Visiting Ruins (Solo)

It was about seven in the morning when Nasu had finished his breakfast. Today’s menu was a bunch of iguana on a stick, roasted on a campfire he lit just outside his cavern. He liked the taste of lizard meat ever since he acquired it from hunting dinosaurs, but ever since he arrived on Paprika Wasteland, about a year ago, his predatory hunting of the big lizards made most of them disappear, and he understood the value of not eating the eggs nor the mothers; it was too good of a meal to be allowed to disappear. ”One thing I can’t complain about this stupid backwater planet is the food! The wild life here is amazing… And even those weird looking cities food are too good! Specially those noodle thing! How could someone ever come up with the idea of cooking something so good with nothing but hot water?! Damn! I hate to admit it, but on cooking matters, those annoying bugs outclass us, saiyans, by far! It’s quite disappointing, really, since they don’t even eat and appreciate it as they should! Most of them can’t even eat past the third plate!” he thought to himself as he flew across the skies of Earth, with his ghostly-white ki aura covering his body and protecting him from the wind, as he had an amazing speed. Nasu was far more used to his weights than before and flying wasn’t much of a trouble now, although he could only tap into about a fourth of his total strength and speed.

”This speed reminds me of when I was on that planet… Damn! I was too weak and still managed to conquer it. Saiyans are really something… But I cannot let this get to my head… Many of those annoying bugs are showing to be just as strong and some even stronger… My father was the strongest on the universe, proving that our race has the greatest potential, but, still, it requires effort to harness such an obscene power… And if I don’t train to the best of my capabilities, I won’t achieve shit!” he thought to himself, frowning his eyebrows a bit, in frustration. This bitter look on his face had a reason: he had been beaten by plenty of other people on the past few days and his pride had been shattered. His pride carved for reckoning, but his body couldn’t deliver that to him at the present time, even though he had been doing his very best and training every day, with today being an exception.

Nasu was heading south, towards the southern islands were his father created the basis of what would eventually become the Saiyan Alliance. From what he have heard from the stories told on Planet Natto, he stayed there peacefully for years, until the god of Earth decided he no longer needed saiyans living there. ”Father could’ve easily defeated that clown… Sometimes I wonder why didn’t he use his amazing power to stop those assholes from getting their way! This ultimately cost his life. I admire you, father, but I won’t commit the same mistakes! I will never allow anyone to bully me or push me away from what I want when I attain your power! Wait and see! Nasu will never be a weakling!” he promised to both himself and his deceased father. The young saiyan warrior didn’t see him as a weakling for having been killed in a treacherous way, but he thought that Natto had been too trusting with those treacherous Kagami bastards. ”And I hope all of them rot in hell for what they did! At least the Alliance is no longer really allies with them… But this neutral stance also freaks me out! They are supposed to be our number one enemies, and yet those stupid counselors do nothing!! One day I will take over the position of Overseer and make things right!” he growled as he spoke to himself, nodding to himself about two times. ”Just wait and see!” he said to no one in particular as he kept flying towards his destination, leaving a trail of white ki energy behind him.

After a few more minutes, he finally arrived on the island where the Reborn Saiyan Alliance was born. There wasn’t much left of their previous headquarters, but the ruins were still there, covered by the island’s vegetation. Nasu made his ghostly-white ki aura vanish and slowly descended towards the ground. He didn’t make much of a noise when he touched the ground, but he was feeling a little sore and tired due to the long flight. – After a while using it, it still make my body sore. Well… - he paused for a brief second, considering his options and then shrugged. – Since I’m not going to train right now, there’s no damage in taking this off. – he decided, hesitating for a second before continuing. ”I know my body would still benefit from this passive use… But I’ve been pushing myself too hard lately. Maybe it will be good for my body to rest for a while.” he finally made up his mind and quickly took of his weighted battle suit and dropped it on the ground, making a loud noise when it fell, cracking the ground a little bit on the area of impact. Nasu was quite relieved to be free of his weighted battle suit, and started stretching his limbs and back, and shortly after that, he cracked his neck by leaning his head to one side and the other. He also unwrapped his tail from his waist and let it hang free, swaying from one side to the other as he enjoyed such a sensation; a trait he inherited from his mother. If it wasn’t for the trauma he experienced when he fought his uncle Miso, as kid, that ended up with him losing his tail for the first and only time, he would probably leave it hanging loose, but he learned from that failure and started following his father’s example on most situations.

When he finished getting used to being free of the weights, Nasu was feeling really good, just like his body didn’t weight anything. ”Man! I feel incredible! Hahaha… What a feeling! I could get used to this again, but I shouldn’t be cherishing this too much… Those weights are still gonna be a part of my routine for quite a while, unfortunately…” he thought with some sadness in his heart, but it was quickly forgotten when he shook his head and reminded the reason he was there. ”Yeah, right! I need to search for that!” he nodded to himself and started walking towards the first ruin he had found: a very large structure that resembled a smaller version of the counsel hall of Planet Natto. ”Didn’t know they kept the same design…” he stared at the building for a while before getting inside of it. The place was a mess! There was plenty of destruction there, like somebody or a group of people – he couldn’t really tell – had fought in there. There were scorched rooms too, and not a single room of that building was left untouched. The computers were all destroyed and there was no information that could be saved there. That building was but a memento of the Alliance on Earth, and, other than the nostalgic aspect of it, there was nothing useful there, or at least that was what he thought.

Nasu, while walking around the place, stepped on an old paper that was quite yellow due to fire and the work of time. The young saiyan warrior crouched to check on it, as it wasn’t really common to keep things in paper, but, to his surprise, it was still readable to some extent:

”… wonder how she managed to move like that. It was impressive! I never thought my style was so flawed by that Turtle School of hers. Oh, yeah… She also mentioned a Wolf Scho… (burned part) … agreed to not use our energy attacks nor flight. That was but a clash of pure skill and I lost! It wasn’t a terrible and humiliating loss, but, still quite a defea… (blurred part, probably due to water) …ish my skills. Tomo already told me that, although she isn’t that skilled either. We are both sort of self-taught. Never had the opportunity to go to the Vegetan Fighting Academy, since we weren’t born on an elite tier. But I don’t regret nor blame fate for that. Honestly, I like the challenge of developing my own style and refining it with real practice, and the lesson I just had with… (a hole on the paper) … made me realize many of my own flaws.”

The young saiyan was completely surprised. It took him a while to realize that it was his father’s writings and that those words hinted about the birth of the Soy School he developed alongside his mother! ”Wow! That’s incredible! I can’t even believe I found this… I didn’t even know father actually wrote stuff on paper…” Nasu was quite surprised, but, when he thought about it, it made perfect sense: Natto had spent most of his childhood abroad, conquering planets for the Saiyan Empire and the wicked queen; he had no other way of recording his missions entries, as he wasn’t always around his spacepod; Nasu knew that pretty well due to his time trying to conquer that planet, when he was but a teenager, and he remembered that he wrote on paper and wood a couple times, just never bothered to save his notes when he came back. Right now he regret such a decision, as he got curious to what his current self would think about his past self’s thinking. But there’s something else… Turtle School… Wolf School… I remember that Counselor Ninjin was a master of those… But she disappeared from Planet Natto along with Counselor Toma a little before the war.” and that thought, from curiosity, quickly became anger, and Nasu frowned his eyebrows, clenching both his fists, crumpling the paper on his hand. ”Bastards… If they were there, maybe everything could be different! I wish I could find them and throw the truth on their filthy faces! This is making me mad! I need to control myself… They played their part on making my parents grow and forming the Alliance, but such a betrayal… I will never understand… And I will never forgive!” he reminded himself: remembering was important as it prevented a person from being fooled again.

Nasu put the piece of paper on his blue jumpsuit’s pocket and continued to walk around the place, looking for more notes from his father. His mind was working like crazy, as he tried to understand the situation that was going on when his father wrote such note, and how early in development his style was. One thing he knew for certain: after mastering his style, the Soy School was just as menacing as Ninjin’s own schools, if not even stronger! ”I really need to master the Soy School’s teachings. If I master this style, I will become completely unstoppable! And those unskilled cunts that beat me before won’t even stand a chance!” he thought to himself, with anger boiling up inside his heart as he remembered about the blond hybrid-looking saiyan that beat the shit out of him more than once. She was the one who would pay the steep price of shattering his pride the most, and then that namekian, and then the annoying black-haired human girl. They were all on his revenge list, and he would get his revenge as certain as the sun rises on the east and sets on the west.

After wandering a little bit more on those ruins, he realized that he wasn’t going to find anything else and decided to leave and head towards another destroyed structure that was also being taken over by the island’s nature. The place was smaller, but still quite impressive, and it had the remaining of a titled floor at the entrance of the place. From what was left, it could be deduced that the titled floor was really large. ”Like a training hall… The architecture… It’s really similar to the Soy School on Planet Natto!” he stopped there to stare at the place. ”Could this be… The first place my father built to harness his martial arts skills? I know for certain that his first training hall was the gravity room on the Star Javelin… But back then, from what mother told be, he was pretty much fighting with guts and instinct only.” he thought to himself, touching his chin with his index finger and thumb from his left hand. He stood there with a thoughtful expression for a while and afterwards he decided to explore. When his foot touched the titled floor he felt a weird sensation, just like if his father was around there, in spirit. Shivers ran down his spine and a gust of wind blew there, taking down one of the windows of the place. ”What was that?!” he questioned himself, raising one of his eyebrows, feeling rather puzzled.

The young saiyan warrior decided to explore the place exactly where the wind pointed. It could be a sign and he was determined to check it up. When he got in that room, it was a complete mess with everything scorched by flames, like someone had deliberately wanted to destroy whatever rested there; and it made sense, for that room was some sort of library. ”The knowledge…” he thought. Nasu began to search for any paper that was still readable. He saw destroyed books and rotten scrolls, but there was nothing that could be saved there. There were also a few broken computers and other gadgets, and something that could be a hard-light hologram machine, but it was of no use. Whoever got into that place did a pretty good job in destroying all the stuff. But it wasn’t a perfect job. While walking around the wooden floor, Nasu noticed that on one particular spot there was an odd wood creak and he decided to investigate. – Now, what’s wrong with this floor… - he spoke to himself as he crouched nearby the spot. He touched the wood and forced it a bit and it gave away, reveling rope ladder going deep into the underground. That startled him, making him widen his eyes and arch both of his brows. – Wow! The ladder is still good… Meaning that… This place was spared! – he spoke to himself in awe. Nasu started floating and slowly descended into the underground path. The place looked like a cave, but it had electrical energy cables along the walls of the path, meaning that there was indeed something more than an escape route. ”Interesting… But this level of caution and prepare… That’s grandma’s stuff.” he thought to himself, remembering about his grandmother, Kyuri, who is a technology genius. Something kicked into his mind. ”Maybe they allowed be to remain on Earth for this long for a reason… Those Alliance folks… Maybe they wanted me to find it… This place… But what secrets does it guard?!” his curiosity grew with every second he followed that path.

After about twenty minutes walking that narrow and barely illuminated path, Nasu was starting to have doubts it would lead him to anything interesting; he didn’t have much faith in stuff. ”Shit… I have a feeling I’m wasting my goddamn time in this annoying cave! Why did they build it anyway?!” he asked himself, growling in bothersome. However, after a few more minutes of walking, when he was just about to give up, he found the end of the path! The path ended in a very solid black steel door, which made Nasu arch one of his eyebrows. – Hmm… But that’s not likely to hold! – he said, underestimating the object. The young saiyan warrior pointe his hand towards the door and, without any ceremony, fired a blue-colored ki blast right at the door. The ki blast exploded making a very loud noise and filling the place with dark smoke, but, to his surprise, there wasn’t even a scratch on the door.

Nasu couldn’t believe his own eyes and stared in awe and fear, as the door stood still, unbothered by his attack. – H-how is this even possible?! – he asked himself in disbelief. Such disbelief quickly turned into anger, and the young saiyan warrior gritted his teeth and a vein popped out on both his temples. – Grrr!! No door could ever withstand my power!!! Taste this!! – and, with those words, the young saiyan warrior drew his right hand backwards and charged a red energy sphere on it. After that, he drew it back forward, joining it with his left hand and charged a little more. – SHINE TRIGGER!!! – he shouted, firing his powerful crimson energy wave at the door, using the technique he had learned from his father, that was develop out of love for his mother, therefore its hue was crimson, instead of the regular blue of Natto’s energy waves.

A large boom could be heard and the whole place got filled with dark smoke from the dirt on the walls. Nasu had to cover both his nose and mouth, but that didn’t stop him from coughing a few times. He anxiously waited for the smoke to clear up, but he was confident the door wouldn’t be able to withstand his powerful attack, but, once again, it resisted! – This can’t be true! – he exclaimed in anger. Not only had the door resisted, but it wasn’t even scratched by his energy wave, and that made even madder. – ENOUGH!!!!! I WILL ATTACK WITH ALL MY POWER!!!! NO DOOR WILL STOP THE MIGHTY NASU!!!! SCREW YOU, STUPID OBJECT!!!! REVEL WHAT LIES BEHIND YOU!!! – he screamed as his energy started to charge around his right clenched fist in a fiery-like energy that covered all his hand. In a blink of an eye, the young saiyan warrior charged against the door and delivered his extremely powerful energy punch. – SUPER TYRANT LANCER!!! – Nasu concentrated all of his technique power on his fist and hit the door. His attack generated a thud, and he felt like his wrist had just broken, along with the bones on his knuckles. The young saiyan screeched and took a couple tumbling steps backwards, holding his broken hand. The door was there, impregnable, and his hand was dripping with blood. His white glove got completely scorched by his own attack, and after a couple seconds agonizing in pain, he fell to his knees, hopeless.

To his immense surprise, his blood happened to be the key to the locked room, and a small computer screen on the door beeped countless times, like it was processing something. This noise brought him back from the agony of his broken hand. – W-what?! – he asked no one in particular.

”DNA recognized. Natto and Tomoroko’s DNA confirmed. Offspring number one, Nasu. Age 20. Power Level 32,224. Opening door…”

He was amazed and awestruck by that computer, and it most definitely was a work from his grandmother. The door opened and smoke came out of it, showing how tightly locked it was. When it opened, lights were turned on inside the very large chamber, showing a room filled with scrolls, computers and a gravity machine in the middle of the room. Nasu’s eyes widened a lot, and he also arched his brows. ”I can’t believe it!” he thought to himself, as he slowly got back on his feet, slowly walking inside the secret room under his father’s old training dojo. Nasu obviously headed straight to the gravity panel on the center of the room and, unknown to him, it was the ancient Star Javelin’s gravity machine, that could reach up to impressive one hundred and fifty times normal gravity. The young saiyan tried to use the controls, but it wasn’t working, it was like time had destroyed part of the engines required for simulating the enhanced gravity. He sighed in disappointment when he realized that. ”What a shame… And I got all fired up for nothing…” he said inside his mind, frustrated, but, when was about to look for something else, the hard-light hologram device on the room activated and, to his surprise, the image of his father, Natto, had appeared.

– F-father?! – for a brief second, he thought that it was his living father in flesh. – Nasu, my son… If you are in here, I’m probably dead right now… - the illusion said, and with those words, his glimpse of hope was extinguished once again, and he sighed in sadness, feeling his eyes getting watered with tears that he fought his hardest not to shed. ”A hard-light hologram…” he concluded. – I may not know the circumstances of my death, but from the records the computer harvested from your blood, you are still young and unskilled, therefore I conclude that I died young and left you… For that, I’m truly sorry. – The illusory Natto said. Nasu just sighed again, without saying a single word. – I also noticed, by analyzing your blood, that your power level is still below the triggering point… In other words, you are still unable to access the super saiyan form and know just the basic about our martial arts school. – the illusion said in a friendly and kind tone his father would probably use, despite the robotic sort of structure of the sentences. ”Yeah… You died and I was left all alone…” he thought, bitter on the inside. – And with that in mind, with the help of your mother and grandmother, I developed this secret room on my last travel to Earth, under the ruins of our first headquarter. I thought curiosity would eventually lead you and your brother to this place! – Natto said and gently smiled. Nasu arched one of his eyebrows, quite impressed with such a degree of preparation.

”They really thought it thought, right?!” the young saiyan thought. – This facility will allow you to learn about the Soy School, and this hard light illusion of mine will be capable of training you. From what I’ve noticed, the gravity chamber is no longer working, and that’s a shame. This will turn sparring sessions impossible, but I can still teach you the way I learned, and if you are dedicated enough, you will be able to master this style in time, and hopefully your brother will too. – he said, pausing for a brief second. – Are you willing to undertake this training? – he asked. Nasu finally shed a tear, that was quickly wiped from his face by his left hand, that still had a white glove on it. The illusion patiently waited for his answer, and Nasu surely took his time, sniffing and avoiding further tears, until he shyly nodded. – Y-yes, I’m. – for the first time in many years, Nasu was behaving like a more innocent child, that was just happy to be near one thing that resembled his real father from afar. It was the best he could have, so he wouldn’t complain about it.

With that answer, Natto’s illusion smiled. – I’m glad to hear that… Be sure to bring your brother here when you have the chance! By my calculations, he is already thirteen! He is old enough to be taught! And I’m sorry I’m taking this long to train you… I bet I died a while ago, or something else happened! – he said, and Nasu nodded. ”Sorry dad, but I don’t think I will be able to bring Koma anytime soon… I will still have to beat some sense into that thick head of his, but I promise you I will bring him back to the Alliance, even if it costs my life!” he made a promise to the memory of his father inside his mind. Back when they met, Nasu was too infatuated with his pride and desires of revenge to actually pay a real attention to what really mattered. Obviously he wouldn’t magically mature from this one encounter with the digital ghost of his father, but this experience was surely planting a seed of fraternal love back inside his heart.

– Okay then, on that bookcase you will find a lot of scrolls detailing the basic of the Soy School teachings! Please take your time to read them, as they are necessary for us to begin your training! – Natto said, pointing towards a bookcase near a large green-colored computer screen. The young saiyan nodded to the hard-light hologram and slowly walked towards the bookcase; there were plenty of scrolls there and they were absurdly preserved. Nasu, however, couldn’t help himself but to wonder why did his father use scrolls instead of the computer to record the teachings. This made him turn his head towards the illusion. – Dad, why did you write it on paper?! Wouldn’t a computer be much better and faster? – he inquired. Ghost Natto nodded and chucked a bit. – Indeed, son, but this room as a safety gauge! If someone manages to break through the katchim door! – he said, pointing towards the entrance. ”Katchim! Now it makes sense!” he thought to himself upon discovering that that door was made from the best metal in the whole universe. ”I guess it’s no surprise that the strongest on the universe would have found a way to harness such precious material… But, wow… Now I know just how strong that thing is! I would’ve died before I could even make a dent on that!” he thought, feeling slightly frustrated with himself, due to the fact that an object could pose a greater challenge than he could, but there was no use crying over that fact.

– Then this whole place would blow up and be scorched by flames. Well… I fought powerful androids in the past, one in special who was the leader of Earth’s military force. Back at the time he could rival my power as an ascended super saiyan. – he mentioned, making Nasu quite surprised. ”Rival an ascended super saiyan?! But how could that be true?!” he asked himself in disbelief. ”I’m starting to understand how insane people’s power were back then… Somehow I’m glad most of those monsters are already dead…” he discretely nodded to himself, before hearing his father again. – Even after some serious destruction, computers sometimes can be scavenged for information, and that would put the secret of my fighting style at risk! Those scrolls, however, being made of paper, are quite easily destructed! Therefore, the risk of exposure is at its minimum. – he said, making Nasu finally comprehend his thoughts. ”Clever…”. Natto walked near Nasu. – Take care of those scrolls. Don’t take them all at once. Grab one, study it, master that and go get another one. Once you dominate the basic of the martial art, you will be ready to train under this hard-light hologram of mine. – Natto said, waiting for his son’s answer. Nasu nodded to his dad and responded. – I will do as you say, dad… I will be taking my leave then… I don’t want to waste any more time! – he said, grabbing the scroll who was numbered as “lesson one”. Just as Nasu grabbed the scroll, Natto spoke again. – When you leave, just close the door. I already configured it to read your power level. The door will open as you approach, but only if you are alone. Should you bring Koma with you, I will need you to harvest a bit of his blood for the computer to recognized, understood? – Then, Nasu stopped near the door and stared back to his father’s digital ghost with the corner of his eyes. – Okay, understood! See you son, father! – he said, cracking a subtle but honest smile on his face for the first time in a very long time. – I missed talking to you, even if it’s not really you. – he said, in all honesty he had. – I bid you farewell, Nasu. Be safe! I will be waiting for your return! – he said, before vanishing in the blink of an eye. Too see him vanishing made Nasu’s heart sad, but he knew, deep inside, that his father wasn’t actually there to begin with. It was an illusion, a comfort for the fools, but also the living proof that his parents always cared about them. ”Once I’m ready, I will show you this, Koma… And kick that stupid Empire bullshit out of your little stupid brains… I will save you and bring you back to the right side again! Even if I have to murder every single Empire motherfucker alive on this goddamn universe! Mark my words, little brother!!! I will bring you back even if I have to beat you to the pulp!” he thought to himself, as he made his way back to the exit of the ruined training dojo. The Katchim door sealed behind him, keeping everything safe until he managed to return to continue his learning.

Now that all the emotional hurricane was done, he was feeling extremely excited as he was finally taking his first real steps into mastering the powerful Soy School, and becoming a fearsome fighter. Plenty of times, technique is far more important in battle than sheer power level and speed, and he couldn’t wait to surprise his foes with all the amazing techniques he was about to learn with his father’s teachings. ”Just wait, you rotten beings… You will feel my wrath once I’m ready… And, for the time being, I will play nice… Vengeance is better served cold...” he chuckled a bit, as a mischievous, almost evil smirk appeared on his face.

Back at the surface, Nasu put his weighted battle suit back, feeling that annoying discomfort again, but paid little mind to it. On the next second, he had already flared his ghostly-white ki aura around his body and flying towards his cavern: he had plenty to study.