Just Your Average Saiyan Warrior

[March] 14th

Age: 732

The world I awoke to was not as clear as the one I was in before falling into unconsciousness, it was a kaleidoscope of pain and discomfort keeping me from understanding my situation.

I slowly pieced my memories back together with surprising ease despite the pain and soon all pain felt minuscule compared to the overwhelming shame I felt.

"lost... I fucking LOST, to some... Some fucking lizards!?" My shame redoubled as I felt the sting of tears begin to build around my eyes and with some effort I wiped them and began to take stock of my surroundings,

I was... back home? Well, I guess that makes sense, if I wasn't dead someone must've dragged me out of the gorge for my protection. I struggled to my feet and took stock of myself next. To put it bluntly, I was fucked. I could barely move the way I wanted and was wrapped like a mummy in bandages made of Vegetan plant fibers, I could also feel a strange salve beneath the bandages that seemed to keep my wounds together.

After a while, I heard footsteps at the entrance of the room, as my vision moved towards the source I spotted the elderly figure of Toto standing, casually within the door frame. "You woke up earlier than expected... honestly I expected you to die despite the work done by Arti." He cocked his head to the side, "You've got the tenacity of Oozaru..." A brief pause began to take root within the conversation before his face split into a wide monkey-esque grin. "Shame it matches your stupidity, BAHAHAHA!" Any semblance of seriousness I expected from this conversation shattered like glass beneath a hydraulic press. A headache suddenly came about completely removed from my current condition.

"Shut up already! Quit laughing! I know I lost so stop laughing, you dust old ape!" Despite my words, the old man just kept laughing, "BAHAHAHAHAA, Man you sure thought you'd be able to handle some damn lizards Huh?!" Ah man, that was great to watch kid, thanks for that." His expression quickly returned to something resembling seriousness, though I noticed a slight smirk on the old man's face which irked me slightly. "To put things in a more serious tone though boy, you nearly died."

"Don't try to get all serious after busting a gut at my expense you jerk!" Seeing him switch from his former mocking demeanor weirdly irked me, like someone was laughing at something I held dear.

I tamped it down and noted the burst of emotion for later.

"I'm being gravely serious, boy. From the past year, you've shown to mature and learn faster than your peers, to the point where you've resorted to "acting your age" even."

His eyes show a hint of mirth at seeing me flinch at the revelation, "It was very amusing seeing you squirm as you try to act like an infant, I won't lie." He paused once more, "Which makes this development all the more confusing for me. So tell me, what possessed you to do such a risky thing?"

The question felt innocent, but there was an abnormal pressure that seemed to cling to it. I don't think I could pull a fast one, but I can't just tell him I don't wanna get exploded in five years!

Think! Think, damn it! What are some insecurities that are valid for a Saiyan my age? I'm weak, that's for sure. I think there was a kid who killed a variant of the warrior lizards, maybe I can play off of that?

Ideas for lies spring into my head with concerning ease and swiftness and I open my mouth to speak before getting cut off by a sigh coming from Toto.

"Bah, forget it! Such knowledge isn't my responsibility, nor my right to dig for. You have my apologies boy, I slipped into some old habits and forgot myself." He pauses for a second, as if mulling over if a new sentence would be worth the effort "But know this, boy." He moves towards me with a slow gait while pondering his next few words. "You have a gift for energy manipulation that goes beyond our innate saiyan instincts, drawing on your inner pool at this age is vanishingly rare. Nevertheless, that talent means nothing without experience"

Toto stands in front of me, this elderly man with power that far dwarfs that of the strongest humans currently. This elderly man who could peel a cube of tungsten like an orange placed his hand on my shoulder before leaning down to look at me eye to eye. I saw a few things in his eyes, a flash of amusement maybe, a wealth of knowledge that seemed to fill his eyes like miniature oceans one could draw upon if permitted, and an almost invisible speck of concern. This man of alien descent speaks with a voice oh so familiar, a voice that a distant part of me remembers. A voice I had heard throughout my childhood from my past life, from a life that I had only recently realized I was forgetting.

The man spoke in a voice most gentle "Your desire to wield your talent, your power, means absolutely nothing in the end... Desire alone cannot set power free, Coli. You need knowledge, you need willpower, you need a goal. If you miss even one of these aspects, you may find yourself failing at a time when you need to succeed the most. Do you understand, Coli?"

A nod was all I could return to him as a response.

He removed his hand from my shoulder and rose to his feet. "Good... that's good." he chuckled after a while, "Even though I've had this graying hair for a while, it sure sucks to realize I've gotten old."

His chuckle soon morphed into a full-on belly laugh as he continued "Damn, I'm even quoting what an old man said to me when I was your age. Well... Nah you're way younger than I was when I got this same speech ya fast developing freak, BAHAHA!"

And once again any respect and mystique the codger had built up in me was compressed into dust and thrown into a well-developed void of disappointment I had begun developing over my new life on Vegeta.

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Toto and I chatted for a while before he left to take care of the rest of the kids, leaving me to my thoughts.

The man was quite good at dealing with kids like me. Apparently, kids of my level of intellect weren't that rare when you took into account a Saiyan child's sharp memory. Saiyan children were hard-wired to pick things up quickly in order to survive harsh combat environments, so if you put them in stressful situations they'd learn at an insane rate. Taking that into account, it sort of made sense that Toto was used to dealing with kids with comparable maturity for their age.

I'd like to think that I'm smarter than your average Saiyan two-year-old though, personally.

My tail lashed a bit before I fell on my back. Toto had distracted me from wallowing in my shame like a dumbass, but now that my head was relatively clear I kept finding more and more holes in my original plan!

It seemed simple at first, antagonize and train with the smaller lizards, use that to attract the bigger warrior lizards, and then profit off of the Zenkai boosts I'd get from fighting the lizards, It was so simple!

Thinking back though, the plan hinged on my talent and the incompetence of one of the more dominant fauna of Vegeta. I had thought I could pull a Gohan and just get real angry to defeat the lizards but no such thing happened. Is it because of how special Gohan is? It didn't matter yet though, the kid wasn't even born yet and he wouldn't begin to tap into his potential until a good while after that. Wallowing in my near-death experience was getting old though, so how can I win next time...

My eyes drift close as I turn my attention inward, seeing how my internal supply of KI has changed since I had first woken up on Vegeta. To be frank, it wasn't very different but seemed far more 'optimized', KI flew through every part of my body reinforcing it and, at the moment, healing it. It took me a while to get it flowing passively, but now I didn't even need to focus on wielding KI. It all stemmed from a point vaguely somewhere near my gut, like a well that is constantly letting tricklings of water flow out of it. In terms of Ki supply. It wasn't very bountiful but I had a feeling that was due to my inexperience and physical age more than anything else.

Making a mental note of these changes my attention briefly glanced at the area that is where my tail presides to my ongoing dismay, it seems to be incomprehensible to me. It's like staring at something utterly alien to me. Again I note it down mentally and open my eyes, I stand up and attempt to flex before realizing I haven't fully healed yet leaving me to spasm to the floor from a sudden rush of pain. "Almost f-forgot about those wounds... damn it."

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Thanks to me pissing off the local Hive lizard tribe I couldn't return to the gorge without risk of getting swarmed, probably for the best given my state but it would make things more boring while recovering.

Hence my new activity emerged, wandering the village... Yay.

In all honesty, it wasn't that bad, especially since I could do this without chaperones thanks to Toto putting in a good word for me with the other oldies. It also let me appreciate Saiyan culture by looking at the architecture and qualities of the village.

The village wasn't all that big in terms of overall size, if you were a normal non-ki enhanced kid you could probably walk from entrance to end in half an hour or more, but it was a very dense thing.

Buildings made of Vegetan earth and stone are packed together leaving little room for anything called an alleyway but instead, if you know where to look, there are tunnels that duck beneath each building and lead to other roads. Of course, while these have their purpose of assisting the transport of those without Ki, most of the village architecture would seem at best inconvenient and at worse lethal to a normal human man.

Doors and entrances are made at the top of buildings with no obvious way of getting to them, and roads that just end without any rhyme or reason because the way you get to them is to simply jump, fly, or climb up to them.

There are things like this all around the village. At first glance as though it's a normal, if not a bit packed village, but on a second, third, and fourth glance you begin to see how this race's architecture bends to suit the needs and whims of the Saiyan race. But as I look around this village, taking the easy way and simply hopping from roof to roof, there is hardly a whisper of life within this place.

I know there isn't really anything other than homes and small shops, but every single home is empty and the stores are almost always closed. From my conversations with the old man over time Toto had said this area was going through a "very good time" currently which doesn't seem to match the sight I'm seeing.

"Maybe they're all shopping over in the middle-class district" I muse aloud making a short hop to the next building, "still feels weird that the middle class and up get all the good stuff..." Another short hop before I slide down the side of a smaller pyramid-esque home, "not that it really matters how bad the class divide is, since it's all gonna get blown up soon." A rather dark thought wriggles its way to near the front of my attention before it is immediately pushed away by a far more important detail.

There was another kid right in front of me.