The Middle Child

Chapter 4: No Pain No Gain II

By: TheRealBigJ

Disclaimer: All Dragon Ball Z characters and story elements aside from my Original Characters are created and owned by Akira Toriyama and Toei Animation.

The paired moons orbiting the skies casted their silvery glow upon the secluded and lifeless desert fields, where the dry wind blew quietly. Standing as a mere dot in the vast ocean of sand and red sandstone, Onin's muscles screamed in protest, each fiber burning with fatigue as he pushed to complete his set of push ups. Seated above on a boulder, Raditz looked down at his brother with indignation at his rather poor performance.

" Are you becoming tired, Onin?" Raidtz said, a sudden smug grin adorning his face. " I'm sure your enemy will give you some time for a good night's sleep, no?"

Onin didn't reply, both because he didn't want to sate his brother's provocation and because his tired mind was screaming for him to listen to his aching muscles and take a long and deserved rest. However, there was nothing deserving of Onin's current state… at least in Raditz's eyes. With no response, Raditz returned to his disappointed scowl.

" Of course they wouldn't, they'd kill you before you even have time to process it," Raditz sneered, spitting out the side. He stared at his younger brother for a while before staring up at the moons' alignment. " Your first day of training has now turned into two days, and you're just barely three quarters from finishing the original plan… how pathetic."

The wind picked up, and a cloud of dust blew over the two Saiyan boys. Onin's eyes watered as sand filled them, and his breaths turned into a coughing fit. Yet, even with his worsening conditions, Onin still pushed on. He kept his eyes open, forcefully leveled his breath, and with a final grunt, he pushed his aching arms and completed his one-thousandth push up.

" Finally," Raditz rolled his eyes as Onin unceremoniously slumped onto the ground. With a sigh, Raditz jumped off from the boulder and stretched his arms, looking off towards the distance. " We're a good distance away from the village for a light marathon. Hopefully you can at least do that before you cave in…"

"..."

Met with silence, Raditz looked down to see the unconscious form of his brother. He waited for a moment for Onin to get up himself. After a minute of stillness, Raditz impatiently kicked his side. Even then, there was no response.

In a rather uncaring fashion, Raditz huffed and pulled out a small gray device. Checking the screen, he sees an infamous red notification on the top right corner. Clicking it, he discovered it was for an approaching assignment of high priority. With an exasperated sigh, Raditz crouched down and tossed his unconscious younger brother over his shoulder.

" Well, so much for light exercise," Raditz grumbled as he took off in flight into the distance.

As Onin's fatigued and dirty form floated in their household healing pod, Raditz sat down at the dining table under the small light of an orange ceiling light, eating an extremely late dinner of meat on the stick. Gine sat directly in front of him, quietly tuning out Raditz ravishing his meal and idly gazing at Onin's with concern.

" I wasn't expecting him to come back so… beaten," Gine murmured with a saddened look.

" Neither did I," Raditz grunted through his full mouth, " but what would you expect from an outcast bookworm."

" Swallow your food, Raditz," Gine admonished. With her comment ignored, she gave a quiet sigh followed by furrowing her brows. " I'm not sure what to do with Onin. This is far from what he's used to."

" This is something every Saiyan should be used to," Raditz grumbled, slurping up the rest of his dinner, " it's just common sense."

" You know your brother, Raditz. He isn't like that," Gine said, resting her cheek on her palm, " not even taking into account his normal behavior, he has something that no other Saiyan has. He's too…"

" He's too much of a coward, that's for sure."

" Soft. He's too soft," Gine frowned at Raditz with a stare that quickly softened, "...I would have never put 'compassion' and 'Saiyan' in the same sentence before Onin was born. Times really have changed."

" Uh huh," Raditz said passively, the words flying over his head.

Gine huffed in exasperation. " Well, I've recently gotten a hold of who has had their eyes on Onin. The royal official who somehow found interest in our little Onin."

This caught Raditz's attention. " Oh really? Well finally, we get to know who this clown of a sponsor is."

" It's not as surprising as you would think, Raditz," Gine chuckled, lightly flicking his nose. " Apparently it's one of the regional chief officers… our regional chief officer. I would've thought it would have been a very well-informed delegate, but it's someone much higher ranked."

" That still doesn't explain why," Raditz said, blinking owlishly while rubbing his nose, " in my view, Onin is the last person I'd sponsor, even if he survived an 'unsurvivable' situation."

" Perhaps. But you do have to give credit to your brother," Gine noted, " especially now that you've seen how slim of a chance he initially had."

Raditz simply eye rolled, standing up and taking his dish to the sink. " I'm heading off to the docks. I've got to prepare for another mission."

" Stay safe as always, Raditz," Gine smiled.

" Yeah yeah," Raditz looked elsewhere with a faint blush, " …goodbye, mother."

Onin watched with interest as his mother, who stood a few feet away from him, began stretching her arms and legs in strange motions he couldn't bother trying to replicate. The morning passed like a flash, and after a quick shower followed by a simple but by no means bland breakfast, Onin found himself in the backyard of their home. This time he was not hundreds of meters away from civilization.

" Mother," Onin asked, looking around the flat clearing gated by a large stone wall. Every home in the outskirts of the village was walled up exactly like this, for the sake of not having to deal with rabid canines. Even then, they still had problems with rabid canines. But aside from that, inside this locked area, there was a certain individual that was missing. " Where's Raditz?"

Gine looked up from her triangle pose stretches, curling a brow at Onin's question. Then her face immediately lit up with remembrance. " Ah, your brother was called in for a mission yesterday. It's a conquerment mission, so he won't be back for a while."

Onin blinked at the news before sighing in exasperation. Of course, he forgot to consider that his brother had his own schedule to worry about. Onin shouldn't have expected that "training" to last any longer than it did, regardless of whether he was going to like it or not.

However, this would mean he's left all by himself with training for the second phase, and to be frank he doesn't know the half of it when it comes to proper training.

" So, uh, how long is 'for a while'?" Onin asked with small but lingering trace of hope.

" Well, it's as long as you'd usually expect, Onin," Gine chuckled, silently popping her joints, " but… with enough luck and he comes back early, Raditz could probably squeeze in some last minute training for you before the second phase of the competition begins."

Onin couldn't help but groan. One of his best shots in preparing for this whole event is now gone, and now he's left to deal with it by himself. He's already come to a rough awakening that as much as his smarts far succeed his peers, he has no means to compensate for his lack of physical strength. Raditz, being literally a front line soldier, was his biggest sail. And now it's blown away in the wind, and he's stuck in the middle of the ocean with a sailless boat.

" And here he said he would stick around until the very end…" Onin huffed quietly, kicking a small stone on the ground. As harsh as his brother's training was, Onin actually felt some progress with it. If he was given just one or two extra days—if not an entire week—with Raditz's grueling regime, then maybe he could've caught on to the pattern and done the rest by himself. But as much as he'd like to sulk about it, it wasn't going to change anything.

" Really? Well that's quite thoughtful of Raditz." Gine said, hearing Onin's quiet comment. Finishing her stretches, she tilted her head at Onin with a smile. " So how are you feeling, Onin? Any stronger than before?"

Onin raised an arm and tried to flex. It wasn't visible, but he felt that there was a lot more in there than before. If that even means anything. " I feel stronger, yeah."

" Well, that's good to know," Gine nodded. With her body now loosen and ready, she put her hands on her hips. " Now, are you ready, Onin?"

" Huh?" Online blinked, confusion plastered on his face. " Ready for what?"

" For your training, of course," Gine giggled.

" Oh, sure… wait what?" Onin did a double take, replaying her words in his head. " But I thought Raditz… hold on… you're not…"

Gine simply smiled at him. With his assumption confirmed, Onin slacked his shoulders in disbelief. " You're training me? You… you can fight, mother?"

Gine pouted, crossing her arms with some hurt. " Oh, c'mon, even though I haven't fought in a while, I can fight. I used to be in your father's team before your brother was born, you know?"

Onin could only stare at his mother. This was yet another slap to the face in just how deep under the rock he's been living in. Gine took his silence as cue for her to continue, which she did with great mirth.

" I've got a few tricks that you might find useful for the competition," Gine winked, twirling a finger in the air, " so don't sell me out just yet, Onin."

"U-Uh, ok," Onin stuttered, shaking his stupor away. With his mother now effectively becoming his new trainer, he wasn't sure what to expect. The best he could do was just go with it. " So what's my first assignment?"

" Assignment? You make it sound like you're at work," Gine shook her head in mirth, " but no, we aren't doing any of the main exercises yet."

Gine pointed at him, more specifically at his body posture. " Right now, you're as stiff as a rock. You won't be able to do anything in that state. A body needs to be fluid in order to move properly."

"Fluid?" Onin repeated.

Gine nodded her head. " As fluid as water."

Onin looked down at his body. He didn't feel stiff. Maybe he was overlooking something. " And how do I fix that?"

" Well, for starters, how about you try to do what I was doing a few moments ago."

A bead of sweat ran down Onin's temple.

Some minutes later…

" … Alright, it seems you're ready to go," Gine said with a sense of finality.

It felt strange. Stretching is something he has never done before, well at least consciously. Right now, he had stretched muscles that he didn't even know he had, and now it left him quite… refreshed. Like Gine said, it literally felt like he was water. He felt miles more mobile than he was five minutes ago. It was like someone released the tension of a spring, with the spring being his muscles. If a quick session of stretching can do this, he might just actually start doing it all the time.

" Now that you're ready to go, there's just one more thing I need you to do," Gine said. She made a few steps back to put distance between the two, then lowered herself down into a fighting stance, wrapping her tail around her waist in the process. " I need you to come at me with all you've got."

" Huh?" Onin looked at his mother with perplexity.

" You heard me," Gine said, ushering at him with her hand, " just run at me and throw me a few attacks. I just want to gauge what you've got so far."

" I don't really have much on me, mother…" Onin said with slacked shoulders, " I've never fought someone for real before."

" Oh please, don't be like that," Gine huffed, " even a Saiyan who hasn't done an ounce of training can still be powerful. Now just give me your best and we can build from there."

Normally, the idea of even thinking of attacking his mother was far from what Onin would ever do. It was the same analogy as a group of adults using a newborn as a football… well, maybe some Saiyans were that twisted, but the point still stands. However, his mother herself is urging him to do it, and no matter how much he dislikes it, he couldn't just ignore her instructions.

Onin gulped, looking at his mother while she patiently waited for his attack. How should he do it? Does he go for a simple punch? What if he hurts her? Then maybe a kick? But where? If he hits her side, it would probably hurt her too. If he hits her at all, it will still hurt. Such a simple task yet so complicated at the same time.

Seeing her youngest son standing there dumbfounded, Gine sighed exasperatedly, forcing down a smile that was climbing up. She then narrowed her eyes. " Alright then, change of plans. Try to defend yourself, Onin."

" Wha—"

Suddenly, like an arrow let loose from the bowstring, Gine shot forwards at alarming speeds, clearing the distance between the two in mere seconds. She had moved so fast that Onin barely had time to make an awkward duck under her right hook. The air where his head used to be just moments ago was roughly disrupted by a powerful gust as her fist soared through, causing his hair to flap all over the place.

Shocked, Onin couldn't react in time as she sent a kick into his stomach, knocking the air out of his chest. But she didn't stop there, because with her foot still dug deep in his gut, she raised her leg and wheeled it around 180, throwing him across the field and sending him tumbling into the flattened earth.

Coughing, Onin managed to shake off the vertigo and sat up from his defenseless position. Once again, he was in a situation where his mind couldn't catch up with reality. Even now as he recovered from his initial shock, he still needed to prepare himself for the soaring female Saiyan heading his way. With widened eyes, Onin threw himself to the side as Gine arched her leg and slammed it onto where he had landed. Onin rolled himself up onto his feet, struggling to control his disoriented breaths and staggering legs. He gulped when he saw the indent earth where his mother's attack landed.

" Hm, not a bad dodge," Gine spoke out, grinning at Onin, " but I still have other limps to use."

With her left hand, Gine shot out a pink colored energy blast towards Onin. This time—even as he watched in awe seeing his mother use an energy attack for the first time—Onin was able to react to this attack and ducked under the blast attack. Keeping his eyes forward, he noticed two more energy blasts heading his way, in which he managed to dodge one of them. The other one hit him on the left side of his ribcage, but to his surprise it didn't feel like he took much damage. He also didn't feel much pain either.

With growing confidence, Onin cleared his mind and locked all his attention on his mother. He attempted to lower himself into a stance that was a mimic of his mother. His attempt gained a hearty laugh from Gine.

" Aw, you copying cat~" Gine swooned, causing Onin to blush faintly.

" Uh, t-thought it looked useful," Onin muttered under his breath, averting his eyes elsewhere.

" Of course it is… but one thing." Before continuing, she suddenly leaped up into the air, doing numerous front flips in the process. Without waste, she soared down towards Onin with both fists stretched out.

Whether it was due to his newly acquired battle stance or not, Onin managed to jump back just before the attack hit, causing another crater in his wake. However, flattening her palms on the ground, Gine continued her assault by beginning to spin in a tornado, sending a flurry of kicks towards Onin. Luckily, he was able to continuously step out of reach of her attack, though he lacked gracefulness behind it.

But just as he had thought he was getting the patterns of her attack, Gine's tail suddenly shot out and grabbed him by one of the legs. Momentarily immobile, Onin panicked as he was unable to back away from her quickly approaching kicks. Attempting to cross his arms in front of him, her first attack completely shattered his guard, and her second attack yet again knocked the wind out of him as Onin was met with a foot to the side. But it didn't end there, as she rounded over with a third and final kick directly to the side of his face and then to his chest, all while simultaneously letting go of him with her tail. As a result, Onin was sent soaring in the air at high speeds and crashed into the wall fence.

Onin slumped down into the ground with an 'oof', groaning as his left cheek burned like never before. Gine gracefully landed back into her feet and walked up towards her son. Looking down at his small form, she noted his face swelling up and frowned slightly with a hint of remorse.

" Just knowing one battle stance won't help you in a real battle," Gine continued from her previous speech, " you'll need to use other stances if you want a chance to defend yourself, like 0-5C for example."

" N-No kidding…" Onin said with a slurred speech, rubbing his swollen cheek.

Gine grinned at Onin and patted his head. " But no worries! From what I can see, we'll have to work on your endurance first."

" I thought I waz alrwedy duwrable."

Gine sighed and crouched down over her son. Pulling a small container from her chestplate, she carefully poured a brown liquid on his cheek and rubbed it in. Immediately, the swelling began to secede, though the pain was by no means gone.

" There's a difference between endurance and durability, Onin," Gine said, standing up, " you can be durable but lack endurance, and vice versa. You have to have a balance between the two."

" Oh…" Onin hummed, slowly and awkwardly standing up. Shaking off his third shock of the day, he took a second to contemplate her words. When he thinks about it, she does have a point; he's survived mostly because his body was durable, but it doesn't mean he had the endurance to withstand such a situation if the odds were more fair. But It's probably more simple than he's thinking.

Nodding his head with finality, Onin looked up to his mother. " So, how'd I do?"

Gine paused, giving him a small smile. " You'll need a lot to learn, Onin."

"Figured," Onin mumbled quietly, " so what do I have to do next?"

" Well, at your level, it's always best to work on what you're already good at," Gine said, " you've got some decent defense capability, so we'll work on that for now like I said."

" Ok," Onin nodded. Then he suddenly remembered something. " Also, what are the other stances you were talking about? That zero something stance or however you said it?"

Gine tilted her head. " The 0-5C stance?"

" Yeah, that. What is it?"

She gave him a look of genuine shock. "You actually don't… hm, that's concerning."

" What is?"

" …It's nothing, just… don't worry about it for now," Gine said, waving a hand dismissively, " go get some water to drink then come back outside. You'll need it."

" Ok…" Onin shrugged it off as he made his way. He was, painfully, beginning to get used to being the oblivious one in most contexts… and it irked him to no end. Perhaps it was a motivation for him to attain as much knowledge as possible.

Watching her youngest son enter their home, Gine crossed her arms with thought, muttering to herself. " I might need to purchase a new birth pod."

The following two hours were nothing different from what Raditz had made Onin undergo in the wilderness. Well, the only difference was that it was slightly less intense.

His mother made him do a series of calisthenics exercises, including hundreds of push ups, sit ups, and a variety of pull ups that he didn't even think were possible until proven otherwise. And all of them were made slightly difficult with the addition of some of his father's old weights that were found in their storage room. So, actually, it was just as difficult as Raditz's training, just executed much differently. He was at least appreciative that he didn't have to worry about his life being on the line.

With his shaking arms gripped hard on the metal pole, Onin pulled himself up with all the muscles in his arms as he pushed to complete his final set of pullups. It was noon, the brightest the sun can ever be in the day, and so the heat was amplified to its highest. It was the perfect pair to Onin's already scorching hot body, and he was suffering every moment of it.

Closing his eyes and holding his breath, Onin pushed himself hard until he eventually pulled his head over the pole and completed his final rep. And like the valves of a pipeline, Onin's muscles released their pressure all at once, and he fell unceremoniously on the ground.

Panting heavily, he attempted to shield his eyes from the bright burning ball of light that baked the planet. His ears were thumping as blood flowed in his body like a violent river, and his chest was thumping in his chest like someone was slamming a drumstick on him.

As descriptive as this sounds, Onin surprisingly didn't feel all that bad compared to his previous training with Raditz. Sure, his muscles were burning, and it was really hot, but he didn't feel as miserable as at that time.

Sitting upwards, Onin looked down at his body. He had decided to remove his chestplate an hour ago after realizing it was only going to detriment him, and so he was able to fully see the difference his body underwent. Although slightly visible, he was leaner than he was before, and he could dare say he built up muscles. But maybe that was his hallucinations right now, a clear sign he should probably go take a quick shower.

Picking up his armor, Onin left the empty backyard and made his way inside the just as empty home. In a rather counterintuitive way, his mother had left him to his training so that she could go to work, leaving him with the set of exercises to do after quickly demonstrating them. Thus, this had left him effectively all by himself with his training. It's a good thing he's an expert in following rules, though, and his practiced discipline of education had seeped into his training, making it slightly more manageable.

Entering the bathroom, Onin tossed his armor and his spandex clothes into the vertical washing machine in the corner and jumped into the tub. As he opened the cool water, he sighed with relief as his furnace-like muscles cooled down. While bathing, Onin's mind wandered in thought, more specifically about what he would do next. Normally, he would immediately jump back into rereading his huge collection of texts in his room, but his current situation encouraged him otherwise.

If he were to touch any book as of right now, time would fly by so fast the event would be on the next day. Goes to show his passion for learning… and his lackluster sense of time.

But he felt at the very least he needed it to be productive. Maybe he can run around the village. That would count both into his training and relaxation. Or maybe he can head over to the market and see what's there. Like a medical store, or a weaponry blacksmith. Or even that one new book store that opened a month ago.

"..."

Maybe a little reading wouldn't hurt.

A pair of gray metal doors slide open with mechanical crank sounds, the reddish light from the outside world pouring into the dim interiors of the bookstore. Onin stepped into the newly established Pages & Co. bookstore down at the corner of the village's main Street, his senses flooded with the scent of newly pressed paper and aged ink.

" Hmm…" Onin sniffed the air for a moment before smiling to himself, " mhm, my type of place."

Right at the side of the front doors was a small kiosk with even smaller rectangular pamphlets. Picking one up, Onin discovered that they were in fact simplified maps of the store layout, showing where each genre of literature was. Skimming through the list of genres, he settled on one called "How-To". If he was going to risk some time reading, then he was going to make it productive.

Every corner of the store was filled with books, making it an interesting journey navigating through the aisles. There was not a single book by itself, for it had at least another two volumes grouped with it. This meant there was much to read in here. Onin briefly stopped at one section, his eyes glinting with interest as he read the title of a silver book that caught his eye.

" Man… I should've come to this place sooner."

Snapping himself back on track, Onin made his way to the desired section, which was greatly smaller than the others. Each book here had a yellow cover, with the titles "How To" being printed on a black stripe on the spines of the books. The schematic felt oddly familiar to Onin, but he brushed the feeling off.

" How To Cook… no… To Sing…," Onin muttered to himself the names of the books, running a finger across the print, " To Clean… To Eat?"

After a couple of seconds of skimming through the odd titles, Onin's face lit up as he found the book of interest. " There! How To Fight!"

Wasting no time, Onin quickly pulled the book out of its place and opened it to a random page, just to get a general glimpse on what was inside. However, he was met with large bodies of text and images that were not about fighting at all. They were, in fact, quite the opposite.

" Huh?" Confused, Onin closed the book and looked at the front cover. His face fell when he read the full name of the book. " How To Fight Sickness…?"

Sighing, Onin placed the book back into the shelf. It looked like he had wasted some time, but it wasn't too much. From what he can see, it was better he talked to the owner instead of wandering around aimlessly. At the far back of the store was where he had seen the front desk when he first entered. With that in mind, Onin walked up to the brown desk and pressed the golden bell resting on the counter.

From the beaded curtains blocking a corridor behind the desk came stumbling the owner of the store. He was a silver alien, same description to the previous seller of most of Onin's books. The only difference, though, was that this merchant was much shorter and much wider. He wore what Onin could only describe as a leathery jacket and an extremely stretched out hand-sewn tunic. He also had a big bushy mustache.

" What the hell do you want! I don't have time for you Saiyan's tomfoolery," the store owner shouted, his eyes glued to the notepad which he was continuously writing on. Onin kept quiet, scratching his cheek as he decided to wait for the alien to finish. The moment he finished writing whatever he was writing, the store owner looked up, his eyes slightly widening when he noticed Onin. " Ah… new customer."

" Uh, hello," Onin waved awkwardly, unsure of the alien's words. He decided to ignore them. " I'm looking for a book about fighting."

" Fighting? Pshh," The store owner snorted, rolling his eyes. He pointed towards a particular section to Onin's right side. " The comic books are over there, kid."

Onin shook his head. " No, I don't mean that. I mean a book on fighting techniques."

The store owner didn't budge, still pointing towards the comic books. " Like I said, over there."

Onin frowned with frustration. " C'mon, I just said—"

" I know what you said, kid," the store owner rudely cut off, " those are the closest I've got for fighting."

" What…" Onin blinked in confusion. When the store owner nodded, Onin pressed his lips together. " Don't you have at least some document… or a scroll… anything…?"

The more he asked, the more the store owner deadpanned, clearly showing Onin his answer. Coming to a defeat, Onin slacked his shoulders with a sigh. " Well that sucks…"

" Your problem," the store owner grunted, turning around to make his way back to the backroom, " you Saiyans should know not everyone thinks about senseless bloodshed…"

" Wait!" Onin stretched an arm out in protest. The store owner glanced back at him with annoyance as Onin tried to think up something else that he could get. Thankfully, he managed to find some alternative words to use. " What about a book on self-defense? You should at least have that, right?"

" And why do you think I have such a book?" the store owner asked with a curled brow.

" Well… you need a way to defend yourself, especially on our planet," Onin explained, trying to find the best reasoning, " so it's bound that you should have something like that. Unless you're, uh, asking for a… death wish… or something."

The store owner suddenly barked out loud in a raspy laughter. Onin stood there awkwardly as the alien continued to laugh, going so far as to remove his glasses to wipe tears off his eyes. " Was that supposed to be some sort of threat, kid?"

"N-No, I was just telling the truth!" Onin said, furrowing his brows in frustration. " You have it, right? I'm sure you do!"

" Maybe I do, maybe I don't," the store owner sighed, returning to the front desk and leaning over at Onin, " but why should a Saiyan need a book about self-defense?"

Onin nervously leaned back from the suddenly close proximity. " Well, I kinda need it."

The store owner stared at Onin for a moment before leaning back and humming. " A Saiyan that needs a book on self-defense…"

" Y-Yeah, I really need it."

" The same race that regularly does planetary genocide."

"... I mean…"

The store owner scoffed. " Bullshit."

" W-What?!" Onin stuttered at the accusation. His anger was quickly swelling up to an all time high. He actually doesn't remember the last time he was ever this annoyed. " How many times do I have to tell you I'm being serious here!? I need it!"

" Need it for what? I can't see any reason why you'd need one," the store owner bit back, crossing his arms, " I call bullshit when I see it."

" I need it for the Hounding Race, dammit!" Onin shouted back in an uncharacteristic tone. Quickly noticing himself, his facial expression softened to a slightly embarrassed blush. He coughed a quiet sorry into his fist, averting his gaze.

The store owner hummed, brushing his mustache with his fingers. " The Hounding Race, you say? I see…" The owner kept quiet for a moment before genuinely scratching his bald head in confusion. " You're still pulling my leg here kid. It doesn't explain why you need it."

Onin's mouth twitched, but he refrained from yelling. Taking a deep breath, he collected his words to make his message clear. That is, he lowered his gaze to the ground and mumbled quietly. " I, uh, don't know how to fight…"

" Hm? What was that?"

" I said… I-I don't know how to fight," Onin repeated loudly, " I've, uh, actually never gotten into a real fight before…"

The store owner fell quiet once again before shaking his head to himself. " Damn."

"Huh?" Onin looked up to him in confusion.

" Nothing… you stay here," the store owner then left to the back for a few moments before returning. Onin jumped as a brown book was slammed onto the front desk. " Here, the renowned book on self defense that you've been whining about."

Onin's eyes lit up. " Wait, really?!"

" No shit kid," the store owner snorted, a faint smile etched on his face, " you know, now that I remember… I've seen you before. You were one of my brother's customers."

" Brother?" Onin curled a brow at the owner before his face lit up. " Oh, that other silver alien guy! He's your brother?"

" Mhm, that's him."

" Cool…" Onin hummed solemnly before also remembering a crucial factor about the so-called brother of this store owner. " Hey! Your brother, he scammed me!"

" Yeah yeah, he does that a lot," the store owner chuckled, waving it off dismissively, " he's not as lenient on Saiyans as I am."

" That's not fair, I—"

" Shut up, I wasn't done talking," the owner gruffed, picking at his ear. Onin reluctantly held his mouth, though his discomfort was still present. " So… as I was saying, you aren't like the other brats. Not even because I saw you before, but because of the way you even talk. It makes sense why you've never fought before… you don't even act like a Saiyan."

" Uh, ok…" Onin said, unsure of how to respond to that. It felt like an insult.

" Well, at the very least I know you know how to handle books," the owner sighed, shaking his head, " so I'll lend it to you. I've seen the Hounding Race and, trust me, it's brutal… you really might need it."

Onin's ears perked up attentively. " You've seen it? What's it like?"

" Pshh, I'm no seller of knowledge, kid," the store owner snorted.

Onin pouted in disappointment but didn't push any further. At least he got what he was looking for, and now it could give him a bigger step forward in his preparation. However, just when he was about to reach for the book, his hand was swatted away.

" Ah ah ah, pay up," the store owner said, ushering his hand for money.

Onin quickly checked his pockets, but a sweat drop ran down his face when he came out empty handed. " I, uh, don't have money…"

" Then the book is off the table."

" Wait," Onin cut off quickly. He really didn't want to make this all an actual waste of time. " Can't you just, I don't know, put it on my tab or something?"

" Do you even know what that is?"

" Yes, and I'll promise to repay it!"

The store owner stared at Onin for a moment before sighing exasperatedly. " Fine… I'll keep you to your words."

" Awesome!" Onin gratefully took the book and read the embossed cover title. It read The Guide to A Prolonged Life, which this book was apparently the twelfth edition of this series. Onin gave the owner a thankful smile. " Thank you, sir! I'll return it when I'm done."

" Whatever," the store owner shrugged, waving his hand at Onin, " now get out, your stinking up my store."

" Bye!" With everything set, Onin made his way out of the store like the breeze.

The store owner watched as the front doors slowly shut. He hummed to himself with thought. "...was that the fake one…? Nah, that kid is too nice to deserve that…"

"...in the situation where you're faced with any kick-like attack, you'll want to lower your center of gravity in order to reduce the risks of fatal injury as well as potentially deflecting the attack…"

Standing up from the desk where the book laid and taking a step back, Onin imagined his opponent before him, which conveniently morphed into the broad form of Heele. Shaking off the shiver that ran down his spine, Onin imagined Heele sending a roundhouse kick directly for his head. Lowering his stance, he managed to duck under the attack. However, his opponent suddenly morphed into the image of his mother, who then began doing a series of kicks as she had done previously.

Raising both arms, Onin pretended to deflect each attack, his stance completely unmoved. Eventually, though, he sighed in disappointment, standing up normally.

" Yeah, that's unrealistic," Onin muttered to himself. He went back to the book and flipped through the pages, looking for some text that would give him some generally good defensive technique to use. But most of them looked about similar to what he had tried before, if not completely identical. Some were even outright weird.

But then he found one page near the very end. It was a small section, just underneath the review on defending against slaps to the face, and so anyone could've missed it. Fortunately, Onin didn't, and as he read through the section, his eyes widened at the information being given.

"... as a generally good tool to have, to which can greatly reduce the risk of you being in any of the previously mentioned situations, one should learn the arts of spiritual sensing. Rather, instead of sensing for the body, sense for the spirit, for only a very selective few can mask their spirit…"

"... What?" Onin asked himself, scratching the back of his head. He reread the section many times over, and when it still made no sense, he turned the page to continue, only to find a new section about defending against wet willies.

Sighing in defeat, Onin closed the book and placed it at the side of his desk, leaning back on his chair with thought. Maybe he wasn't seeing the full picture. Maybe he just needed a clearer head. It was late anyway, and he needed to wake up as early as possible.

With a nod to himself, Onin turned off his desk lamp and crashed onto his bed, sleep quickly taking over his tired body.

Author Note

Wow, almost 1 year anniversary for this story and I've made ZERO progress! That genuinely sucks, and I can't even blame procrastination for that. I'm going to have to simplify my method of writing or try to remove that habit of worrying about the little things. I've got MUCH more to write, and this is barely scratching the surface of what I have for this story.

But enough about that. I'd like to thank you for reading this till the end. I decided to shift from Raditz to Gine since it felt rather too convenient for Raditz to stay throughout all of Onin's training. Plus, I get to build more lore for Gine :). Next chapter is going to be a timeskip since I don't feel like it's efficient to write down every single day of Onin's training. So, expect actual answers about the whole Hounding Race thing, because I'm aware of how vague it is.

Once again, thank you for reading. Also please point out any grammar errors or anything, I'd really appreciate it. Peace!