Saiyan Gamer


Chapter 11: Hobby

Leeku didn't have to be out in the streets to know that people were either thinking that she was suicidal or a genius. As the girl lay in her bed, staring up into the ceiling, she liked to believe that it was the former.

Before going on that mission to steal the Golden Egg of Avross mountain, she knew that the chances of her coming back alive were slim if anything at all. The King of the Wyverns was the strongest creature on Planet Plant. It was the killer of Leviathans, Frost Walkers, and just about anything that dared to try to approach its throne. It was a risk to even go there at all, but she knew that if she did survive, she'd bring honor back to her family.

There was also the fact that she'd be filthy rich once she sold it, and that was definitely a powerful incentive.

In the end, she followed the words of a wise man who once told her that there was no reward if you didn't put your life on the line to get it. So that was what she did, and it paid off.

But not entirely... All thanks to a certain white-haired Saiyan.

She hadn't been searching for him that day when they'd met at the lake, but she did know who he was. Word that War Chief Omato had a secret, weak son, who he'd banished spread around the town like wildfire, and naturally she was curious. Not curious enough to go out and look for him, but apparently the universe willed it so.

And good thing that it did, because if she hadn't befriended him on that day, she'd be dead on the floor of some random cave, rotting away until she was eaten. He saved her life, and yet her emotions were in turmoil.

She'd gone out with a goal to restore honor to her family, only to be brought back home, unconscious and in the arms of a boy who, according to popular belief, had a lower level of only 100.

Anger blazed inside of her, directed both at Sprout, and at herself for her own weakness. If she'd been stronger, she would have taken out that Wyvern with ease, and then returned to the city, egg in hand and victorious. But she was just too weak.

She was angry at Sprout too, even if deep down she knew that it was unwarranted. There was no doubt in her mind that he didn't intend to make her look weak by bringing her back in the state she was in, but he did. Her original plan was to bring him along to soothe her nerves, and possibly to use as a distraction. Finding him, elbow-deep in the corpse of a Wyvern, was surprising, to say the least. It wasn't as strong as the one that she'd faced, but it was still plenty strong. It should have torn him, and his mangey little wolf apart, but instead he killed it. And with no injuries to show for it.

Of course, she knew that many wouldn't believe her story. They'd think that she was so weak that she needed the help of some weak third class. They wouldn't believe that they'd each taken out a Wyvern on their own, simply because of the fact that Omato himself had been the one to measure Sprout's power level. They'd think that she got beaten by a Wyvern and needed to be saved by a weakling. It wouldn't completely diminish the fact that she'd stolen the Golden Egg, but her honor would forever be stained by the fact that she was saved by a boy with a power level of 100. Just the thought made her sick.

Trying to recover from her injury gave her plenty of time to think about the adventure, and she came to the conclusion that there was no way that his power level was only 100. Whatever scouter that they'd scanned him with must have been defective; it was the only logical explanation. And that made her even angrier.

Behind all of that anger and annoyance, though, there was the gratefulness that she felt because while she had been prepared to die, she did not actually want to die. When the Wyvern's lightning bolt scorched the right side of her body almost to a crisp, she was almost certain that it was all over. Surely a mentally ill boy with a power level of 100 couldn't kill a Wyvern, even with help from their freaky Meta-Wolf pet, right?

Wrong.

And that was why she was lying, staring at the ceiling, unsure if she wanted to fight Sprout, or thank him. Instead, she sighed and rolled over onto her side, wincing at the sharp pain that ran through her.

At least the doctors were able to confirm that the burns were caused by Wyvern energy, which backed up my story. It would have been strange considering that Wyverns were in a hibernation period for most of winter and spring, coming out for the summer and fall. The only thing that would force them to wake up a month or two early and attack someone was if that someone either attacked their King or stole the heir. So at least that was going for her. No one doubted that she'd somehow managed to steal the Heir, they just doubted her strength or skill in general.

However, that left a big problem, because she didn't come back to town with the Heir, everyone knew that it was with Sprout, and even if he wasn't as weak as they all thought, he wouldn't be able to handle the people who would come after him for that egg. Or so she thought.

The last person to visit Leeku told her that three idiots went out in the forest looking for Sprout and the egg, but they came back empty-handed and one with a dented skull. That started its own wave of theories, but the boys who tried to steal it weren't talking, likely out of embarrassment.

Either way, after that she knew that the egg was safe. But not for long.

A gentle knock on the door turned her attention to it before it was opened and a short, slender woman walked in. She looked like Leeku, except for the fact that her hair was brown, a common color among Saiyans. As it were, common described the woman standing in front of Leeku quite well.

"Just coming in to remind you that you aren't allowed to leave the town borders for another month, and if I catch yo-"

"You'll pull out my spine so that I can't walk again, yeah I know," Leeku rolled her eyes at her mother. "As if you haven't been telling me every day since I left the hospital."

"Don't use that tone with me, Leeku," She replied, his voice raised. "You're the one who did something incredibly reckless and stupid. I'm just keeping you safe."

"Reckless, but not stupid," Leeku replied, giving her Mom a piercing glare that the older woman returned with the same ferocity. "And keeping me safe from what?"

"Yourself, obviously. Clearly, you can't think straight if you thought that stealing the Heir of the fucking Wyvern King made any sort of sense," She hissed as she walked closer to Leeku's bed. Her work apron brushing across Leeku's leg, reminding her of the entire reason why she needed to bring back honor to their family in the first place.

"Well maybe if you weren't so fucking weak, I wouldn't have needed to," Leeku said, her voice low and harsh. Her mother wasn't phased, however. The older woman was more than used to being verbally abused by Saiyan's who only saw the value in strength, and unfortunately, her daughter was one of them. It wasn't a surprise.

"People put too much respect on strength, and strength alone," She sighed loudly, clearly over it. "Do you honestly think that if my power level was 200 points higher, people would suddenly view us any more different than before?"

The sad truth was that, yes, they would. Not all of them, but the ones who believed strongly in the power structure of the power level system. And those ones were the strong ones, who were looked up to by the younger generation. They also happened to be the ones who controlled most of the jobs in this town, so good luck finding a good job with a low power level.

"It's not just your power level, why would you decide to be a chef?" Leeku snarled in disgust.

"People need to eat, don't they?" Her Mother snapped back. "If everyone became warriors, who would be the doctors, nurses, chefs, builders and do the other jobs that keep this town running?"

Leeku didn't have an answer for that, so she rolled her eyes and turned away, murmuring, "Whatever."

"Exactly," The mother said, triumphant, before turning around to leave. Before she left, she said under her breath, "If only you could be more like your brother."

Leeku gritted her teeth as she watched her mom leave, wanting nothing more than to jump out of bed and clobber her for that comment. She didn't though, because she couldn't. There was no way that her brother would allow it, and he was always watching.

A few seconds after her Mom left the house, he made his appearance, standing at the door frame with a screen in his hands. On his face, Jitsuki had a neutral expression but Leeku lived with him long enough to know that behind that mask, he was annoyed at her.

"You know, you could be a little nicer to her," He said after a few seconds of an intense staring contest. "She did hold you in her stomach for six months."

"So what?" Leeku shrugged her shoulders, her face fixed into a scowl. "That was her choice to get fucked. You can't guilt me for my own existence."

"Still, it hurts her when you say stuff like that," He pressed. "She doesn't deserve that."

"You know what I don't deserve? To be compared with a brother who's fucking strong, but doesn't want to use that strength," She growled now, her patience thinning quickly.

"You hate people who are weak, and you hate people who are strong but don't want to fight," He shook his head, chuckling dryly. "I swear, some Saiyans are so simple-minded. It's frustrating."

Leeku glared at him with fire behind her eyes, now wanting this conversation to end sooner, rather than later, "Did you do what I asked?"

He seemed hesitant at first but eventually stepped into the room and over to Leeku. She swiveled in her bed so that her feet were dangling off, wincing as the wound burned slightly. Jitsuki sat down on the bed beside her, but not before turning to her and scanning over her left side, where the main injury had been.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

She pushed through the pain and grounded her teeth together so that she didn't make any further sounds. Once it passed, she said, "Show me what you found."

Jitsuki sighed, having half-expected that she would ignore his concern. She was a classical Saiyan, through and through, having been like that her entire life. Their mom said that she acted just like their father, and if that was the case, Jitsuki was glad that he never got to meet him.

Filing those thoughts to the back of his head, the older brother looked down at the computer screen in his hand, called a tablet. Most Saiyans wouldn't know what it was, it being a Tuffle invention that he managed to get his hands on and figure out. It could do a lot of things, and Leeku needed it for one of those things.

Of course, he'd never let Leeku even attempt to use it on her own. She'd get frustrated and break it, that was almost certain. There was also the fact that if Leeku ever found out that it was a Tuffle invention, she'd definitely destroy it, and then try to kill him.

So he accepted her request. It wasn't difficult, but his camera drones flew a lot slower than an actual person, so it took longer to get what he wanted. He could have had it a week ago, but Leeku had used that week to build up the courage to ask him for help in the first place.

"I found your friend, Sprout," He said as he showed her the screen in his hand. In the center of the screen was a video of Sprout sitting in a tree, with another Saiyan by his side. "He's been hanging out on the other side of the mountain, and he now lives at the top."

"The top?" She asked in disbelief. "Like, with Bardock?"

"Yup," He replied. "It looks like he was telling the truth when he said that he'd met Bardock in the forest."

"Damn," She said under her breath, surprised.

"Sounds like someone's jealous," He teased, finally cracking a small smile.

"Of course I am," She admitted. "Bardock was a War Chief, I look up to him."

"Funny that you say that," Her brother said, the smile still set on his face. "Because I've been going to the other towns on the border of the Great Divide, and the people there say that Bardock doesn't agree with the Purging system that you love so much."

"That's bullshit," She said without hesitation. "He'd want the next generation of Saiyans to be strong."

"Hm, maybe," Jitsuki hummed, putting a finger on his chin. "Or maybe not."

"Shut up," Leeku grumbled. "Did you check on the Wyverns too?"

"I did that first, considering what you did could seriously fuck this town up," He said, before sliding his finger across the screen and bringing up a video.

In the said video, Avross mountain could be seen from above, with no sign of Wyverns anywhere. Leeku bit her lip, unsure of what to make of it. Hiding her nerves, she asked, "Where are they?"

"I don't know, but my friends in other border cities haven't been attacked by angry dragons, so they probably went somewhere else," He said. "Like the Tuffle cities."

Leeku's face lit up in delight, a proud grin spreading across her face. "Good. I hope the Wyverns destroy them."

"Doubtfully," He said, craning his back as he thought. "They would need a lot of energy to break through the barrier; energy that not even the King has. That thing can take pretty much anything and not even waver. But it doesn't mean that they won't try."

She frowned, deeply. "What a shame."

"Anyways," He said hurriedly, not wanting to experience another rant about how much she hated Tuffles. "I also found the city that you can sell the egg at. They trade with Saiyans regularly, but that doesn't mean that they like us there. Do something stupid and they will kill you."

Truthfully, he'd know where it was all along. However, he had no good way of explaining why he knew where a Black Market Tuffle city was, without revealing that he'd been going there for years to buy and try out new electrical products. That would earn him a beating from most of the people in town, and Omato would probably banish him at the end of it. So, to protect his secret, he had to pretend to look for it, so that Leeku wouldn't get suspicious.

"Where is it?" She asked.

"Right…" He pulled up a map of the planet, and pointed at a city on the southwest of the map, off of the water on an island. "Here. I'll mark it out on your map."

She looked at him, contemplating what to say, before nodding her head in approval. "Alright."

"Would a thank you be so hard?" He asked although he didn't expect it.

She proved him right, completely ignoring him and saying, "You'll still cover for me tonight?"

"So you can sneak out to see your mate?" He asked, a small smirk returning to his face.

"Sprout is not my mate. He just has something that's mine," She rolled her eyes as she stood up.

"Hmm alright. Keep telling yourself that," Her brother chuckled behind her as she retreated. "Next time he brings you home, try to be conscious."

"Fuck you!"


Sprout POV

"How much longer are we going to be watching this thing?"

"That thing is called a Spidasaur," The much smaller Saiyan corrected me calmly, his whispering voice so low that even I had trouble hearing it.

"Raditz, we've been here for four hours, I think it might be dead," I replied in an equally low voice, not because I thought that the thing that we were watching would hear us, but because of the several dirty looks that Raditz had given me for being too loud and 'risking' causing it to flee.

"No, it's just waiting for another creature to think that it's sleeping, and get caught in its trip," Raditz corrected me, causing me to groan and go back to my drawing.

Today was exactly two weeks since I first arrived at Turles' house. Because my territory had been taken over by Picklu, Bardock and Gine were allowing me to stay with them until my training was done, or at least to the point where I could take it back. Gine said that I could stay with them for as long as I wanted, but despite the fact that Turles enjoyed having me around, I was itching to be back in my dark, silent cave.

However, living there wasn't completely free. I helped Turles with whatever his daily chores were, occasionally even helping Gine to gather ingredients for her cooking. After chores, I would train for an hour or two, before the exhaustion from the combination of doing hours of chores and then training took over and I either took a nap until dinner, or spent time with the others, usually Turles.

When he wasn't doing chores, there were a couple of things that Turles enjoyed doing besides training. He liked fighting, but he also liked other things, like cooking with Gine, making furniture that Bardock would then go off and sell, and messing with electrical things that Bardock would occasionally bring home. Apparently, these various things were called hobbies.

The entire thing was strange to me, at first. He genuinely seemed to get the same thrill that I got from fighting from these other, non-violent things. It was the same throughout the family, with the exception of Kakarot, who loved fighting above everything else.

Raditz liked to go around drawing the creatures all over the mountain and then finding out everything that he could about them to write down in his little notebook. He also liked to read books. I personally hadn't read any yet, but apparently, there were books out there about just about anything you could think of. Raditz tended to only read the ones about animals, whether they were from this planet or others. I'd also seen him read one about the Saiyan body, and when I asked him about it, he said that it was because he was thinking about working at a place called a hospital, like Gine used to do back in the war.

I didn't spend much time at all with Gine or Bardock, but I at least knew that Gine liked to cook, and liked it even more when she had Turles in the kitchen helping her.

It was hard to believe that people could have that much fun doing something other than fighting, so I was currently on a quest to find out my hobby if I had one. Raditz, being the first one that I saw in the morning, took me along with him to see if I would enjoy drawing and writing down stuff about this new creature that he'd found.

The drawing wasn't too bad, apart from the fact that I was absolutely terrible at it. Even still, remembering how incredible Raditz's drawing of me was pushed me to keep trying to level the skill up. When I realized that I found absolutely no enjoyment in sitting in silence, watching and waiting for the creature to move, that only gave me more time to continue practicing my drawings. I leveled the skill up twice in the four hours that we were sitting here, and now my drawing at least kind of resembled the Spidasaur; even if its eight legs looked more like twigs than anything.

"Alright, well this is clearly not my hobby," I sighed, finally deciding that enough was enough. I floated up off of the branch and cracked my neck, now staring at the eight-legged creature. "Can we just kill it?"

"Don't be a savage," Raditz grumbled while rolling his eyes. "If you're that bored then you can leave."

"And you'll be fine on your own?" I asked, looking between him and the creature.

It was a massive thing, its body about the same size as Nymerio. That wasn't including its eight legs that were at least double the length of its body each. It had two large, blade-like teeth coming out of its teeth, which dripped with a purple liquid that I was certain was poison. It looked like it was sleeping atop some trees, but if you looked closely at the areas around it, you could see thin, string-like wires. Raditz called them webs and told me that even Turles would have trouble getting unstuck from them if he were ever caught.

"I'll be fine," Raditz said swiftly. "Don't get caught in the webs when you leave."

Glad to be excused, I grabbed my notebook and flew off, but not before absorbing my energy back into my body and looking up at my green, skill 'measuring stick'. Great, almost at level 10.


"Well, what did you think of this? Have any fun?

Turles and I were sitting against the side of the house, and in front of us, there were many different things. Some of which included random pieces of wood, which I'd found out is what you call the hard part of a tree, along with metal things, and electrical things. I looked up at Turles and shrugged my shoulder while thinking back on the past two hours.

I'd found him right after leaving Raditz, and we proceeded to do his chores before I told him about my goal of finding a hobby. He was excited, probably more so than me, and after when we got back to the house and ate lunch, he immediately got all of his stuff that was scattered around his room and brought it outside.

Unfortunately for both of us, it wasn't as fun as I'd hoped. Outside of messing around with electrical stuff that neither of us understood, and building stuff out of wood and metal, messing with the electrical things was more fun. That was probably because I had no clue what the wires did, and trying to figure it out had a mystery to it. However, while it was interesting at first, it quickly became more frustrating than anything. I couldn't get anything to work, and even though on the occasion when something did turn on it sparked some kind of excitement in me, those moments were rare. Too rare.

Building stuff wasn't as bad as creature watching, but it definitely didn't do anything for me. I knew very quickly that it wasn't because I couldn't do it, but because I could do it. With the Crafting ability, if you could call it an ability, I could have assembled literally anything in a second, if I had the material. With the material that Turles provided me with, The Game immediately showed me dozens of things that I could make using them, from small things like metal balls to big things like cupboards, amazing-looking tables, and a strange combination of metal and some electrical stuff that resembled a sparking sword.

I was able to pass off my insta-creation as some sort of weird ability that I must have gotten from the aliens that I'd killed on my Purge, and he seemed to accept that, even if he was a bit jealous.

So, I just spent the last hour putting random things together with the Crafting ability. It was extremely boring, so eventually, I decided to practice my energy manipulation while watching Turles build stuff. By the end of the two hours, and just as Turles asked me if I'd enjoyed it, I got a notification.

Basic Ki Manipulation Has Reached A Level Milestone!

Basic Ki Manipulation Has Been Upgraded Into Below Average Ki Manipulation!

Below Average Ki Manipulation LV1 - You can run Ki through your body continually with ease, as long as you stay focused. Your energy output when attacking is still not completely in your control, although you will notice a slight improvement.

So it goes back to one when I get to level ten… I read over the words quickly, although I didn't need to have read the notification to know that pulling energy out of my body was now considerably easier than before. The moment that the bottom of the skill measuring stick was filled with green liquid, I felt the change.

It was a considerable change, bigger than the rest of them. The others made it easier, sure, but the difference was like night and day. At level one, it was like trying to draw water out of a lake with my hands, with each level giving me bigger instruments until at level nine I had a cup. In comparison, it now felt like I had two buckets and I had someone else filling up those two buckets for me.

It helped me to understand skills a little better. To improve a skill, you have to use it a lot and actively try to get better at it, but you won't actually get better at it until you level the skill up. That repeats until you hit a milestone, like level ten, and then you improve dramatically in that skill. By that logic, if I worked hard at keeping my energy around me in actual combat while also trying to control my energy concerning my attacks, by the time I reached level 10 again, I'd be able to do it with ease.

I like this. I thought to myself, before finally looking back up at Turles and replying to his earlier question, "Not really."

"Yeah, I could tell," He sighed, a slight frown on his face. "But hey, at least you have my mom to get hobby advice from."

"Speaking of your mom, she said that I could help her with dinner," I said as I stood up. "I figured that even if I don't have fun while cooking, I still want to learn how to do it. After having your Mom's food, I can't go back to eating raw meat."

"That's true," Turles yawned while also stretching out his back. "I'd help you guys out, but I'm pretty tired from the chores. I'm going to take a nap until dinner."

"After dinner, do you think we could go back down to the waterfall?" I asked, earning myself an intrigued raised eyebrow from my friend. "I finished the assignment."

"Finished it?" He asked, clearly surprised, "I mean, I noticed that you were practicing while we were building stuff, but how did you finish it? There wasn't any end goal."

"You gave me an end goal when you said that you could hold it forever," I told him, a small smirk on my face. "So that's what I did. I haven't tested it out, but I'm fairly confident that I can hold it for as long as I need to."

He looked completely surprised, and his mouth was wide open. When he managed to collect his thought, he said, "It's only been two weeks… That's amazing. Yeah, we can definitely test it out later."

"Alright," I walked off towards the entrance to the house, waving at him behind my back.


This is getting ridiculous now.

I handed Gine the chopped-up remains of a green plant that I'd just cut up, and she tossed it into a boiling pot that was over a fire. The process was complete, and now we just had to wait for it to finish cooking. While I knew that the end result would taste great, everything that led up to it was as boring as creature watching.

Still, at least I got a level out of practicing it. Even if it was boring, I wanted to get it to level 10 soon.

"Hm, you'll find something that you enjoy doing eventually," Gine said once we settled at the table in the dining room. I looked up at her, not convinced.

"You knew that I didn't enjoy it?"

"Of course," She said with a small smile. "Boys are easy to read."

I sighed, before leaning back on the chair and tilting it so that I was balancing on its legs. I thought back to Leeku and wondered how she was doing. "Girls aren't. They're weird."

Her eyes widening in surprise for a second, before she said, "You're having girl problems already? I'll admit, this is new territory for me too. Turles hasn't met many female friends, so he hasn't come to me with anything, and Raditz is way more interested in his research to care about women right now."

"I'm not sure if it's a problem…" I stopped myself, my mind going back to the 'adventure' that she took me on. "I mean, she did almost get me killed, but we had a lot of fun on the way."

"She sounds like an interesting girl," Gine said. "In a way, Bardock used to put me in a lot of life or death situations too. I'm sure if you asked him, he'd say that it was because I refused to let him go into a battle without a nurse by his side. That nurse naturally being me."

"Being a nurse sounds like a dangerous job," I said. "Especially if you were in combat alongside someone as strong as Bardock. Your enemies would have had to be really strong."

"They were," She said, her smile swiftly shortening until it was an empty, sad replica. "And it is a very dangerous job. Unfortunately, being in the medical field doesn't earn nearly as much respect as being a warrior, even though we keep those warriors alive."

I frowned and crossed my arms. "That doesn't seem fair. From what Raditz told me, nurses heal others, right?"

"They do. Most of them use tools to operate on people and fix them slowly, but some of us…" She lifted her hand in front of her face, and blue energy lit up her hand. Slowly, it turned turquoise, and then green. "Some of us can heal others with our Ki."

"Wow," I stared at the green energy in amazement. Even from a few feet away, I could feel the difference. While normal Ki felt like it was constantly excited and vibrating, this was calm. I reached out and touched it with my finger, amazed that it felt like a warm breeze.

"It's exhausting, especially when you're using it constantly healing others, but if it wasn't for me, all three of the major War Chiefs would have died a long time ago," She said. There wasn't a hint of arrogance in her tone; rather, a sadness. "They were so eager to fight, not thinking about the damage they were taking until they could barely move."

I stared at the green Ki until it faded back to blue, and then back into her body. That was extremely useful, and I put it in the back of my mind for things to learn how to do in the future.

"Does it work just like that?" I asked, very curious. "Just turn your Ki into that and then touch them?"

"If I know where the wound is, yes. But if it's a random person who comes in with internal bleeding, I need tools so that I can find out where the bleeding is coming from. If I don't, I risk wasting all of my Ki just looking for it," She told me, before smiling slightly up at me. "Just like when you first came here. I went to get my tools, but before I could come back and heal you, you'd already healed yourself."

Unsure what to say about my healing ability, I leaned back even further on the chair and said, "Yeah... Thank you."

"Of course," She said. "I'd be a horrible mother if I let my son's only friend die in front of him."

Every time I spoke with Gine, I was reminded why I felt so comfortable around her. She was easily the nicest person that I'd met up until that point. The rest of the family was nice, but Gine went above and beyond constantly; although I might be a little bias because she fed me three amazing deals a day. Besides that though, she was very easy to speak to.

"So," She leaned forward and smirked at me. "Tell me about this girl! What is she like?"

"Well, she was the first Saiyan, apart from Bardock, not to attack me. Her eyes are red, like the sky. Sometimes, it's hard to look away from her. She's pretty strong too," I told her, a small smile on my face. "Sometimes, I get this really strange feeling when she talks to me."

"Like your stomach has a heartbeat and you might throw up?" She asked, although from her expression I knew that she knew the answer to that question. I nodded my head, so she continued, saying, "That means you have a crush on her."

"A what?" I asked, confused.

"It means that you like her."

"But I like Turles and I don't get that weird feeling when I'm with him," I tilted my head to the side eyebrow raised. "Or with the rest of you. I like you all."

"It's a different way of liking someone," She clarified. "There are a couple of different ways you can like a person. And lucky for you, I have a book that will explain it all to you. Let me go get it."

I waited patiently in my seat until she came back and handed me my first book. It was thinner than the books that I'd seen Raditz reading, so that was a plus. On the front, it said, 'Puberty: A Guide For Future Warriors'.

"I'm going to go check on the food. I hope you find all of the answers you're looking for," She said sweetly, before turning and walking off into the kitchen. I watched her leave before I opened the book and started to read.

And my life was changed forever.

+1 Intelligence For Reading Your First Book

Wait, I can do that?!


"Hey Sprout, are you okay? You looked shocked about something at dinner."

I snapped out of my mental place and turned to Turles, who was looking at me with a concerned expression on his face. I nodded my head slowly, before aggressively trying to push all of the new knowledge to the back of my mind. Some things made more sense, but that didn't make it any less strange.

"It's nothing," I said, brushing him off. "I'll tell you another time."

"Alright," Turles said, although he still looked a little concerned. "So are you going to show me or not?"

I nodded, and a second later, my Ki flared to life. Like flames, my entire body lit up in orange light and vibrating energy. I held it up for a few minutes before he smirked and congratulated me, saying, "Good job. Now let's go to the next step."

"Alright," I smirked in return, bringing my fists up, ready to fight. "Let's go."

"Oh, not with me," He chuckled, his smirk growing even bigger. "With him."

From behind me, I heard something fast approaching. I dived to the ground to my left just in time to avoid it, quickly rolling and jumping onto my feet. When I looked back, I saw Kakarot standing where I just was, a humongous grin on his face and his body glowing in blue energy.

"Kakarot, remember what we talked about?" Turles asked his little brother.

"Don't worry, Turles, I already told you that I'm not going to kill him," Kakarot said slowly and confidently. "Not even by accident."

"We're just working on him staying focused while under attack," Turles said as if he was reinforcing the point. Kakarot just rolled his eyes in response, before looking at me in the eyes.

"You ready?" I asked, bringing my fists up in a fighting position. The little ball of energy replied with an immediate burst of movement. The moment that I heard the grass crunch under his feet, I released my energy in a flash. The world slowed and even though he was still considerably faster than me, I was able to see him coming.

I wasn't able to dodge the fist, but I threw up my arm just in time to block it. The attack sent a strong vibration through my arm, causing me to wince, but I was able to keep it up. I noticed happily that like the other day, his attack took Ki points from me rather than HP. Now, more confident in my abilities, I swung down at him with my free fist.

He blocked my fist with his small arm, before twisting his body backward and kicking me in the chin hard. Before the attack could even send me flying, I saw his body twist at an odd angle, before another kick smashed into my stomach. This attack hurt a little more than the last and sent me flying into a tree.

"Sprout! Your Ki!" Turles shouted. I frowned and realized that somewhere in that combo he hit me with, I'd lost focus and dropped my Ki. My health had dropped. This is going to be harder than I thought.

Kakarot was on me in a second, his fist colliding slamming into the tree behind me. It would have been my face if I hadn't moved a split second before, and my eyes widened in alarm when the tree behind me turned into splinters and was blasted far off into the forest. I jumped back and my energy flared back around me, and from that point on, I was on the defensive.

His power level is only double mine! I thought as I blocked attack after attack, scrambling with my entire being to keep up. The difference is massive!

And it wasn't only that. I didn't have much experience fighting other Saiyans, but Kakarot fought differently from both Pickle and Brussel. There was something about the way he fought that seemed more organized like he was planning his next attack before even sending out the first.

His next attack came as a spinning kick to my head. I threw my arms up to block, using both now because somehow, his attacks were getting more and more powerful as the fight dragged on. I blocked the kick and realized with a painful crack in my forearm that I'd dropped my Ki yet again.

Pulling away from the attack before it could do any further damage to my arm, I jumped back. I looked at my Ki and HP, which were both holding up pretty well, with my health at about 3/4ths full and my Ki slightly above halfway. I was proud that I was even able to keep up without being completely destroyed, but that wasn't enough.

I can't let him win this fight without even getting a single hit in! When he came at me this time, I watched him carefully, catching him by the forearm when he tried to punch me. I focused on the Ki in my right fist, trying to put about half of my remaining Ki in my next attack, before swinging down at Kakarot with all that I had. Meteor Fist!

In the moments before the attack hit, I felt his arm resist against mine, threatening to pull itself right out of my grasp. I could feel how strong it was and had no doubt in my mind that if he tried, he could have broken free. Then why? That was when I noticed the slight smirk on his face.

My fist crashed into his face like an explosion, the trees all around us ripping out of their roots and collapsing onto their sides. The grass beneath us was torn free from the ground, before scattering at the hand of a powerful shock wave. I still can't control it well enough. I put more Ki into the attack than I wanted to.

His arm was limp in my hand and when I removed my fist from his face, blood coated it. My eyes bounced from my fist to his face, which was bloodied due to his now broken nose. Even still, he grinned a large grin, with a twinkle of madness in his eyes.

"You let me hit you…" I realized in pure shock. "Without your Ki."

"Yup," He chuckled. Even though I was the one grabbing him, he yanked his arm back, pulling me towards him faster than I could think to let go of him. He reared his head back, before smashing it into my nose with an attack that hurt far more than anything that he'd hit me with prior.

The pain spread outwards as my nose most definitely shattered and I was sent flying back into the original clearing that the fight started in. I skidded to a stop on my hands and knees, before I saw Kakarot closing in from the corner of my eye. I turned in his direction, eyes wide and panicked.

For some reason, he stopped and started to back away at high speeds. I took this as an opportunity to open my mouth and fire out a mouth beam directly at him, using what was left of my Ki. The resulting explosion shone so brightly that I was forced to close my eyes, and a second later, the fight was over.

A small but impossibly powerful arm wrapped its way around my neck, as a powerful pressure on my lower back forced me into the ground. I growled in pain and tried to break out of the move, but without anymore Ki, it ended up being completely futile.

"That was a great fight!" Turles voice finally came out of nowhere. When it did, Kakarot's arm loosened around my neck and he jumped off of me, freeing my lower body. I rolled onto my back and saw Turles looking down at me from above.

"You call that great?" I asked, in pain and a little humiliated.

"Trust me, you've come a long way from just two weeks ago," He praised me, even if I didn't feel like I deserved it. "You kept up your Ki defense decently well while being pressured by Kakarot; and even though you still don't have much control over your attacks, they are a little bit better than before. You didn't waste all of your energy in that punch."

"I guess," I grumbled under my breath, although his praise did make me grin a little on the inside.

"Hey, Sprout!" Kakarot said, now leaning over me too. He had a large grin on his face, as usual, but now his face and some of his teeth were smeared with his blood, and probably some of mine. "Nice fight! Let's do it again soon!"

I couldn't help but feel like this kid perfectly described what Leeku called me. "You're insane Kakarot."

"Thank you, I guess?" He said, obviously with no idea what the words meant.

"I have a question," I said, as I swiveled on my back and sat up. "Why did you let me hit you with that attack?"

"What do you mean? I wanted to see how strong you were," He said as if it was the most obvious answer in the universe. "Now, I have a question for you."

"Yes?"

"Can you teach me how to do that mouth beam thing you did?" He asked, eyes wide in anticipation.

"I mean… Sure," I said, before standing up. "I'm not sure how good I am at teaching but this is what I do…"

Now that I had a better understanding of how energy worked, understanding my mouth beam was a lot easier. Before, I had little idea how I did it. All I knew was that if I screamed in a certain direction and focused really hard, a beam of energy would shoot out of my mouth. It was second nature, like flying.

However, now that I knew how Ki worked, when I opened my mouth to attack, I could feel the energy jumping off of my body and clumping together to form a ball. When I screamed, I launched the ball forward and stretched it, causing it to form a long line of destruction. I was yet to try to clump my energy together in any other place besides my mouth, but that was an experiment for another day.

I explained this to Kakarot, and once my energy regenerated to halfway, I gave him a demonstration, shooting a small energy beam at one of the nearby trees and burning a hole into it. I watched patiently as he tried to imitate it. On the first try, he failed, his scream only sending a ball of energy out of his mouth and not a beam.

Surprisingly, he got it on his second try, his beam drilling an identical hole next to mine. Unexpectedly, a strange feeling washed over me. I recognized it as pride, but not in myself, for the first time in my life. It was pride in Kakarot, for learning my move.

"Turles! I think I found my hobby!" I called out to my friend.

"It's teaching, isn't it?" He asked as walked closer to me.

"How'd you know?"

"You have the biggest smile on your face right now," He replied, before chuckling. And he was right.

"So much for thinking that Kakarot couldn't help me with finding a hobby," I chuckled with him. "Do you have any advice on how to get better with distractions?"

"Actually, I have two ideas," He began. "Technically, if you keep you, Ki, up constantly throughout the day, while you're doing everyday chores and stuff, eventually it'll become so natural that you don't even have to think about using it."

"And the second?"

"You can get into a fight with Kakarot or me every day," He said. "It would probably be faster, but I'm not sure that you want to get your head smashed in every day, even if you can heal."

"You're right," I agreed, followed by a long sigh. "After that headbutt, I think I might sleep until tomorrow afternoon."

"Sprout!"

Leeku's voice was an extremely unexpected addition to the day. Turles and I both turned upwards to see her flying above us, descending quickly. Turles didn't look particularly worried, although he did clench his fists and narrow his eyes at her as she approached.

"I've been looking for you everywhere!" She said as she touched down in front of us.

"And who are you?" Turles asked, taking a step in front of me.

"Don't worry, Turles. She's a friend," I told him, placing a hand on his shoulder and stepping forward. He noticeably relaxed, his fists unclenching.

"Who's this?" Leeku asked, jamming her thumb at Turles.

"You know how I said that I'd met Bardock?" I asked, and she nodded. "Well, this is one of his sons, Turles."

The expression on her face changed, and her eyes scanned over his body several times. After a few seconds, she crossed her arms and said. "What's your power level?"

"I don't know," He said, and I noticed that he was looking over her too. "Why?"

"Why?" She repeated, startled. "It's like the most important thing to know about a person."

"Is it?" Turles asked, clearly not convinced. He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. "I don't even know your name yet."

"Leeku," She said, a frown also appearing on her face. "So you've never measured your power level before?"

"Never," Turles repeated. "And even if I did, I wouldn't tell anyone what it was."

Leeku's frown persisted and the conversation went silent, so I decided to jump in, asking, "How's your injury?"

"It's fine," She brushed the question aside quickly.

"Wait, how do you two know each other?" Turles asked, looking between us.

"We met at the lake before I met you. We hung out a few times, but then…" I paused, contemplating if I wanted to tell him about the egg. In the beginning of my stay here, I hesitated, but now, having spent more time with him, I didn't think that he would try to hurt me for the egg. And if he did, Leeku was here. "You know how I told you that I killed a Wyvern?"

"Oh yeah? That totally bullshit story?" He asked, tilting his head.

"Well, it wasn't bullshit," I told him. "I went with her."

"Yeah, and I bet you both went on a total killing spree," He snorted, clearly not believing me.

"You don't need to believe us," She rolled her eyes at Turles and turned to me. "I need to speak with you."

Before I could reply, Turles asked, "Okay, I'll entertain the idea. How'd you guys manage to get into a position where you had to fight Wyverns?"

I looked him in the eyes, in all seriousness, saying, "We stole the Wyvern Kings heir."

"Do you think I'm an idiot?" He asked, before belting out in laughter. I sighed and turned to Leeku, who was looking at Turles with concealed anger.

She put a hand on my shoulder, saying simply, "Show him."

I nodded my head and reached behind my back, pulling the Golden Egg out of my Safe Place and holding it in front of me. Turle's laughter slowly died down, and he stared at the egg with wide eyes.

"Is that…"

"Yes, it's real," Leeku said, her trademark sly smirk sliding onto her face. "Still think it's bullshit?"

"No, but it's extremely stupid," He said slowly, his eyes finally leaving the egg and looking at me. "The Wyvern King won't give up until he finds this egg. Do you have any idea how strong he is?"

"Actually, yes," I said, remembering how many question marks littered Raphalos's sheet.

"Then you should know that stealing this puts you in immense danger," Turles said before suddenly pausing. "Wait, is this why those kids attacked you?"

"Yeah, they were trying to steal it from me," I revealed to him. He shook his head, going silent and slapping his palm against his forehead.

"You weren't hurt too badly were you?" Leeku said from next to me. "News got out sooner than I would have wanted, and I was still down for the count when they left to find you."

"Uh, no, I wasn't hurt too badly," I lied, before sheepishly rubbing the back of my head.

"Sprout, we need to bring the egg back," Turles said suddenly, causing both Leeku and my heads to turn. "I'll even get my dad to bring it back if I have to."

"What?!" Leeku growled, stepping in between me and Turles. "No! It's mine!"

"Do you plan on fighting the King when he comes for his heir?!" Turles shouted back, looking down at her with intensity. "Because it took my Dad and two other War Chiefs to take down the last heir, and that wasn't even the King himself!"

"Turles, it's fine! None of them saw us leave, and the ones that did, we killed," I said loudly, trying to speak over them. I stepped back in between them after stashing the Egg away again. "They don't know that we were Saiyan or where we went. They can't find out."

This seemed to calm him down a little. Leeku, while also calming down herself, added, "Besides, Avross mountain is literally bordering the Tuffle territories. The Wyverns are more likely to think that it was a Tuffle that stole it, and it'll attack them."

"What are you going to do with it, then?" Turles asked although he was still a little nervous.

"Sell it, obviously," She told him. "The amount of money that people will be willing to pay for something so rare is incredible. I'll be rich."

"You mean, 'we'll' be rich?" Turles asked, with an eyebrow raised. "As in, you and Sprout, right?"

She flinched, hard, before saying, "Yes… Of course."

"Good," He replied, his eyes narrowing at her. "But a Wyvern egg isn't something that any random Saiyan will be able to buy. I don't even think a Saiyan would be willing to buy something so expensive when they can't really do anything with it."

She didn't reply immediately, instead of biting her lip slightly and looking away. The silence in the air was thick, as both Turles and I realized what she was suggesting.

"It's the only way we'll get the best price for it!" She argued. "I hate Tuffles more than you can ever know, but it's the only way to make the risk worth it."

"You're crazy," Turles grimaced, his face twisting in ways I'd never seen it go before. "You're straight-up insane."

"I'm going to have to agree with Turles on this one," I said, frowning. "You told me that Tuffles were strong enough to fight against the Saiyan army and kill a lot of people. If they find three Saiyans in the middle of one of their cities, won't they kill us?"

"No, they won't," She said, although even she didn't sound totally confident. "They deal with Saiyans regularly."

"Really?" I asked, dubious.

"Constantly, even. Where do you think Scouters come from?" She revealed, much to my surprise. "Just in case you didn't notice, Saiyans aren't the best with technology."

"This is so stupid," Turles grumbled loudly.

"So what you're saying is, we just go in, sell the egg, and leave?" I asked slowly, considering it despite the obvious danger. Turles turned to me, shocked and alarmed, but when he saw my face he threw his arms in the air and turned away.

"It's a risk, but a risk worth making. Besides, I have a plan," She said confidently. And that was all I needed to hear.

"Alright, well I'm going with you," I told her. She smirked back, before looking at Turles.

"I never thought that a son of Bardock would be such a pussy," She said mockingly. "You bring dishonor on your family."

I hadn't seen Turles angry until that point. Like a switch went off in his head, his expression went from annoyed, to furious. His face went crimson and he growled so low that it could have been mistaken for an animal. I heard the shifting of his feet on the ground, ready to attack, so I stepped in front of Leeku before he could pounce.

His body slammed into mine so hard that I lost my breath, but at least I had them both separated. He growled and pushed me back while cursing at her from over my shoulder. I couldn't see her, but I could hear her chuckling behind my back.

"Next week I'll be back, Sprout. Be ready."

And with that, she flew off. I held Turles down until I could see on my small map that she was gone. I waited until his face returned to its normal shade and he sat down on the ground before I said anything else.

"She's a little bit crazy, but she's pretty fun to hang out with, trust me," I said.

"I'm starting to think that you might be a little bit crazy too, Sprout," He sighed deeply. "You could die trying to sell that thing, you know that?"

"Maybe," I replied shortly. "But if I survive, it'll be a fun adventure."

He stared at me for several long seconds, before frowning, "I'm coming with you."

"Why? I thought that you thought it was stupid."

"It is, but I'm not going to let you go off on your own and do something dangerous," He said firmly. "I can't have you dying on me just yet."

I extended my fist to him, and he smiled, tapping it back with his own.

Mission Created!

Make The Sale

Main Objective - Get the Golden Egg to Mossgrove City and sell it without it being destroyed or stolen in the process.

Reward:

4,000 EXP

Accept?


Back again. Got a new job and life's been busy. I've got a lot of chapters written out, but I've found that editing them has been quite tough. And I have new ideas that I need to go back and implement! Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!