity's personal whim." Zero has a serious look on his face and only glances at Minerva once and looks away again, "I want to destroy this administrator and remove his hold on our life and death.
"Ohohoho! So this faux immortality doesn't move you at all?" Minerva asks.
"Immortality? If I can gain enough power that even the flow of time cannot stay my path, then I will happily accept immortality." Zero clenches his fist with a flash in his eye, "I know all too well how fragile mortality is, so with my life I intend to aim for the peak and if possible ascend beyond it."
Minerva sees the serious expression on his face, an expression which seems to trigger something within her which causes her to give off a dazzling smile, "To reach the peak and break beyond that peak huh? I like it! I definitely look forward to seeing your progress and as a bonus I think I'll follow that example myself!"
She nods her head looking serious for once, but her expression seems to change back to her playful mood when she glances at Zero.
"But first we need to get you back to town to recover!" She grabs his arms and lifts him up and starts flying in the direction of town with him in her grips. He starts to struggle, trying to free himself from the crazy lady's grip.
"H-hey! Let me go!" Zero shouts out as he struggles.
"Oh no can do little boy! We are flying now and if I let go you will go splat!" She replies with a mischievous giggle causing him to gulp as he feels sweat forming on his body. They are high up.
"You can fly already? Did you already finish up the 3 star bounties?" Zero asks curiously as the scenery flies past him below.
"Yup yup yup! This big sister has been here for a long time!" She answers back with a confident smile, "I am very strong in case you didn't notice."
Zero is surprise indeed, but he was also curious about how long this eccentric and crazy girls has been here. It didn't take too long to reach Necropolis and the people around were kinda surprised to see Minerva dragging the annoyed and unwilling Zero to the bounty center to turn in his bounty and finally into the recovery center. He was disappointed to know that he would miss dinner thanks to the recovery but at least knowing that he would earn himself a zenkai boost cheered him up.
The next morning he gears up after leaving the recovery pod and goes to have breakfast at the mess hall. Annoyingly enough Minerva was there to bother him while he eats causing his feast to be less blissful. Surprisingly she had quite the appetite as well. I guess a saiyan's hunger affects both the men and women of the saiyan race. After eating he rushes off to finish up his accepted bounties after escaping Minerva's pestering. Even this time he took advantage of the numerous enemies to hone his reflexes and instinctive ability to avoid danger. This time he didn't end up in such a sorry state and after an hour he exterminates the targets and immediately heads off to the next group and continues his personal training and extermination. In this one day he had made amazing progress and began to realize that the settings on his gravity bracelet was still one. He did all of this while under the influence of increased gravity.
"Man this could have been easier for me but I think this turned out even better this way." He is glad that he still had the bracelet activated, but when he though how easily that girl had carried him through the skies he realized how strong she must have been.
—
"Ha..."
Minerva slumps down outside the recovery center after dropping Zero off.
"What the hell! Why was that kid so heavy? Was I carrying a 10 years old kid or a mountain?"
She sighs and wanders off with a cheerful hum.
—
Zero alternates his time between taking on bounties on his own and training hard at the training ground. He definitely made some progress in his training as before long he gotten even stronger than before. Soon a year had passed.
Due to the sheer number of bounties he had to complete for each grade of difficulty it took him all of this time. In this whole year he had experienced numerous near death battles that provided him plenty of boosts to his power level as he recovered, there were also multiple times where he had encountered misfortune and died in the end, but he shrugged it off and returned with greater aggression. After all what doesn't kill him makes him stronger, but even if it killed him it just pissed him off. Soon he was given a nickname by the other saiyans whenever they say him.
That nickname was Wrath.
The little saiyan was fearless and ferocious that even the well known bullies in town tend to avoid him. What's the point in even trying to intimidate a kid who just laughs and grins even as he dies from his wounds. There was even one strong, well known warrior who once tried to bully him out in the field but it turned out that the little warrior was far stronger than he expected and was dragged back to town nearly dead. Luckily the bully recovered full and gotten a zenkai boost in return. Even if he had gotten stronger he chose not to pursue Zero as he recalled that scary smile he had when he was beating him to a pulp. With a shudder he heads on his way.
A popular phrase was then passed around Necropolis.
"Do not threaten Zero or you will face Wrath."
Zero is how people consider the normal him who seems harmless enough when he eats his meals, accepts bounties, and rushes off to the training ground. But when he is fighting, they refer to him as Wrath. His aggressiveness and the way he punishes those who annoy, threaten, or anger him leaves the impression. It may seem as if he is quite happy, but if he is triggered, those smiles hide his rage.
"Basic training is no longer useful to me," Zero stands before the training pod he chose and ponders over his options, "I think I should try out the higher levels next."
He selects Intermediate Training and goes into the pod. The size of the field is much larger than basic, he can feel the gravity is higher, and there seems to be more options on the screen. Going through the options he notices one particular option that intrigues him.
"Sentry Spheres is it?"
Sentry Spheres: Depending on the trainee' preference a number of spheres can be summoned with the objective of ramming into the challenger at high speeds. The speed levels and numbers can be increased indefinitely.
"This is awesome! At least I don't need to go as far to reach the recovery center!" He is excited by this option and thinks that the 100 points require is well worth the price of admission, "I will increase the gravity first, wear some heavier weighted clothes, and work out for a while. Once I'm ready I'll advance my training to the extreme!"
He starts his harsh training session quickly. With the addition of weighted clothes and gravity he struggles to even move, but his willpower drives him to push himself past his body's limits and grow stronger. The gravity bracelet is the one item that will give him the edge he needs to move past the other warriors on his path to the peak, driving him to exploit it to the very limit possible. He plans to save as much points as possible to upgrade it and increase the limit on the device. If it could rise indefinitely he would be happy.
The training routine of his progresses day after day. On days he is not training he would do bounties, but when he is not confining himself to the training grounds he would often run into a very clingy Minerva who would pester him to no end. During one of their encounters she ended up sharing a training pod with him and they sparred a lot during the session which resulted in his loss every time. They even added obstacles with the sentry sphere during their spars. Not only to they have to focus on their sparring partner, but they also need to remain vigilant of the spheres that would try to smash into them at any moment.
—
It's been 2 years since he had come to this Paradise. Zero's strength has risen quite rapidly thanks to his unfair advantage and thanks to constant use both riot javelin and tyrant lancer had reach 100% proficiency, lowering the cost of use and increasing the damage that can be inflicted in the end.
A full powered blast from riot javelin can wipe out a group of undead warriors in a single shot, hell even a face full of tyrant lancer would rip the victim to shreds in a puddle of gore. When Zero used it on a high level saiyan that challenged him it needless to say sent that challenger back to the respawn point. Even Zero was surprised at the power the hit delivered.
"Phew! Thank you Bardock! Might as well call this the DBZ version of falcon punch, hehehe!" Zero jokes with a laugh.
Now he has completely cleared all bounty hunts on each of the 1-3 star lists and can now fly freely in the sky. This is one of the things he had been waiting for since he was awakened in the DBZ world. But due to the strange laws of Paradise it wasn't permitted to fly until all bounties in 1-3 stars have been claimed. He did alone, what most others did in groups in 2 years which is at a shocking speed of progress. Even now he can fight Minerva on even grounds which motivates her to increase her training rate, for she herself admits to being lazy at times. His days of growth continues uninterrupted until now...
"Finally! You are a very hard person to get in contact with."
Zero had just finished blasting away a few undead targets with regular ki blasts when he is interrupted by a new arrival. A girl with black hair tied up in a ponytail who is accompanied by followers men and women alike.
"Hm? Who are you? Usually it's the annoying girl who shows up." Zero asks while tilting his head with a blank expression.
A brunette warrior with serious expression on his face steps forward and salutes, "You are in the presence of Princess Zucca, first born child of King Vegeta and princess of our proud saiyan race!"
Zero is now even more confused and asks to himself, "Vegeta had an older sister?"
Author Notes: Yep, V an older sister.