Training cut short! (x110 gravity)

Being defeated by his illusion was tough on him. First because he had to ask for help and Nabana, the kagami doctor Natto was friends with went over his royal spaceship, the Star Javelin to take the Commander-in-Chief of the Saiyan Solar Empire’s Stationary Defense Army to a healing facility, so that he could recover from his crazy tournament like training he had done, going way overboard with that, to the point of configuring an opponent he couldn’t hope to defeat without destroying the whole ship and maybe even the planet on the process of that. It was completely humiliating for him to wake up on the other day inside the healing chamber with the doctor there, telling him what happened. Natto didn’t say a word, as the only thing he wanted to do was to go back to his spaceship and be all alone. Before leaving, however, the kagami doctor told him not to train that hard again, or he could very well die, and that was only another deadly blow to his pride, which made him quite pissed, but, again, he didn’t say a word.

Back at the Star Javelin, Natto spent the whole day on his bed, thinking about how he was defeated by a freaking gravity machine, even though he was a super saiyan, and not even a regular one, but a super saiyan that had mastered his own transformation to the point of being able to harvest all of its potential. It only meant that he still had a long path ahead of him in his journey to become the strongest one. He wasn’t depressed though; he was angry. Extremely angry to the point of almost hating his own self and his weakness. He even questioned why he wanted to have such a responsibility though, as they had the queen to fill those shoes, but somehow he was restless and, since he couldn’t jump into any real conclusion by the time he actually fell asleep, he decided to train on the following day.

The young saiyan commander spent the whole next day trying and finally conquering the gravity of 100G, utilizing some intense physical training on the gravity chamber, one that left his body sore but didn’t injured it. During this day, he was able to get his mind a little clear, as his objectives were once again clear as water: he had to protect Tomoroko, his friends, his race and his empire. The first two people he needed to protect were for obvious reasons, as they had a personal and huge value for him. His race was due to the fact that, as a saiyan, it was what was he was supposed to do, mostly due to his father’s teachings. He also felt like he had to do that as a memento for the deceased saiyan, and the only one on his biological family that showed him kindness and loved him since his birth. As for the empire, well… It was responsible to protect the saiyans and allow them to thrive, so it felt right to protect it and it was also his duty as a saiyan warrior.

Some of his goals weren’t all that strong for someone of complex thought, as it did have flaws and even Natto, who tried not to think about the saiyans too deeply, as he learned well due to his talks with Rose Snow, the young saiyan – despite not being actually stupid – was still to insecure to openly question his own goals too much, and, for now, it was enough for him to do what he was doing, and he was achieving quite high standards and accomplishment, so that should be the right thing!... Right?

On the next day, though, he finally decided to go for a higher standard: the gravity of over a hundred times the normal one, 110G. ”I won’t do a simulation this time… I still need to learn to endure it… I can’t allow Nabana to see me like that again! I’m a saiyan commander, after all! I have my pride! And I have to learn to take things slower… Step by step! I will grow faster if I take things at a slower pace, as it will allow me not to waste a day on a freaking healing pod! Dammit! I wish we had a better healing pod though… A whole day can be way too much… What if we got attacked while I was injured?! That would be the worst case scenario. I can’t be so reckless! I have responsabilities!” he thought to himself, as he turned on the gravity control of his training hub, enhancing it to the impressive amount of 110G. The pressure was so intense that made his legs start shaking. – Fuck you gravity! I’m not going down! – he gritted his teeth as he did his best to keep himself on top of his feet, even though his knees were already flirting with the floor.

Natto started sweating immediately as the intense gravitational pressure fought against him. The young saiyan had to struggle for a couple minutes before his body started getting used to it. Of course he could make things way easier by transforming into a super saiyan, but that wouldn’t make any sense, since he wanted to be able to endure the maximum gravity output of 150G on his base form. If he did that, he would be able to grow at an incredibly fast pace, and that was his goal all along. ”Come on Natto! You are still too far away from the 150G mark! If you can’t endure this freaking 110G, you won’t be able to master this damn machine! And I’m a saiyan warrior! I’m a legendary super saiyan! I can’t be defeated by… Technology!!! I won’t be bested by a freaking machine!!! I can’t allow it!” to think about that made him immediately relate it to Virtual Poi: he was an android, and artificial being, and still a better and stronger warrior than all super saiyans Natto knew, if what people told him was actually truth.”It’s not natural!” he growled as he started trying to sprint around the place. ”Completely not natural! Machines can’t beat a saiyan! Nobody should be able to beat a super saiyan! That’s what the legends told us! Not even the arcosian!!! Everyone on the universe was supposed to fear the legend! But they don’t! What the heck is going on?!” he took a deep breath as he managed to start slowly running around the gravity chamber.

– You know what?! Screw that! No use getting pissed over that! Time to stop complaining like a little baby and get serious with this damn training!! Fucking gravity! I will conquer the shit out of you! – he said to himself on a rather harsh tone as he flared his ghostly-white ki aura around his body, allowing him to harvest his fullest base potential, helping him fighting against the gravitational pressure.

Natto continued his training for quite a bit, sprinting around the place until his legs burned so much that the pain didn’t even bother him anymore. His lungs were on fire for a while, but now he was almost on automatic mode, feeling nothing but a drive to keep on going forward. His mind was empty and for once in a very long time, he managed to reach the state of mushin; he had pushed himself so much that his mind was free from the thoughts of fear, anger or ego. He was free to act and react without any disturbance from his thoughts and everything he was doing felt entirely intuitive, just like his body was ready to react at a very high speed but with no intention, plan or direction. With that, he naturally started flying around the place when it felt natural to do so and, just like he had programmed earlier, the attacking spheres activated after the second hour of his training.

”…” Natto’s mind was completely absent of thought and his body could perfectly react to the laser beams being fired at him and deflected almost immediately by another of the ten objects that flew quickly, catching up to Natto’s speed, but none of the blasts could manage to hit him; his reaction was just too natural and precise, he wasted no movement. To train mushin was hard, but he was doing a great job now, and that was a proof of him maturing as a warrior due to his intense and regular training. The true secret behind becoming a great warrior isn’t to be born blessed by talent, as talent can be easily surpassed by huge amount of effort. There was nothing easily gained in life, and every accomplishment required one to give his blood, sweat and tears for that goal, and Natto had been doing that for as long as he could remember. If he could be considered some sort of genius, he would only be the genius of hard work, and that was good enough for him.

However, his training session was cut short by an alert of his scouter. It took him a while to notice it, due to his focused mind on his training shielding him from outside annoyances, but, after a while, it reached his brain and made him snap. – What?! – the surprise of getting back to his normal self, got him distracted and therefore he was hit by a couple of laser beams on his back, making him scream due to the irritating pain they caused. – ARGH!!! – Natto fell back to the floor and had to be quick to keel over and dodge another blasts as he made his way towards the control panel. With the hit of a button he turned off the attack spheres but not the gravity, as he had no intention of stopping his training right now. – Wow… I was… How can I even describe it?! That state of mind was… Perfect! Who the hell is bothering me at such an important training session?! To use the emergency channel I truly hope it’s important! – he said, snorting after that, as he grabbed his scouter and put it on his left ear.

The first thing that happened when he accessed the transmission was images of the purge of Arcose, which made him immediately arch both of his eyebrows and widen his eyes. His jaw dropped too. ”This… This is from the queen!!!” he thought, feeling completely startled by the images; they were quite shocking, truth be told, even to his standards. Natto didn’t like mayhem and, even though he wouldn’t likely hesitate before killing a freaking arcosian, he would never go as far as to torture them just for the sake of it, and definitely wouldn’t eat them. The image then changed to Zucceta on her super saiyan form, with her feet on top a brenchian, which made Natto gulp, as he felt quite intimidated by his own queen. As she started speaking, she said that she was disappointed with the fact that Arcose would fall even if she went there alone. ”What?! If… If I remember correctly, the queen’s power was below mine right now when she travelled there… Which means… Which means Wyntre wasn’t that strong! But still… the Empress of Arcose should pose a challenge… C-could the queen be suppressing her power on the meeting?!" the thought made Natto start sweating cold on top of his already sweaty temples and forehead. "If she did suppress it… And Virtual Poi was still stronger… Than… My god…” he was horrified with such a scenario, but his thoughts were drifted away from it with the rest of her speech.

She said that the resistance of the empire was defeated by Icarus and a super saiyan who Natto could only imagine it was Mayze, since no other saiyan she took with her could have reached such a power, unless something really crazy happened… Then, the queen also said that Arcose was dead, killed by her new weapon, that made Natto even more impressed and scared, since she claimed it was poisoning the atmosphere and draining all the life within it, and that made him think about the image of a unnaturally big tree growing while the planed collapsed. ”D-do we have such a… T-terrifying weapon?!” he gulped again, as his body began to shake intensely. Zucceta said that it was now the age of the super saiyans, leaving a bittersweet taste on Natto’s mouth. ”That’s what our age means?...” he thought to himself, completely unsure on how he felt watching the cruel destruction of Arcose.

And then, she went as far as to declare war on the whole universe, giving them a week to surrender to the Saiyan Solar Empire or to face war against the saiyans. Natto fell to the floor, landing on it with his rear as he slowly shook his head, unable to believe what he had just heard. – Z-zucceta... Ugh… W-what the hell… a-are you… t-thinking?! – Natto starting dripping cold sweat down his temples. – C-can we win… And e-even if we do… J-just how many lives…? – he asked himself as the transmission ended. Natto was shaking and he immediately thought about Tomoroko and then his friends going to an all-out war against the whole universe. Countless saiyans would surely die even if they managed to win the war and conquer everything. It would definitely bring peace to the empire and destroy all threats against the saiyan race if they were to succeed, but, right now, it was too risky; even with all their power, there was still people like Reikiko and Virtual Poi out there. ”W-we are not ready yet!” he thought to himself.

His training session was over, there was no way he could continue it right now, he need at least an hour to recover from the shock of that news and the bittersweet taste on his mouth became completely bitter. It wasn’t good… It wasn’t good at all!