Chapter 11: Second Day of Serious Training and a Call to Home

Pearl woke up groggily with Kenshiro beside her. "Kenny, what time is it?" she asked him. Kenshiro rubbed his eyes as he woke up and checked their clock. "Five…when's Soon supposed to show up?" "I think in an hour," Pearl groaned as she got out of bed. She groaned as she started to stretch, using Futten not only dried her out, even with all the water she drank, it also made her body a lot stiffer. Kenshiro got up as well and stretched with her for about thirty minutes. "Did you get Barit his weighted clothes?" Pearl asked as they finished stretching and he headed for the shower. "Yeah, it's about 1500 pounds all together. You should be able to outrun him today," Kenshiro said as he got in the shower. Pearl looked and found the weighted clothes from Merch and tried them on. They felt even heavier than yesterday, almost twice as heavy in fact! "No way!" Pearl said as she took them off and looked for her weighted clothes.

She put her own weighted clothes on and realized that they didn't hinder her as much as before, and they felt much lighter than the ones Merch had sent her. "Wow, Soon-sensei's training is really working for me!" Pearl said in surprise. She took off the weighted clothes and headed for the kitchen to make breakfast for herself, she forgot to eat dinner last night and was starving. Pearl dug up all the ingredients she needed and made the batter for a two-layered chocolate cake, and popped it in the oven right as Kenshiro got out of the shower. "You making breakfast?" he asked. "For me," Pearl told him, "Feel free to try it if you want, but you might get diabetes," she said as she grabbed the clothes she would wear today, her Buu-gi. Pearl cleaned herself as much as she could, and even drank some of the water from the showerhead, she was still thirsty from using Futten yesterday. The hot water helped her feel more flexible, by the time she finished getting ready and got dressed Barit was waiting for his turn.

After another ten minutes the cake was ready and Pearl quickly finished making it, using plenty of icing on it. "Sheesh!" Kenshiro exclaimed when he saw it, "You're seriously gonna eat that whole thing!?" "Oh come on Kenny, I missed dinner last night, and I'm gonna need all the energy I can get for today's training," Pearl pointed out as she sliced the cake into quarters. "Yeah but, this thing has so much sugar…" Kenshiro said as Pearl started digging into the first quarter of cake. She finished in two minutes and told him, "Go ahead and try it Kenny, but remember what happened the first time you tried my cooking?"

FOUR MONTHS AGO

Kenshiro saw Pearl sitting down under a tree, her face alternating between eating a slice of cake and being buried in a large book about Namekian History. "Hey! Got any more of that cake? It sure looks good," he asked her. Pearl smiled at him and nodded and pulled another slice of cake out of her lunch box, "Here you go." Kenshiro took the offered slice and took a big bite out of it. His eyes practically doubled in size as the sugar content hit him. "Is something wrong?" Pearl asked him, looking at him with those big eyes behind her glasses. Kenshiro quickly swallowed and quickly said, "Nothing, I'm just surprised at how good it tasted is all!" Kenshiro quickly took two more bites, his stomach turning with each bite. Pearl finished her slice and looked at him as he finished his. "Um, Kenny, are Earthlings supposed to be green?" He turned to answer her, but when he opened his mouth, something more than words came out, "GLAUCH!"

PRESENT DAY

Kenshiro started going green when he remembered how inhumanly sweet the first cake of Pearl's that he'd had had been, "You mean that's the same recipe as THAT cake?" "Sorry Kenny," Pearl said as she put another quarter on her plate, "But that's the Majin Diet for you. And I haven't been eating a lot of sweets lately." Kenshiro went to the kitchen and had some milk while she ate. Barit came out of the shower and saw the last quarter of cake, stretched out his hands and grabbed it. "Enjoy! Pearl made it really special!" Kenshiro told him, hiding his smirk behind his glass. Barit ignored him and quickly dug into the cake. Then he quickly turned blue as his stomach started to sound like a bubbling cauldron. "The Hell is in that cake!?" Barit asked. "Sugar," Kenshiro said, and smirked evilly as Barit ran back into the bathroom. "IIII'LLLLLLLLL KKKKKIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLL YOOUUUUUUUUUU!" Barit yelled as the sound of his bowels evacuating resounded through the bathroom. "Holy sh…moke! Your cakes are a biological weapon!" Kenshiro told Pearl.

Pearl couldn't stop herself from laughing at Barit's plight as he continued to yell through the bathroom walls, "I'LL BLEACH YOUR CLOTHES! I'LL PUT DEAD FISH IN YOUR BED! YOU HEAR ME! THIS IS WAAARRR!" Pearl and Kenshiro ignored him as they cleaned up the kitchen, and were done just as Soon came to the apartment and Barit came out of the bathroom. Soon pulled out two Capsules and said, "Alright, you two are going to be doing something different today." Soon activated the Capsules, and costumes appeared, a Slug outfit and a Turles outfit. "To prepare Pearl for any future battles with Turles and Slug, you two are going to dress as them, copy their techniques, and spar with her. Any questions?" Soon said. "Understood!" Kenshiro and Barit said. "Get dressed in them now. You two aren't going to be weighed down today," Soon said as they took the outfits and Soon went into the kitchen to make their breakfast.

"So, should I wear my weighted clothes again?" Pearl asked. Soon smirked as he put the ingredients to his 'Protein Shakes' into her blender and said, "Of course I do. This training is primarily for YOUR benefit after all. Is it working?" Pearl nodded, "Yeah, the weighted clothes I got from that reality warper Merch are twice as heavy almost, which means I'm almost twice as powerful as I was before!" "Then get them on," Soon told her as he started the blender. Pearl quickly went back to her room and put on the armbands and boots, and got a good look at Kenshiro in Turles' outfit. Wow…Kenny's butt is so…hot… Pearl thought as Kenshiro finished the outfit by bending down and putting on the boots. "Huh?" he said when he realized Pearl was there. "Well…" Pearl started, but she couldn't come up with anything, her mind went to other places for a minute before she said, "Well… we're dressed, let's go." They left their room, Pearl hanging back to get a better view as Soon made their breakfast. Barit came out dressed as Slug and said, "I can't believe that the 'Super Namek' wore this getup." "What's wrong?" Soon asked him. Barit turned around and said, "The pants are giving me a wedgie."

"Well," Soon told him, "You'll just have to deal with that. This is all for your training, and to help Pearl defend our History! A wedgie is a small price to pay, don't you think?" "You're absolutely right sir!" Barit said, standing up straight. After they all stretched out they headed outside and did the same running exercise as last time. That's when Pearl realized something. Oh come on! Kenny and Barit aren't weighed down like me! By the time she finished her first lap around Conton City, Soon, Kenshiro, and Barit were already on their second. Damn it! Pearl thought as she pushed herself to go faster, to at least bridge the gap. She managed to catch up to them by the fourth lap and Soon said, "Pearl, if you can't beat at least one of us, it's some extra two-thousand exercises for you!" "That's not fair!" Pearl yelled, but ran faster anyway. She almost got past Kenshiro, when Soon stopped and said, "That's it for running! Pearl, start exercising!"

The Majin girl groaned, but did as she was told, and did 12000 pushups, sit-ups, burpees, squats, and jumping jacks while everyone else did 10000. Soon had the three roommates do stretches for fifteen minutes before he said, "Alright, for sparring things will be different. Pearl will spar with Kenshiro first, and Kenshiro, you'll have to fight as if you were Turles. Since we don't have Fruit from the Tree of Might, you'll replicate it by using Kaioken. You'll spar with Pearl for thirty minutes while I spar with Barit, and after thirty minutes we'll switch partners, understood?" "Yes sir!" they all replied. "Alright, after sparring we'll use the Binding Pole again. After that, we'll stretch, and that'll be it for today," Soon said as they separated into their sparring pairs. "Ready!" Soon yelled. "Fight!"

Kenshiro immediately flew at Pearl and went for a kick that she barely dodged and flipped back from him, blasting a ki ball as she did. Kenshiro knocked the ki ball back and summoned a fiery ring of ki to his hands, "Kill Driver!" Kenshiro launched the blast at Pearl, it was too fast for her to dodge so she instead powered up her ki and blasted it around herself to counter it, then blasted a barrage of ki balls at Kenshiro. Kenshiro dodged or blocked all the ki balls, none of them even touched him as he charged up his ki. Pearl saw her chance and powered up as well before yelling, "Vanishing Ball!" The Majin technique hit Kenshiro dead on and knocked him back. Pearl Instant Transmitted in front of him and did a quick combo of three punches followed by two hard kicks. Kenshiro hit Pearl with a large ki ball to stop her from attacking again and said, "Alright, I guess I really do have to go Kaioken. Kaioken Times Three!"

The red aura engulfed Kenshiro and he yelled out, "Sudden Storm!" Kenshiro sent a barrage of purple ki balls at Pearl, and she struggled to outfly them, only for the last fifteen to hit her head on. Kenshiro seized his chance and kneed Pearl in the stomach before slamming her back with both fists, sending her face first into the ground. Pearl however wasn't fazed as she used her species' flexibility to stretch out her right leg and kick Kenshiro right in his face, knocking him back and away from her. Pearl jumped up and yelled, "FUTTEN!" Her dark grey skin turned yellow as her purple cheek marks turned black and steam erupted around her. "Let's go!"

So it was for the next thirty minutes as Pearl and Kenshiro pushed themselves to their limits, both having to stop using Futten and Kaioken respectively after twenty minutes, leaving them both greatly exhausted for the final ten minutes of their spar. By the end, they were both covered in bruises, and Barit remarked, "Sheesh! I'd hate to see what you'd do if you were actually fighting each other." Pearl took a minute to breath and get some water before saying, "I really need to push myself." "Yeah," Kenshiro said, "This training is really helping Pearl more than it is me." "That's probably because she's a Majin, they tend to get stronger a lot faster than Earthlings, or Namekians," Soon said as he raised his hands and pointed them at Kenshiro and Pearl. Soothing ki energy filled them both, restoring their strength and healing their injuries. "Alright, switch opponents," Soon ordered as Kenshiro got ready to face him while Barit stood in front of Pearl. "Fight!"

Pearl made the first move this time and punched Barit in his stomach before kicking his face, stretching out her limbs to do so. Barit responded by blasting her with Darkness Eye Beams and hitting her with a ki ball. Barit charged at her and she had to work to block his attacks before she managed to back up enough to try Bomber DX. Barit dodged the attack and stretched out his arm and grabbed her, pulling her in for a hard punch to her stomach before blasting her back with Darkness Eye Beams again, then followed up with Darkness Twin Star. Pearl quickly activated Futten again and dodged the attack. Pearl charged up her ki and yelled, "Dodoria Launcher!" Pearl blasted a mighty energy wave at Barit straight on that he barely dodged, then followed up with a barrage of ki balls, twenty of them hit. Pearl then used Instant Transmission to continue her assault, but Barit was ready and kicked her in her face before she could attack.

Barit followed up by stretching out his arm and pulling her into another punch to the stomach as he yelled, "Darkness Rush!" Barit rained blows on Pearl before punching her away and blasting her with his eye beams again. Pearl quickly recovered and flew at Barit again. Barit tried to stretch his arm out again, but Pearl Instant Transmitted behind him and grabbed him, bashed his head four times, and then stretched back and slammed into his back with her knees. She then hit him with a Vanishing Ball. Barit got up after the attack and said, "Alright Pearl. You wanna play rough, then we'll play rough!" Barit yelled out and then transformed into a Giant! "Holy Shit!" Kenshiro yelled as he and Soon made room for him. "NOW COME ON!" Barit yelled.

Barit's massive fist came right at Pearl, but she easily dodged it and blasted him with Bomber DX. "YOU'LL HAVE TO TRY HARDER THAN THAT!" Barit bellowed as he blasted a ki ball from his mouth. Pearl dodged his attack again and flew right at his groin, then to his surprise when he tried to stop her flew straight up, blasting steam out of her arms for an extra burst of speed as her feet slammed into his chin. "AUGH!" Barit yelled as he staggered back, Kenshiro and Soon had to quickly avoid being crushed by him. "You just made yourself a bigger target!" Pearl said as she deactivated Futten and blasted another Dodoria Launcher at him, this time the attack hit him full on. Barit quickly returned to his normal size and said, "Alright, I'm never gonna do THAT again." After that, Barit and Pearl, like Pearl and Kenshiro, were almost dead even for the rest of their sparring match, though Pearl had an easier time fighting him than Kenshiro. And again, by the time they were done, they were both covered in bruises.

Barit spat out some blood while Pearl rubbed a few sore spots on her as Soon healed them both. "You three are more serious about this training than I realized," he said, "It's a good thing you all know each other so well, or you might not have held back so much." "Yeah…right…" Pearl said, truth was that she was struggling to keep up the whole time almost. Once they were healed, Soon took out the Capsule for the Binding Pole and got it ready, then took out another Capsule and activated it, and three large pairs of stone discs appeared, about six feet tall, each disc two feet tall, the smallest discs on top with the largest on the bottom. "Kenshiro told me that you're supposed to use weights to increase your training with the Binding Pole. The top ones weigh three hundred pounds each, the middle ones are nine hundred pounds each, while the bottom ones are two thousand seven hundred pounds each. Lift what you can, but remember that the Binding Pole will also restrain you.

"Kenshiro goes first, while Barit and Pearl meditate. Let's get to it," Soon said. Kenshiro went to the Binding Pole and put all six of the bands on as Pearl and Barit started meditating. Pearl once again focused inward, and saw the power growing inside of her. She was honestly amazed that it was all her own power, the training was truly working. "Alright, you may find a limit to your power, or a wall, at least that's what it'll feel like," Soon softly told her and Barit. "Find it if you can, and try to break through it." Pearl focused even further inside of herself, and delved into her power. She realized she was wrong, and saw that there was indeed a wall. It was made of something she didn't want to think about, something that was too much for her. "Fight your barriers," Soon said, "They are nothing but obstacles that must be taken down."

Pearl focused and tried to push against this barrier inside of her, but as she approached the barrier it felt like her power was completely sapped. "That barrier is made of the things you fear. But you don't need to fear anything," Soon said. Inside her Mind's Eye Pearl saw herself floating in a white void, with a dark purple, nearly black wall in front of her, giving off a sinister aura. Inner Pearl walked up to the Wall and put her hand on it, and was bombarded by voices.

"Weakling!" "Toothpick!" "Little Nerd Girl is useless!" "Weak!" "You need your Mommy's help?" "Are you sure she's a Majin?" "So weak!" "Come and get your books Nerd Girl!" "WEAK!"

Inner Pearl recoiled from the Wall. Those voices, all the kids who used to bully her back home because she was so weak. What am I even doing here? She asked herself, I'm not cut out for this. If it wasn't for Kenny, I'd never have made it this far. Inner Pearl curled into a ball and looked at the Wall.

Are you tired of being weak? A voice asked.

Inner Pearl didn't care who the Voice came from and answered, Yes.

I can help you. The Voice said. All you have to do is open your mind.

Pearl saw the Wall in front of her. Okay.

Inner Pearl was filled with power, such overwhelming power like she never felt before. She saw the Wall in front of her and ran right at it, and with one kick, it was destroyed. And in that instant she felt the power leave her, but the Voice said, We'll be seeing each other again. Until then, take care.

Power seemed to rush through Pearl right then, even more power than what the Voice gave her. "Pearl!" Soon yelled, and Pearl opened her eyes to see that she was floating in the air, and her ki aura was glowing brightly, shining pink light everywhere. "Oh," she said, and her aura immediately dissipated and she floated to the ground. "It's your turn on the Binding Pole, I suggest you go up to five bands," Kenshiro told her. Pearl nodded and did as he said. She struggled to reach the stone discs, and when she did she saw five holes in them, one for each finger. Pearl put her fingers through the holes and using her fingers lifted the first pair of discs. Their weight, combined with her weighted clothes, and the pressure of the Binding Pole, were proving quite a challenge. She rose to the challenge anyway, pushing herself as she performed her martial arts, never stopping once, always in motion for the whole thirty minutes. "Alright, that's enough," Soon told Pearl. She put the weights down, and slowly walked back to the Binding Pole before taking off the bands from around her body and limbs.

"You're really improving," Soon commented as they all stretched out. "Yeah, thanks to your training, Soon-sensei," Pearl said. "Yeah, this is really helping us out a lot," Barit agreed. "Yes, but you're all advancing faster than I was expecting, especially you, Pearl. It would seem that I was right to take you on as my apprentice, and the Supreme Kai of Time was right to choose you to help defend history," Soon said. After they were done stretching, Elder Kai walked up to the four of them. He looked around at the ruined landscape and sighed, "Why did you spar here? Couldn't you have just gone on the Virtual Reality Simulation?" "Uh…oops," Soon said, rubbing the back of his head. Elder Kai sighed again and said, "Don't do it again! The last thing we need is for you to destroy the City! Pearl, come, it's time we test your power." "Coming!" Pearl said, and ran after Elder Kai, to the Time Patroller Academy, and up to the robot. In a flash of light, Pearl was teleported to the Mountains at Night.

"Alright," the Elder Kai communicated to Pearl, "this is your Advancement Test. No cheating now. I've got my eye on you!" "I got it!" Pearl said, and saw her first opponent was young Gohan. The young Gohan flew at her, and Pearl easily blocked his attack. Pearl dodged his next ten attacks and then responded by kicking him back and following up with a Vanishing Ball. Pearl then finished the fight quickly with a knee to young Gohan's stomach. Pearl was surprised at how easy it was for her, then sensed her next opponent arriving, Raditz.

Pearl flew right at Raditz and he dodged her attack and axe kicked her in her back. Pearl quickly dodged Raditz's Saturday Crash and hit him with a ki ball barrage. Pearl blocked Raditz's Double Sunday and hit him with a Bomber DX before charging up her ki and finishing him with Dodoria Launcher. Pearl looked at her hands, she was so strong that she couldn't believe it. That was when her third opponent appeared, Nappa.

The massive Saiyan hit Pearl with Bomber DX, then followed up with Giant Storm. Pearl Instant Transmitted behind Nappa and hit him with Vanishing Ball in return before flying after him and hitting him with punches and kicks as hard as she could. Pearl then summoned her power and blasted it all around her, destroying Nappa before he knew what happened. And then the fourth opponent appeared, Vegeta. Pearl flew at Vegeta, then saw he was in the same clothes he wore when training with Whis. Too late to stop, she flew right into Vegeta's knee to her face, then flying over and blasting her back at point blank range.

Pearl barely avoided his follow up attack, and then got hit with Finish Breaker, dozens of fiery ki balls hitting her. Pearl barely avoided Vegeta's follow up kick and kicked him in his stomach before trying to hit him with a Vanishing Ball that he avoided. Pearl seized her chance and grabbed him, hit him on his head then stretched back and slammed her knees into his back. Vegeta jumped up and yelled, "Galick Gun!" Pearl felt the ki power almost singe her as she barely avoided it and focused her ki inside her, Vegeta charged at her and she let it all out in a massive explosion, sending Vegeta flying back. Pearl then charged up her ki and flew after Vegeta before letting loose one last Dodoria Launcher. And with that, her test was complete. "You passed the test. Remember to continue training diligently!" Elder Kai said, and in a flash of light, Pearl was back in Conton City. "You're certainly improving yourself," Elder Kai commented when she returned.

"Soon-sensei's been training me, and it's been a big help," Pearl told him. "I see," Elder Kai said, then looked closely at Pearl. She thought she saw a smirk before he turned his back to her and said. "You still have more tests to pass before we're ready to Unlock your Full Potential. So keep up the good work, and good bye for now," he said, and Pearl headed back to her apartment. For the rest of the day, Pearl, Kenshiro, and Barit watched Hellsing and relaxed, the next day was going to be intense. Before she went to bed, Pearl called her Papa. "Hi Papa," she greeted. "Hello, my precious little Pearl!" Glutto answered, "How have you been?" "I'm doing so great now! I'm getting so much stronger, and taking on such difficult missions, I can't believe it's really me doing all of it!" Pearl told him, and told him everything about her first excursion to Namek, and how Soon was helping her train. "That's great Pearl! I can't wait to see you, we'll be able to come see you in about a week from now, maybe less," Glutto told her. "I can't wait Papa. Love you," Pearl said. "I love you too," Glutto said. Pearl hung up her phone, and went to bed.