The God of Martial Arts?!
Suno quietly sighed as Goku disappeared from view. Everything had been happening at such a dizzyingly fast pace that she was afraid she'd miss everything if she so much as blinked. She now had time to stop and gather herself but that only made her realize that she kinda didn't want to. Back in Jingle Village, she had all the time in the world to contemplate things and not much ever really happened even after the Red Ribbon Army took over. Ever since Goku arrived, things had been happening non-stop and she found that very much enjoyed it. Even that door incident with Bulma had been more fun than she could ever recall having.
This realization, however, did not help her much since she wasn't quite sure what to do next. She couldn't just sit around and do nothing for however long Goku was going to take. Upa seemed nice enough but, given how she was indirectly responsible for the death of the boy's father, she didn't feel comfortable with making small talk. While she understood what he was going through all too well, that was all the more reason for her to give him some space. The pity the villagers showed her just made it hurt worse.
Suno crossed her arms and hummed as she stared up at Korin's Tower. Since Goku was training then she should, too. The gap between her and Goku was already large and she didn't want it to get any larger if she could help it. Not that she really could do anything about it, given the circumstances, but she could make the gap not be as large as it normally would. Between the fight against the android back in the volcano and what just happened with Tao Pai Pai, she clearly understood that Goku wasn't as invincible as she initially appeared. Goku needed her friends for those rare moments when she got in over her head and Suno had every intention to be there for Goku whenever she needed help. She would never be as strong as Goku, that much she knew and fully accepted, but she would make sure to be as strong as she possibly could.
The problem now was what kind of training she could do. Physical training probably wouldn't do much right now since the most she could do was basic exercises like pushups, pullups, and situps. She would probably end up doing those things as well but she needed something else. Some kind of trump card she could use to at least surprise her enemy and give Goku an opening. With an idea in mind, Suno began her training.
OoOoOoO
Finally Goku knew she had come to the top of the tower. She looked up at a huge domed platform that shielded her from the sun and sighed with relief. She'd done it! With aching fingertips, she gripped one of the holes in the bottom of the platform and pulled herself inside. She took a moment to sit in the room and rest before she did anything else. She rubbed her arms and legs to take the soreness out of her muscles before she got back up and started to walk around the room. Maybe the power to get stronger was somewhere around all this junk?
"Hello?" she called out as she looked around. She wasn't sure who she expected to answer. Bora hadn't mentioned anyone else being at the tower but she didn't like the idea of being alone all of the sudden. It was kind of funny. She'd been alone for a long time after Grandpa Gohan had died and she'd been fine. After that, though, she'd always been with Bulma and Yamcha or Krillin and Roshi and Launch or now with Suno. She'd gotten used to having people around her. "Hello?" she called again.
Goku came to three pots by the windowsill and, not sure what else to do, opened the first one. The contents of the pot looked like water that was dark and cool. When Goku looked deeper into it, though, her reflection shimmered on the surface and changed into… something else. First it was her Grandpa. Then it was the weird blue guy and his two friends. Then it was that girl with the blade in her hat. Chi-Chi? Then it was just her reflection again. Goku closed the pot and moved to the next one. She stared at her reflection until it changed, too. It was Bulma, and then it was Krillin, and then it was Suno. Goku closed it and moved to the final pot. This was the strangest of all. She didn't recognize any of the people in this pot. The first was a big, bald man with three eyes and a mean look on his face. Then it was a green man in a blue gi who was even bigger and looked even meaner. The last man was shorter than the other two and wore funny armor and he had big hair. However, he looked the cruelest of them all.
"Hey!" called a voice. It was so sudden that it shocked Goku out of her thoughts and made her drop the lid back onto the water pot. "Come up here! There's a staircase through that door!" Goku found the only door in the room and opened it. The wind whipped her hair as she climbed the stairs to find another section of the tower. There were no walls on the top half, only pillars holding up the roof. Standing in the center of the room… was a cat. Not a cat person, just a white cat. Standing on his back legs and holding a staff. It was an old and gnarled piece of wood that was twice as tall as the cat was and the top was like the head of a hammer. "I'm impressed that you got up here so fast for someone so small," he said. Goku furrowed her brow indignantly.
"You're smaller than me!" Goku pointed out. "Anyway, I don't have time to talk to cats. I climbed all the way up here, I need the power up! Where's the master here? Is there one?" The cat chuckled and stroked his whiskers.
"That would be me," he explained. "I am Korin and this is my tower. You knew a Turtle Hermit on the ground so I suppose that makes me a cat hermit!" he laughed again and Goku's eyebrows shot up.
"How the heck do you know that I–" before she could finish speaking the cat, Korin apparently, whirled around the staff and pushed the end of it to her lips.
"Hush," he insisted, "And let me think." Goku's eyes travelled to a jar of water on a raised stand behind Korin. "Ah, I see. You wish to collect the seven Dragon Balls. You don't know what you might do with them but you know that this 'Red Ribbon Army' cannot have them. You think that you might use them to restore the lives that the Army has taken. To do all of this, though, you need to be strong enough to defeat a man named Tao Pai Pai. So you have climbed this tower in search of the power that was promised." Goku blinked as her eyes grew ever wider. Could this cat read her mind?! "The powers and sights of the gods are many, child," Korin said as he moved the staff from her mouth and answered her question. "For I am the God of Martial Arts!" Korin stepped aside and Goku walked towards the stand. "Your intentions are pure," Korin said, "Yet, all the same, I wonder if you can drink the water."
"Why," Goku asked with the jar in fingertip's reach. "Is it nasty?" Korin chuckled again and suddenly the thin half of the head of his staff was at Goku's throat.
"No," Korin said as he yanked her to the ground, "Because I intend to stop you!" Goku groaned and rolled angrily to her feet as she rubbed the back of her head.
"What the heck!" she snapped at him and balled her fists. "If my intentions are good then why are you stopping me? Are you a bad guy or something?" Korin only shook his head.
"You need to stop me from stopping you," he said as if it made so much sense. It didn't make any sense to Goku. Why couldn't he just let her have the water?! Goku jumped into the air but Korin used the staff like a pole vault and met her in the air with a kick. His fur-covered foot felt like steel as it smashed into her jaw and sent her sprawling. Goku got to her feet in a huff but forced herself to be calm. This guy was strong and fast and had to be a great martial artist. She needed to be smart. She needed to be clever.
"Hey, what's that?!" she blurted out suddenly and pointed behind Korin. He spun around to look and Goku sprinted for the jar. He was so stupid! She was so smart. Bulma would be proud of how clever she– and that was as far as she got before the fat end of his staff smacked her in the back of the head and she hit the ground again. Korin clucked his tongue.
"You'll need to do better than that," he chided. When she got up, she saw that he had put the thin half of the top of his staff through the loop of the jar and was shaking it at her. He was making fun of her! Goku growled and lunged at him and he backed away and she chased him all around the room. Finally Goku fell to the floor again, gasping and sweaty. She groaned as her hands travelled to her gurgling stomach. "You're not acting or thinking, girl. You're just reacting. You'll never win like that."
"I'm hungry!" she cried. She rolled over and sat up and frowned at the cat hermit. "If I was full, I'd kick your butt!" Korin seemed to find that amusing, then shrugged and tossed her… a bean? Goku scowled and held the tiny bean in her fist. "Is this supposed to be funny?" she asked angrily. How was one bean supposed to help her?
"It's not a joke," he told her. "It's a senzu. One bean can keep you full for ten days!" Goku scowled and Korin shrugged. "Would a god lie?" When she still did not eat he added, "Have I lied yet?" Goku grumbled and shoved the tiny bean into her mouth. As soon as she swallowed it she felt much better!
"Now I'll get you!" she crowed confidently as she lunged at him with a burst of speed. No one could stop her when she was full!
OoOoOoO
The Kamehameha. The Turtle Destruction Wave. The ultimate technique of the Turtle Style martial art. Its destructive power is legendary, thought by most to be unrivaled, and the nature of the technique is shrouded in mystery. This was the very technique that Suno sought to learn during her training. Goku had performed it after just seeing it once and Krillin performed it without either Goku or Master Roshi telling him how it was done. That was where her advantaged lied. Although Goku's explanation had been vague, it was more than Krillin had.
Of course, even with that advantage, Suno had made no real progress despite trying to perform it for the remainder of the day and even well into the night. No matter how much she thought or what she tried, she just couldn't get anything like what Goku described. She had honestly started to feel more than a little silly just standing there and concentrating while occasionally screaming "Kamehameha" even if no one was around so she had taken to doing regular exercises between sessions. Eventually, well into the second day, Suno had finally gotten fed up with it. She hadn't given up, not quite anyway, but seeing only redoubled frustration had taken its toll on her willpower.
Suno walked up to the base of Korin's Tower and looked up. Goku had surely reached the top by now and was probably training with the master or going through some test to drink the Holy Water or something. Whatever she was doing, Goku was undoubtedly having far more success than she was. She sighed and was about to go work on her forms when something caught her eye. At first, she thought it was Goku but the shape and color were all wrong. It looked like some kind of cloth bag as it got closer. When it crashed into the ground, she finally recognized it as the bag that Goku had put the Four Star Ball in before climbing up. Wondering what that was doing down here, she was about to pick it when when, all of a sudden, there was a Goku in front of her.
"Hu- Wha- Goku, wha-"
"HiSuno! Notfinishedwithmytraining! ByeSuno!" Goku grabbed the Dragon Ball and disappeared just as quickly as she had appeared. Suno just stared up into the clouds where Goku had gone, completely dumbfounded, when another voice made her nearly jump out of her skin.
"So Goku's training? I guess the legends were true." Suno whirled around to see Upa walking up to her. "I've seen you doing a lot of weird stuff around here. Are you training, too?"
"Y-yeah," Suno admitted, blushing slightly due to having been seen. "I've been trying to learn the Kamehameha but I have no idea what Goku meant when she said how to do it."
"The Kamehameha? You mean that blue thing that came out of Goku's hands?"
"Yeah, that's it."
"How did Goku say to do it?"
"Well, she didn't really say how to do it since she wasn't really sure. She just said what it felt like. She said it feels like there's something in her whole body and she pushes it towards her hands."
Upa hummed in thought and repeated those words. "Maybe Goku was talking about her life energy."
"Life energy? What's that?"
"Well… It's something my dad explained to me a while ago. Everything that's alive has power inside it. That power flows through the world and it's what connects every living thing together. Dad said being in harmony with this power is the key to true strength."
"Hm… I think my master talked about something like that before. Do you mean ki?"
"If that's what you want to call it, yeah."
"Master never really taught me a lot about it but I think learning how to feel that energy is what most of my training was about. Do you know how to 'be in harmony' with it?"
"Yeah, my dad taught how to meditate so that I could be one with nature."
"Do- Would you mind teaching me how to do that?"
Upa stared at her for a long moment. He inhaled deeply and sighed before smiling at her. "Well, I don't know much about it myself but I think my dad would want me to help out anyway I can. Besides, you're going to get revenge on that guy who killed him, right?" Suno nodded. "Then I'll teach you how to meditate. Follow me."
OoOoOoO
As it turned out, Korin could stop her when she was full. Goku had been much faster than when she'd been trying to take the water before but was still no closer to actually getting it.
"You're faster," Korin admitted when she'd stopped to catch her breath, "But you're still not listening. You're too busy reacting." He gave a shrug and a shake of his head as if he were disappointed in her. "Still, don't feel too bad. Only one other person has taken this water from me and that was almost three hundred years ago." Goku gasped.
"So how old are you?" she asked.
"I'm eight hundred years old, give or take a week." Goku got that starry look in her eyes again which made Korin chuckle. "You might know the man who took the pot from me. It was your own master, Muten Roshi." Goku gasped again.
"Wow," she cried in astonishment. "Master Roshi's super old!" Korin sighed and slowly let his face sink into his paw. That was not the point he'd been trying to make. "So how long did it take him to take the water from you?" Korin held up three fingers and Goku was stunned. "Three minutes?!" she asked. She had known the old master was amazing, but she didn't know he was that–
"No," Korin told her, "Three years." It was like all the air had been punched right out of Goku. Three years?!
"I don't have three years!" Goku declared before charging at Korin again. She had to get serious! She pushed herself as hard as she could and suddenly the room was full of Goku's afterimages. Korin looked unimpressed as he swung his staff to strike at a Goku but it dissolved. "Got you!" Goku shouted triumphantly as she dove down at Korin… but he dissolved and she smashed into the floor.
"Not bad," Korin said as Goku pulled herself back to her feet, "However, you'll never be able to use the afterimage technique to defeat me. After all, I invented it." Goku was gasping for breath as she scowled at Korin and tried to come up with a plan.
"How… can I already… be out of breath?" she asked between breaths. She'd been moving fast, yeah, but she almost never got tired.
"The air is much thinner up here," Korin explained with a smile. "You probably don't even know how strong you've gotten, do you?" He was suddenly holding Goku's Dragon Ball and tossed it casually over a shoulder and over the edge of the platform.
"Hey!" Goku shouted as she sprinted past Korin. She couldn't let the last ball get away from her! What if the Red Ribbon Army got their hands on it? When Goku reached the tower again with the Dragon Ball bag in her hand she was furious. "What's the big idea?!" Korin just laughed.
"Don't you get it?" he asked. "It took you a whole day just to climb up the tower last time. Today, a round trip took you three hours." Goku blinked as realization hit her. She wondered how much stronger she'd get once she actually drank the water. Goku gave chase to Korin again and they kept up the game until the sun went down. Goku waited until she thought Korin had fallen asleep and for a moment she was tempted to take the jar right there.
"No," she whispered to herself as she rolled away from him. "I'm going to get it fair and square!" She curled up and let herself drift off to sleep. Korin was not asleep but he was pleased. She was more honest than her master, it seemed.
Another day came and went without Goku catching the jar. On the third day, however, Goku promised herself that this time she was going to take the jar. She was faster and stronger. She could feel it. She disappeared into a trio of afterimages and Korin shook his head.
"I told you," he said as he swiped his staff through all three afterimages, "You'll never be able to–" Goku tackled him suddenly from the side and, of all offensive maneuvers, Goku started to tickle him! Korin was reduced to peals of helpless laughter and the staff went flying from his hand and off the platform. Goku jumped out after it and grabbed the staff.
"Nimbus!" she called and her faithful magical cloud swooped up under her and carried her back up to Korin's Tower. Goku laughed and held the staff triumphantly overhead. Korin nodded in a state of awe. She beat him with the afterimage technique. Goku hopped off the cloud and back into the tower room. She handed the staff back to Korin but kept the jar and pulled out the stopper. She tilted her head back and chugged down the whole jar. It was sweet and cold and… and she didn't feel any different.
"The jar is full of plain old rainwater," Korin admitted. "The actual strength comes from climbing the tower and getting the water from me." For half a second, Goku was angry. Then she giggled and grabbed Korin in a hug. The God of Martial Arts was… flustered.
"Thank you so much, Korin!" she called before jumping back onto Nimbus and flying away. Korin nodded proudly as he watched her vanish. She had surpassed her master, all right.
OoOoOoO
Tao Pai Pai tugged at the cuffs of his new shirt and admired the handiwork. The man had done a good job. He almost regretted killing the tailor. It wasn't his fault, of course. The man'd had the gall to ask for pay. Honestly, the nerve of it. Tao walked back to his pillar and tossed it towards the sky. Time to wrap up this business once and for all.