Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Hybrid ❯ Learning ( Chapter 3 )

 

I followed closely behind Takeru as he talked about Sensei Akeno and the temple. I looked down at the gi I was wearing, dark blue with a black emblem in the middle, along with a black belt. The sleeves came down to the middle of my palm, but I didn't care. Even if I did, I wasn't in a position to complain.

 

“Sensei has taught me since I was about your age,” Takeru stated, looking back at me. “You look like you're about ten or so, right?”

 

I nodded quickly, but cursed inwardly. More questions that I did not know the answer to.

 

“Anyways, We train every day here. Sparring, practicing with weapons, meditation, you name it. Sensei's intense about being disciplined. We do work in the mornings—chopping firewood, gathering food out in the field, and anything else that needs to be done. We're all up at 6 AM sharp. Got it?”

 

Looking around, I notice a number of students around, some females, but mainly males. Some give me small smiles when I pass, while others just stare at me. I was so caught up in the surroundings that I almost bumped into Takeru. Catching myself at the last second, I notice that he's stopped in front of a door.

 

“Hey kid, did you hear me?”

 

I manage out a low “Yes.”

 

“Good,” he says, opening the door and letting me into the room. “This is my room, but you can sleep here with me for the night. You get some rest, and I'll wake you up in the morning, ok?” He gave me a few blankets and a pillow to sleep on before he turned to leave again. As he passed me to do so, he stopped in his tracks, a shocked expression on his face.

 

“Kid…….what happened to that gash on your head?” He grabbed my hands quickly, looking at the palms. “And the cuts on your hands? They're……gone!”

 

I rubbed the side of my head in disbelief, then touched each of my hands with the other. They couldn't have healed already, could they?

 

“I….they must've already healed,” came my matter-of-fact response. I looked at him quizzically, just as surprised as he.

 

“But how?”

 

“I-I'm..not sure,” I said as he turned around to leave again, still stunned by my recovery.

 

“I'm going back out to do some meditating. I'll be back in a while. Just…get some sleep,” Takeru said, his eyes wide as he closed the door behind him. After he left, I looked down at my hands, wondering how they'd healed so fast. His sword had cut me deeply, but I hadn't even paid attention to the pain afterwards. Had they healed before we even got back to the temple?

 

I laid out the blankets and placed the pillows on top of them, laying on the floor and trying to get to sleep. However, the questions of how I'd healed kept swirling in my head, bothering me, keeping me from rest. Grunting in frustration, I finally sat up and scanned the room for something sharp. I was going to give myself a test. My head turned about the room until I found something that suited me; next to Takeru's own set of blankets was a small knife, the long blade already extended. I grabbed it quickly while I sat cross legged on the floor. Looking down at it, I raised the blade to my arm and quickly brought the sharp edge down against my skin, cutting a long wound deep into it. I hissed in pain, biting my lip as I finished. I watched as the blood poured from the cut, covering the blade and running down my arm. I continued studying the cut intently, waiting for some sign of change; after a minute or so, I gasped, watching as the wound began to close. The blood that had welled up had already begun to clot, and the cut itself grew smaller and smaller after about a minute or so, the gash was gone completely. I marveled at what had just occurred, looking up and down at my arm; my recovery was almost instantaneous. Could I even be injured for long periods if I healed like this? I shook my head, smiling as I wiped the blood from the blade with my shirt. After doing so, I set it back near Takeru's blankets and laid my head down to sleep.

 

“Hey kid, wake up! We've got work to do!” My eyes snapped open, unsure of what was happening at first, but soon relaxing when I saw Takeru's face. I rose from the twisted mass of pillows and sheets to face him. “Are you ready?” he asked, eyeing me intently as I gave my nod of affirmation.

 

He smiled in return. “Good. Now, hurry! Follow me!” he ordered, turning and running out of the room and down one of the long hallways that led back outside. I followed suit, fast on his heels as he headed out of the village and towards the field where I'd first encountered him. While running, I caught a few glances at the temple, noticing a few things that I hadn't the day before. The stone path that led to the main entrance was long, but straight; at the end of it, two stone statues faced each other from opposite sides of the path. To the left of the temple burned a huge fire, and to the right was a spacious open area covered in smooth stone. Quickly looking ahead of me again, I noticed Takeru turn left toward the field; following him, both of us made headway through the tall grass before stopping. I stopped beside him, looking out and noticing a large lake before us. Several of the other students were hauling fish out of the lake. Some of the fish were smaller, but most of them were particularly large, about twice, maybe three times, my size. For those, two or three students carried them, hauling them with ropes they'd tied around the fish. I scratched my head as I watched. Sure, the things were large in size, but they didn't seem that heavy. I turned to Takeru, my eyes narrowed in puzzlement.

 

“Why's it taking so many of them to carry those fish?”

 

He looked at me and laughed. “Good one.”

 

“One what?”

 

His eyes widened in surprise. “You're serious?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Those things are huge! Why wouldn't it take more than one person to pull them back? The only person who can is Sensei!”

 

I shrugged my shoulders. “Doesn't seem that heavy to me, is all.”

 

“How about you try and do it, then,” the young boy challenged, pointing his finger at me for emphasis.

 

I shrugged again and walked away from him, heading toward the three students nearest me. I studied them quickly; all of them were young boys, a little older than me, but not by much. All of them looked tired as their breaths came deep and harsh. One boy pulled from the front, while the other two were pulling ropes from each side of the fish. I stopped in the front boy's path.

 

“What do you want?” he asked impatiently.

 

“To carry the fish. You look tired,” came my short response. I feigned concern in order to keep from asking why it took so many boys to carry a fish.

 

“Sure. Have at it,” he said, relieved as he eagerly dropped the rope and ran over to Takeru. I watched as he leaned over and whispered something to Takeru, asking who I was and why I'd taken the rope from him. Takeru leaned back and whispered his response, saying that I wanted to carry it alone. I smirked at him as I listened, walking towards the water with the rope still in my hand. Looking down, I saw a reflection of myself for the first time; Frieza's work to make me stronger had shown, as I took note of my broad shoulders and the way my arms and legs looked in my gi. The thing I noticed most though was my hair, as spikes of out extended in almost every direction. It would be next to impossible to contain without cutting it. The color of it intrigued me, too: black tinged with red. My thoughts were interrupted as I heard the laughter of the boy standing by Takeru. He raised his hands to the other boys.

 

“Stop and come over here, now!” he ordered them. “He's going to carry that by himself!”

 

I looked back at them as they laid down their ends and ran over to where the two were standing. Their eyes were fixed on me as they smiled and chuckled softly. “There's no way he's doing that by himself. You sure he wasn't putting you guys on?” one of them said.

 

I shook my head and picked up the rope, putting it over my shoulder as I began to walk forward with the fish. I was right; the damn thing didn't feel heavy at all. In fact, it felt….light. I walked effortlessly with the fish in tow, moving past the boys and back towards the village. I glanced back at them to see how they were reacting; saying that they were shocked would be an understatement, I think. They ran behind me, silent at first before Takeru got the courage to speak up.

 

“H-H-How'd you do that?” he managed to ask.

 

“Do what?” I asked, hauling the fish behind me and near the door of the temple.

 

“What do you think I mean? How'd you carry the fish?!” He exclaimed, pointing me towards a large fire to the left of the temple. I turned, still pulling, before swinging the rope and throwing the fish atop the bright orange flames.

 

“It's not that heavy?” I responded, shrugging and walking back towards the field to grab more fish.

 

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The rest of the morning went about the same, with me hauling fish out of the lake while Takeru and damn near every student from the temple gawking. After the first two or three trips, though, everything died down and people got back to work. Each of the fish was thrown on the big fire and cooked for all of the students to eat; I wasn't sure exactly how to do so, though, so I looked around for a few seconds, watching the others before mimicking their movements. After I was finished, an entire fish carcass—bones picked clean and all—lay in front of me. That undoubtedly got me more surprised gazes. After eating, we all spread out in the field again, this time to gather wood for both the fire we used to cook as well as the several smaller ones throughout the temple. After that, everyone ran back to the temple for training; not knowing what to do, I found Takeru again and stopped to ask him.

 

“Everyone splits into pairs to practice their sword work first. Then, we practice our hand to hand skills; Sensei usually comes around to give us tips while we work. When we're done, some of the students usually challenge the others for fun. That's how it is for today, anyway. Tomorrow's different.”

 

“How?”

 

He flashed a smile, “You'll see,” came his short response.

 

I shook my head slowly, turning as Takeru walked us to a place with enough room for us to practice. He reached behind his back, withdrawing his sword and pointing it at me. “You ready?” he asked, his lips curling to form a smirk.

 

I looked at him for second before reaching behind me, only to come up with nothing. I'd forgotten to get a sword.

 

“No worries, child. Use mine,” boomed a deep voice. I turned, looking at Sensei Akeno holding out a sword for me to use. I slowly reached for it, my hands curling around the handle.

 

“Thank you,” I told him before facing Takeru again. The Sensei nodded, watching us as we began.

 

Takeru made the first move, lunging forward with the sword; I blocked his initial attack, forcing him on his heels. I advanced on him, taking advantage of the small opening and swinging the blade towards his neck. Takeru moved his sword upward to block just in time, his arms raised in an attempt to force me backwards with all his weight. I saw his mistake as he made it, kicking him hard in the abdomen and onto the ground. He looked up, teeth grit hard as he quickly rose and charged. His swings came faster this time, forcing me to keep up with him; I moved my head to avoid an upward swing of the blade, which missed my face by mere inches. I looked for an opening to counter and put him back on the defensive, but none came as he continued to press me. Finally, I made a mistake of my own as I dodged another slash, this one aimed for my face. Bringing my sword up to defend, he swung his against the handle of mine, sending it flying a few feet away. He stopped his offensive, putting the blade gently against my chin. And so it went for the duration of our practices that day, with each of us scoring wins over the other, but with neither of us able to gain a clear upper hand. We were essentially equals when it was all said and done. After they were over, we watched a few of the others as they challenged one another; as each pair faced off, the rest of us gathered in a circle to watch them. Some commented to each other as the fight went on, while other simply watched silently. I watched each fight intently, looking at each student's moves and comparing them against my own; I noticed that none of the fights were one-sided, that each of the fighters seemed to be even matches for one another.

 

After a few of the matches, it began to grow dark; as the moon rose overhead, Sensei called everyone in, ending the day. As I prepared to walk back with Takeru, a strong hand on my shoulder stopped me.

 

“You did well today, child,” came the Sensei's words. He reached his hand out for his sword, and I handed it back to him. “Takeru is one of my better students. He has trained for a few years and will continue to improve his technique. You did an admirable job of taking advantage of his mistakes.”

 

His compliment flattered me, not because I had impressed him, but because I had—in part, at least—been able to avenge my humiliation at Takeru's hands the day before.

 

“Now, my son, we have much to discuss.”