Hail and Mind

Amidst an intense hailing at the extreme north of Planet Vegeta, there was Natto, training with everything he’s got. With the hail there was also a violent thunderstorm, making it a rather dangerous place for a regular person to be. But he wasn’t a regular person, he was a proud member of the Saiyan Solar Empire’s elite, and his empire was at war with the Arcosian Empire at that exact moment. A super elite squad was formed with the queen herself as the commander, while the other members of the elite tier of the saiyan army were ordered to stay in the Planet for two reasons: first, to defend it in case of an attack from enemies, especially the powerful android, and second, to train and get stronger, in order to better serve the saiyan empire. And Natto was determined to fulfill those orders to the best of his capabilities. To train was not only a duty he wouldn’t blink to fulfill, but also one of his main personal goals. That young saiyan had important things to protect and those things were growing from time to time, which was incredibly good, as he was finally starting to form bonds, but it also led to a bigger responsibility towards those people, especially the one he had just met, Tomoroko.

To meet a saiyan that was so similar to him in such a plenty array of aspects was a life-changing event. That young girl was so amazing, that he took upon himself the duty of protecting her at all costs, even though she was a capable warrior herself. The thing is: Natto would never forgive himself if anything happened to her. He couldn’t lose anybody anymore; it would just be too painful to endure. And that’s why he was training so hard. ”When I become a super saiyan… I will not let anyone close to me to die again! I won’t let the saiyans to be eradicated again! I will fight for everyone! They will be my fuel…” he motivated himself to keep on pushing forward.

Natto was wearing his weighted battle suit as he quickly dodged any impending hailstone that came in his direction. It was something very difficult to achieve, as it was hailing intensely. On top of that there was the lightings from the thunderstorm and the rain to mix things up and confuse his training, but he was doing the very best he could. Every time he was hit by a hailstone, he would get angry with himself and push his mind to focus even more, and his body to move even faster. ”I’m too slow! If I wasn’t that slow, Xylo wouldn’t have beaten me! Kaula wouldn’t have humiliated me! I wouldn’t have been pushed to such an extreme situation by those damn smugglers at the ancient tuffles ruins! I’m still too slow!” he thought, getting really infuriated with himself, as he avoided and deflected any hailstone coming his way. Shortly after, he had to do a barrel roll as he flew, with his ghostly-white ki aura engulfing his body, as a big lightning came his away. The bolt grazed by his body, and after that he had to spin, bending his body to a ball like position as tons of hailstones grazed right beside him.

The young saiyan was already panting as he has spent the past hour dodging the stones, nonstop. His endurance was reaching its limitation due to the presence of the weighted battle suit, which was putting a lot of stress into his body. ”Without the gravity chamber of the Imperator Royal Spaceship to help me improve, I cannot slack off on my training! I have to put myself in dire situations and overcome them all! I cannot rest, I cannot stop! This is not my fight! It is my race’s fight! It is the fight of everyone I hold dear! I know the saiyans are not perfect… I’m not perfect and I’ll never be perfect! I know we can be cruel some times, but it’s a necessity! Our naivety cost us too much already and we would only be fools to allow ourselves to commit the same mistakes over and over again! Come on body! Endure!!!” he gritted his teeth even more, frowning his eyebrows as much as he could, trying to keep up with his maximum speed.

Finally he reached his limits, and now he was starting to get hit by the hailstones quite often, making him frustrated and angry. The pain was insignificant to his body, but huge to his pride, as it only showed him that even the forces of nature were still greater than his own strength. ”I can’t accept it! This cannot be all of my strength!!” his tears started to ran down his eyes incessantly, as he was feeling rather ashamed of himself at that moment. His anger made his ghostly-white ki aura to intensifies, bursting energy right out of his body, as he punched a hailstone that came at his direction, shattering it to pieces. – I WILL NOT ALLOW THOSE FREAKING STONES TO BEAT ME!!!! – he shouted with all he had inside himself, crying copiously. He could not dodge them anymore, but he could definitely turn them to dust and he started his work. Punches, kicks, elbows, knee blows… He was rampaging through the ice stones that were falling from the skies, nonstop, as he unleashed all the fury and rage that he had inside himself.

Hailstone after hailstone, he broke them as fast and intensely as he could. His body was moving so fast that most saiyans from the low elite to lower tiers would have trouble seeing, even though his speed and explosion were severely hindered by the heavy weighted armor he was wearing. His fury was his main fuel as he couldn’t accept many things. His mind was running wild again. ”I allowed my foster family to die because I was a fool who couldn’t control my own rage! I allowed my Great Ape transformation to stripe me of my reasoning and I killed the very first people to show me love and kindness! I wiped them all out in a single night! That was all my fault! I did that due to my own emotional weakness!..." he screeched in anger, as he brought his arms to the side of his body, charging a heavy load of blue energy, and then he started spinning his body as he threw forward one arm after the other, firing a rapidly succession of ki blasts. – CONTINUOUS ENERGY BULLETS!!! – he shouted, with the tears running down his face. ”Then… After I got rejected by my mother, her platoon, my brother… My father was the only one to shelter me! He taught me everything that made me what I’m now… He told me the story of the saiyans! He made me promise to protect our people, to be wise enough to see beyond our flaws and understand why we are like we are… And then… He was killed! And I couldn’t do anything! I can’t even avenge him, as I don’t know who the bastard that killed him was!” the impotence was the thing that hurt him the most.

To keep on attacking in such a rhythm, along with firing ki blasts was really making him rather exhausted and he started to miss some targets after a couple more hours of intense training in the hailing skies of Vegeta’s thunderstorm. – Arrf… Arrf… Arrff… - Natto panted as he tried to go on with his training the most he could, but his movements were not only slower, but also weaker. ”Can’t give up yet… Just can’t…” he tried to pull his will power from deep inside his own heart, but it was getting harder and harder with every minute that passed. The hailstones started hitting him quite often and he couldn’t even cry anymore, his anger was fading away and he started feeling nothing at all.

By accident, Natto was finally being able to tap into another important aspect of martial art: the Mushin (無心). Mushin is, by definition, a mental state that can only be fully mastered by very highly trained warriors. It is basically a state of mind that can be entered during combat or intense training drills. It means “the mind without the mind”, or “no mind” and it happens when someone’s mind is not fixed nor occupied by thoughts or emotions and, therefore, open to everything. To be open to everything means that a warrior will no longer be easily surprised in battle, since everything that is thrown at him is predictable, as his mind is no longer focused on trying to anticipate anything. No. It becomes a blank sheet that is instantly painted by the slightest actions of the opponent. To achieve it one must free his mind of thoughts of fear, anger, anxiety and ego, therefore being free to act and react without hesitation and disturbance from such emotions and thoughts. When reaching such a state, the warrior relies not on what they think the next movement shall be, but as said before, what is the natural reaction or what feels intuitive.

Don’t get the wrong an idea. It is not a relaxed state of mind. It is the very opposite of that as the mind is actually working at an absurd speed, only that it is now depleted of intention, plan or direction. Some could even say that the state of mushin is when someone finally understands that techniques and form are useless if one’s not free to move. Is to ascend beyond a fighter and finally becomes just a mere living being that moves through the space and, as such, can react to anything that is also moving in that space.

The saiyan’s eyes were almost closed, and his body felt somehow light as he started to attack the hailstones at the exact moment they were about to hit. With that he started not to waste much energy with useless motions. Natto wasn’t quite conscious of the way he was reacting. His body and mind were exhausted and he just let it go based on his own warrior’s instinct. His body also started dodging again, just slightly, only the necessary to avoid being hit and he was doing an amazing job despite the tiredness of his body that reached a quite intense state.

”W-what is going on?” he thought to himself, as he started to be self-aware of what was going on. However, to become self-aware when one’s had not yet mastered mushin meant the break of such a state of mind, that was pictured by Natto getting hit right at the face by a rather large hailstone. – Argh! – he growled, being hit by plenty more of stones, as he lowered his guard, lighting his anger back again. – ENOUGH!! – he shouted, as he crossed his arms in front of his body, resisting to the intense assault of the hail. The young saiyan quickly charged ki around all of his body and burst it out from all over it, repelling tons of hailstones that were falling. He charged so much, that he could use his full power to that ki attack, making the hail cease from existence for a few seconds. – Arf… Arff… Arfff… - Natto panted as he stared at the huge dark cloud on the sky, roaring with its thunders, without any sign of stopping anytime soon. – I said… Enough! – He gritted his teeth, frowning his brows as he put his right hand forward, charging a blue energy sphere with all his strength. The hails were coming down again and he was ready to put an end into it. – This new attack… It’s only a prototype as of yet! But will definitely make an uncanny planet buster attack! – he said, with the clouds as his witnesses.

After he charged a very big energy sphere on his hand, that almost engulfed his whole arm, he drew it back to gather impulse and strength and then pulled it back forward, firing the blue energy blast at the dark clouds above him. – Spirit Cannon! – the name felt only natural and he shouted that name as he fired the energy sphere. His attack scratched the skies as it flew furiously across the place. The energy sphere flew up until it reached the dark clouds above and then exploded. The explosion was massive, strong enough to disperse the clouds, making all the hailstones around that area to disappear. Natto stared at his attack panting for a while, before a subtle smile appeared upon his face, as he saw the huge potential of that attack. ”This could definitely become a planet buster!” he thought to himself feeling rather exhausted.

The young saiyan slowly hovered back to the ground and as he got near it, he let himself drop to the floor, falling with his back on the dry ground of the central wasteland of Planet Vegeta. He was panting quite a lot, trying to catch his breath. A sudden peace took over his heart in a clear contrast with his emotional state of before, an after effect of reaching even if only for a few minutes, the state of “no mind”. Slowly, step by step, Natto was growing into a true warrior. He was still very inexperienced, as it had been stated by his fight with Xylo, the namekian from Red Eclipse, and other training sessions with Kaula and the others, but he was indeed getting better. He was still very young and still lacked a formal training, but to be able to overcome one’s mind was a huge step into the lifelong journey of martial arts.

After a couple minutes resting, he finally got back up, breathing deeply before looking at his own hand again. Once again he put it forward, charging an energy sphere as quick as he could. Then he drew his arm back, with the energy circling around his hand and threw it forward, launching the attack once again, this time with a small rocky mountain as target. – I’ll blow you away! Spirit Cannon!! – he shouted, launching his energy sphere that successfully destroyed most of the rocky mountain, but was nowhere near the fully charged version. Natto stared at the result of his attack and sighed a little, smiling shortly after. ”It is still too weak… But I’ll definitely make a good attack out of it… I’ll turn this attack into one of my signature moves, as it is somehow close to what I feel is a finisher kind of attack…” he decided, as he deeply breathed again.

Feeling satisfied with his training session, he jumped back into the sky, starting his flight towards Cacumber Capital. His body was sore due to the heavy weighted armor and intense movement, but he was getting overcome the first step of limitation about using weighted equipment. He felt that soon enough it wouldn’t bother him that much anymore and, sooner or later it would become useless, as he would overcome completely the limitations of his own body. ”Luckily I’ll still be able to use the queen’s gravity chamber whenever it is available!” he thought, feeling quite ruminant about that topic, but decided that it was not yet the time to think about the implications of not having a true permanent gravity chamber on the planet.