Mean and Green (Natto)

Life has been quite busy for Natto lately. Intense training routine. Random fights with even more random companions on the outskirts of the Capital. Sparring session against an earthling on the training hubs. He never could’ve imagined that his life would change so much in such a little timespan. He was stronger and determinate than ever to become someone of importance. And he was doing a fine job so far. Being recognized as a member of the elite really made him feel what was like to have a huge load of responsibility. A responsibility he accepted with arms wide open.

By the hour of the twilight, when both suns of Planet Vegeta were slowly setting on the horizon, Natto was flying near some badlands, hundreds of miles away from the Capital. He was on search duty. What he was looking for? Nothing specific… Illegal aliens, troublemakers, smugglers. Anything that could mean trouble for the Saiyan Solar Empire.

As he flew through the skies in an average speed, his scouter beeped detecting a strong power level. ”A power level of 11.818 3.2 miles southwest of here… It’s not moving. I better check it out!” he decided, concentrating his ki in order to manifest his ghostly-white aura, flying now at high speed towards that power level. When he got near enough to be able to see the source of power, he saw something that made him astonished: it was a Namekian!

”What are the odds?” he thought to himself as he remembered the last time he trained at the gravity chamber, fighting an illusion of a namekian that was rather evil. The namekian was laying on a bolder like he just didn't care about a thing in the world. Natto stared for a while at the green alien from the distance, floating in the skies of Vegeta and after a short while he landed, walking in the direction of the namekian with caution.

He didn’t know anything about that creature and it would be a way too racist of him to burst in ki blasting him out of the blue, as he could be a decent person. But he wouldn’t leave his guard down either.

– Namekian! State your business! – he said in a harsher tone than intended.

The namekian stared at Natto up and down and that bothered him, which led him to frown his eyebrows, folding his arms at the same instant. His posture was a little tense, as if it was almost battle ready. He was holding back his aggression and his battle instinct as he was a way gentler saiyan than the average. Even though, his memories of a namekian weren’t pleasant as the simulation of the gravity chamber he programed made them evil tyrants of an evil empire. He was quite wrong about the average namekian, but he wouldn’t know.

Natto had to look up to be able to stare at the namekian and that bothered him. He wasn’t the tallest of the saiyans, but he was of an above average height. Being that shorter than that alien was a real pain and he had to fight against his will to fly, to even the line of sight. He usually didn’t bother about being taller as his family as he was the shortest of them, but on this specific situation he wished he was 7’5” as his brother, Miso. But, anyway, grumble would not change a thing…

Another curious thing about the namekian was his weird sort of scouter-like accessory covering both of his eyes with very dark lens. ”Is their kind of scouter? But how can they communicate without the ear part?” he thought, intrigued by the peculiar device.

After a moment of staring each other, the namekian spoke in a gruff tone announcing his allegiance to the Red Eclipse faction. Natto didn’t know much about that faction, truth be told, but they weren’t enemies of the Saiyan Solar Empire, so the namekian may have spoken the truth, but it was enough to make Natto think about it, losing his angry face to give place to a puzzled expression that made him look a little foolish, as a child that barely understands politics but likes to pretend it does.

– Oh… - he let his puzzled tone slip through his tongue, which enhanced his silly face. – I know about the Red Eclipse. – he tried to improve his own situation, but failed miserably as he looked even sillier with that comment.

Natto held his folded arms tight with his hand, angry with his gaffe of an attitude. Being looked dead in the eye was even worse, as he blushed, and the namekian introduced himself, saying that he hoped they could work together someday. The young saiyan didn’t know what to think or what to say on that situation as he was already making a fool of himself.

– I’m Natto! If you speak the truth then I mean no harm. But I might need some proof of you affiliation to the Red Eclipse. – he did a better job at pretending to be fully confident and under control of the situation, but at this point Xylo already knew about Natto’s naivety and gentler than most nature. It wasn’t hard to gain his trust and that was noticeable by now.

When asked about identification, the namekian stated the obvious: an organization such as Red Eclipse wouldn’t have means to identify themselves due to its criminal nature, which made the young saiyan remember a little bit about what he heard about the organization, but was still too little of information. Natto felt a little stupid and he grimaced. ”Of course they wouldn’t have any ID… And I don’t think it would be practical to summon other members of the organization. There’s also a possibility of this alliance being a bluff and I could be in a dire situation if more of them would come…” he thought.

His statement also made sense, since if he were to lie, being part of the Saiyan Solar Empire. He was satisfied with that and simply nodded with a more relaxed expression on his face, letting his silence be his answer.

He seemed to be clear and Natto was getting ready to leave and it also appeared to be the wish of the namekian as he started speaking. Xylo said that he hadn’t taken a nap in ten years. For an instance Natto thought he misheard the information, as he couldn’t picture someone who hadn’t be able to take a nap in all that time, but as Xylo continued, his eyes widened at the same time his eyebrows arched in surprise. He was a guinea pig!

The saiyan didn’t know what to say or do when he was hit by that statement and was brought back to his senses with the sound of impatience in the form of a tapping foot and a slightly irritated stare. Natto blushed again, feeling rather goofy, but quickly recovered his “warrior look” with the frown brows and stuff.

– Are you being kept prisoner for experimentation without your consent? – he asked with the most neutral tone he could, but there was a slight trace of concern.

Natto was gentle by nature and even though he had some prejudice against other races, since his father told him the rough history of the saiyan race and what happened when they trusted others, he couldn’t help but to feel the urge to help. Well… It wasn’t like he trusted a whole race that could betray his race’s empire. Xylo was just an individual, he wanted to dig it in deeper, to see if he was a soul in need of some assistance.

Who on his own right mind would volunteer to be some sort of an organization’s guinea pig for ten freaking years?? That was so weird to even consider a possibility that Natto got that intense puzzled expression on his face, with his eyes widened and brows arched so much that he looked sort of stupid for a while. ”Why the heck would he do that? Well… I can’t really understand how those aliens function… Weird… Just plain weird…” he thought to himself. Shortly after, he had a glimpse of self-awareness and adjusted his expression to a more serious one as he didn’t want the namekian to take him as a clown if he didn’t already.

Deep inside his eyes, he couldn’t mask that he had some pity towards that namekian. He didn’t trust aliens, truth be told, but even still he couldn’t allow himself to be indifferent to someone in such a terrible situation. Natto couldn’t picture himself being some test subject for so long, even if he had volunteered to do so. To remember the 13 years he spent abroad, away from acquaintanceship with his own race was already a pain. He knew it was his duty and he performed it to the best of his capacities and morale, but he could never say it wasn’t a great immolation.

He came back to Vegeta from the world of his thoughts when the namekian asked, in a curious tone, what he was doing there, to which he sighed in response, closing his eyes with a thoughtful expression. – Well… I’m on search duty… You see… I’m looking for illegal alien immigrants, smugglers and troublemakers. I’m not quite fond of this kind of job, but we all have to play our part on making the empire work. – he said, opening his eyes to look at Xylo’s own. – That’s why a landed here… You have a considerable power level, so I had to check it out… Good thing you are not trouble! – he said at last, letting a small smile appear on his face, with the risk of being taken as a weakling, but he did not care. By that time he wasn't considering Xylo a treat. Natto was still a little cautious, but allowed himself to relax.

With Xylo’s comment, Natto couldn’t help but to scratch his hair with one hand, while putting the other hand on his hip, in a thoughtful expression. It was impossible to determine where his mind had gone to this time, as his expression was quite vague. After a couple seconds with that expression, he folded his arms again, staring at Xylo with a serious but rather friendly expression on his face.

– No, we don’t have a lot of them… But still, every now and then some of our guys happen to find one. Other than that, we never know when our enemies are spying on us, so we can’t afford to take any chances. – he said, showing that, despite not being quite fond of that kind of job, he understood the importance of it. Exposing Vegeta to his enemies would be committing the same mistake of the past: trusting too much on foreign, and that was a mistake the saiyans could not afford to make again. And Natto would do everything on his power to avoid it.

The thing is… Natto himself was still too naïve and not the best judge of character. He was still easy to fool, and had difficulties grasping the nuances of people’s behavior.

Following that, the two of them stared each other for a while, which puzzled Natto a bit. After a little more chit-chat, Xylo responded something that left the young saiyan wary. He touched his chin with his tumb, while his index finger softly touched his cross-shaped scar.

– You don’t sound so sure… - he said vaguely, remaining silent for the following couple seconds before speaking again. – Am I wrong to think that namekians are also a warrior race? – he asked, genuinely curious. The thing is: Natto doesn’t know anything about the namekians, except for their appearance and their planets appearance, based on a hard-light simulation. He wanted to know more about them, since Xylo had a decent power level that would put him on the elite tier of the saiyan army.

Maybe he said something wrong, or touched in some itchy subject, since by the time he ended pronouncing the word “namekian”, Xylos’ expression changed immediately. First, he grunted in anger, after that he clenched his fists, which, by itself, made Natto widen his eyes and arch both of his eyebrows. The namekian then spoke, saying that his race were mostly of peace-loving people, which impressed Natto even more. ”So that simulation was completely bogus… But how come?! They seem to be strong…” he was quite puzzled and decided to keep his composure and listen to what Xylo had to say, on his angry spur.

The namekian threw his hand to the side, irritated, explaining more about what they would rather do. ”Meditating? Why would they even do that? It feels rather stupid to me…” as a saiyan, Natto’s instinct were a way too intense, which meant that the whole concept of meditating seemed like something extremely boring or hard. Empty one’s mind was something very hard to do even in the midst of a battle, imagine trying to do that alone in some peaceful place. ”I would most definitely sleep… But it may have some good in doing that…” he concluded giving space to a rather thoughtful expression.

Finally, Xylo showed his point of view: for his standards, strength and ferocity were a way better tool to have instead of serenity and peace. It hurt Natto to agree, as him too was a peace loving person, as a child, but life was hard and he learned the difficult way that saiyans had a reason to be ruthless and cruel to other races. Don’t get the wrong idea, he would rather not. But life isn’t about what you want or you don’t. It is mostly about what you have to do.

Natto was ready to respond in some empathic tone, but got caught by surprise by the sudden spur of energy coming from the namekian that flared his indigo ki aura engulfing his body, showing his power. Natto immediately took a half step back, cautious. – H-hey… Are you okay? – he asked hesitantly. The response, however, wasn’t the one Natto sought. Xylo was fired up and angry and, pretty much like a saiyan, he wanted to release his anger by fighting. ”Change the carcass and there it goes… A saiyan! He’s got the attitude right…” he thought to himself, not so proud of that trail right now.

The saiyan wanted to say no, but somewhere deep inside his heart, he also wanted to fight against a real namekian, since the hard-light hologram could never make justice to the real thing. A little smirk appeared on his face as he saw the namekian dashing forward, full speed, Natto waited, in an apparently relaxed instance, but that was just it. His battle-ready mind was focused on his foe’s movement. When he saw the punch, he waited until the last possible second, using the martial arts concept of Go no Sen (後の先). The moment Xylo was about to hit, Natto dodged by turning his body to the right, taking the target away from the punch’s target. Seizing the momentum, he would take advantage of the rotation of his own hips during the dodge, to attack Xylo’s face with all his might, using his left elbow, aiming for his face, to send him flying to the side.

Should the attack hit, Natto would bend his knees to gather impulse, vanishing with all his speed to reappear at Xylo’s back, and sledgehammer him to the ground.

Either way, being his counter successful or not, he would take a step back, reassuming his fighting stance.

– If you want a fight, I shall give you that! Can’t promise not to break a few of your bones, though! Hehehe…” he said, with an excited expression on his face.

His attack hit right on the mark and Xylo could feel the strength of that saiyan. Natto was a quite capable fighter despite his young age and little experience fighting different races and fighting styles, but his own way to battle, mostly learned at the planet of Felucia was based upon strong e precise counters, followed by a sequence of strong blows as the enemy opened his guard after the first counter. Sometimes his anxiety and savage latent saiyan instinct would make him ignore his self-discipline and jump into some brainless brawl, but most of the times he would be able to control himself and fight in a proper and interesting way.

Ah he sledgehammered Xylo to the ground, the namekian groaned in anger, but quickly after that he smirked, to which Natto responded by doing the same. As he spoke, saying that saiyans were interesting opponents, Natto chuckled. – So… Show me what you’ve got! – he said, pretty confident on that fight. From what he saw up until now, he had the upper hand in speed, and by the readings on their power level, he was stronger too. There should be no surprises on that fight. But that’s where he was wrong.

Xylo rushed forward and Natto was ready to wait and read into his attack pattern again, but he surprised the saiyan by passing right beside him, instead of throwing the punch he seemed to intend to. ”A feint?!” he startled, as he immediately followed Xylo’s movement. He took some distance and, out of the blue, his arms stretched like crazy! Natto didn’t expect such a movement and was caught off guard by that grip. The moment he got a hold of Natto’s shoulders, he retracted his arms, landing a powerful blow with his knee to Natto’s face, making him fly away.

However, that would have some retribution. ”What the heck was that?! He can stretch his arms like that?! That’s some dangerous technique! I wonder if all namekians can do that! What a weird skill!” from now on he had to consider that on his strategy.

Quickly, Natto somersaulted in the air, landing on his feet with both hands to the side of his body. His hands charged up blue ki, and immediately after that he threw them forward, one after the other, as he rapidly fired many ki blasts toward Xylo, as fast as he could. – Eat that! Continuous Energy Bullet! – he shouted, as he started his attack.

He wouldn’t, however, waste too much energy on that. Natto would try to hit him up to 5 times. If he managed to hit the namekian, he would keep on firing 4 more blasts, making a total of 5 hits, meaning that he would only fire 10 ki blasts tops. After that he would reassume his fighting stance, waiting for the namekian to do something.