A New Kame-sennin! The Island of Terror [Solo]

It was early in the morning; perhaps sooner than the times that Cornatto usually woke up to start the day with his usual tasks; delivering milk, do this, that, etc. A whole bunch of apparently useless and boring jobs but it was truly for the best! The Saiyan had benefited a lot not only from the Kamesennin’s teachings with the techniques he had shown him, which at times, but it also didn't even seem like he was trying to teach him. The mouse’s goal was for the Saiyan to figure out by himself what he wanted him to learn and how he was supposed to do it. It wasn’t even that difficult for the Saiyan apparently; his past battle experiences that had forged his mind and body were surely useful, but Saiyans themselves as a race were well known to be born fighters. It was evident that they’d excel in something like Martial Arts-- else it’d be pretty stupid, wouldn’t it?

Then again, training with the Kamesennin had been pretty much out of the ordinary that far; while it was pretty much a simple training regimen, it was one that Cornatto had never experienced during his time with Natto. Most of the time, the two trained personally as the fellow Saiyan managed to teach the other the secrets of his martial arts; which were useful! He was still somewhat rusty, but nothing he couldn’t manage to fix-- especially with the help that the mouse had given him with the earthling martial arts that far. But, regardless of that, the Earthling Saiyan felt like he also needed to put some effort of his own into it. It was only natural for the body to get rusty if he couldn’t even get some training done. He had trained a lot with his daughter, but yet it wasn’t apparently enough for it to do much of an effect on his body. He had somewhat been gentle and lenient on his daughter’s training, and it was usually never enough for him to feel anything from it.

“Speaking of my daughter, I’d go and see what she's up to one of these days. I left her hanging around the planet, but it shouldn’t be an issue tracking her.” - he had thought to himself before his attention shifted as he felt someone walking up the stairs; Cornatto was sitting with his legs crossed on the floor, waiting for the Kamesennin to go and call him out for his usual routine. He was still somewhat sore from yesterday’s training; the old mouse had entrusted him with one of the strongest techniques he knew of the Turtle School, and such was the Kienzan, or also known as the Destructo Disk. And while this technique didn’t have a massive power output, it was sure deadly!

He didn’t exactly remember who was the one who created the tech; if he remembered right it was Krillin, either him or that Roshi guy! He wasn’t interested in who made the technique but rather the usage! And he listened to his mentor intently as he showed him how the method was like, but it was difficult nonetheless. For some reason, he couldn’t exactly get the last part right; the one where he’d have shaped the attack for it to cut his opponent, however, he was obviously going to fix that shortly. Or to be precise, the moment that Cornatto would have had a chance to train with it.

After a few minutes, the one who had been walking up the stairs obviously revealed himself to be the old rodent who seemed somewhat serious that day-- almost as if something bad had happened and stared at the Saiyan blankly before he spoke up.

“Hey, Cornatto. I didn’t expect you to be already awake, what would you ever be doing up so early?” - asked the rat.

The Earthling Saiyan immediately turned and smirked, lifting up a hand in greeting. “Hiya, Kamesennin! I just woke up somewhat early today, no real reason!”

The old rat nodded and continued, “Well, that is good because for today I have a little task in mind for you…”

Cornatto tilted his head slightly; a small task? He hoped that it wasn’t another job like the ones he had been doing that far; delivering milk and all of that, Cornatto wasn’t fond of those even if the man understood what their point was, but he couldn’t exactly just not do as his master instructed him, and so immediately nodded. “Sure, what is it about?”

The Kamesennin cleared his throat, rubbing his chin while speaking. “Uh huh, well… you see! There’s a set of herbs I need you to collect me; it’s on an island not too far away from it. If you fly without your shell, it will take you less than five or ten minutes at best. Are you up for it?”

The Earthling Saiyan wasn’t exactly ‘excited’ at the prospective of that job, he hoped for something that required more action other than just walking around to find something that was probably placed by the old man the day before, and possibly in some place that not even Cornatto could have hoped to find. “Hmm, yeah sure! Want me to go right now?”

The old rat nodded. “If you could, yes. It’s crucial.”

Crucial? Why so? He didn’t exactly know how a herb could be that important to someone who barely knew how to cook, but then again he could have probably expected everything from someone like the Turtle Hermit; especially after the things he had done that far, he had even tried to make Cornatto read his perv magazines! Ugh, he still shuddered whenever he thought of those images.

“Alright then!” - exclaimed the man, standing up as he immediately took off and flew out of the window; he’d usually do the same every morning, the only difference is that he’d jump out the window while wearing his turtle shell. But, just like the rat told him, he wasn’t wearing it for the task the old man had entrusted him.

Cornatto flew at high speed towards the direction that the Kamesennin previously pointed him out too, his ghostly white aura flaring as he was that fast that it almost felt like he cut through the air. It was only natural for him to feel like that after that long, it had been like twenty years since he trained as hard as he did with the Kamesennin. Possibly even more, because he didn’t have a good memory when it came to things like that, but it was more or less so.

After like five minutes, the man had reached his destination; the place looked nothing like what he had expected it to be; it looked like one of those islands you’d see in some horror comic of sorts. The trees themselves seemed to be even older than the planet itself with their dark leaves and rotten trunk. But, that wasn’t apparently enough to scare the Saiyan; he floated down to the ground, taking a look around as it looked like your typical forest in the Easter Lands-- just darker.

“Uhh, can some herb seriously grow in a place like this?” - he muttered under his breath, glancing around as he decided to make his way through the thick forest. He was one used to such environments, but for some reason, no matter how much he walked, it felt like he was nowhere close to reaching the other end.

“What’s up with this place… Hmmm, I feel like there’s something more to it now. There’s no way that he could have sent me here just for taking something from this place.” - he thought to himself.

And so he walked. He was determined, and was certainly going to find that herb the old man had requested him to obtain; which, now that he thought about it, whose appearance was even unknown to the Saiyan. And there he realized he should have probably asked him as to how it looked, or even how it smelled; anything that could have helped Cornatto finding it.

He huffed, pouting a bit as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I've been looking here for ages, and there’s nothing here. Maybe this is the wrong island.” - he said to himself, and at that point, he was about to fly away, but before he could even take off the ground, suddenly the sky got darker. Was it night already? No, it was the island. The plants had gotten taller and were blocking the Saiyan’s way to the outside.

“W-what?!” - exclaimed the man, raising an eyebrow as he found himself facing some dome made out of plants that left no chance for escaping. However, he had to say that it was getting interesting! He had expected some other boring job, but this was already much than what he had expected from one of his tasks. But then, something tingled his senses; a ki blast was heading in his way. Cornatto immediately moved out of the way, his expression hardening as he watched the ki blast exploding against the dome.

The ki blast left behind a trail of smoke that faded away shortly after, but Cornatto couldn’t feel any ki around him.

The Earthling Saiyan slowly turned around, lowering down his gaze as he caught sight of the person who had shot the blast at the man; a man made out of steel. Some would think it was some clown being an asshole, but Cornatto remembered that pale face pretty well. It was Metal Aspargus, an Android that the Empire sent to fight the Alliance soldiers, but he knew pretty well that it was more than just a lousy robot-- its power was even higher than a Super Saiyan Two such as Karota!

“You…” - he hissed, clenching his fist as he was evidently losing it just by the sight of that damn Android. It had been more than twenty years, but he still didn’t forget what had happened; not only this Android had managed to beat down both him and Karota but also killed a lot of the Alliance soldiers ruthlessly.

“What are you doing here?!” - demanded the Saiyan, but receiving no response from the fellow man whom, on the other hand, charged at the Saiyan with a haymaker that hit him in the face; forcing his head to turn to the side. The Saiyan didn’t move at all, he resisted the pain of his punch and drew back from his fist before he landed one of his own in his face and sent him flying away.

“I won’t lose to the likes of you again!” - roared the man, powering up into his Super Saiyan form as his persona shined with a golden aura. Pointless to say, that the robot had triggered within the person a series of memories from the war; and no matter how much he tried, the Saiyan couldn’t get rid of them. Then, he descended to the ground and lowered himself into a fighting stance; his arm placed overhead and flanked by another close to the ground with both his knees bent. “I’ll end this quickly…! Meteor Crash!!!” - cried out the man before taking off and charging towards Aspargus, who had just stopped mid-air from the Saiyan’s blow, but then he was soon sent flying once more as the Saiyan side kicked him up into the air.

However, he wasn’t done with that bastard yet. He followed him up in the air and landed a roundhouse punch to him, that once more forced him to fly away and Cornatto rushed all the way around him so that he could get behind him and elbow him into the stomach the moment the robot turned around. Despite being an Android, he looked to be painful at the moment, even if he couldn’t exactly spit blood or anything like that.

“And this is only the beginning!” - exclaimed the man, attacking the Android with a rush of kicks and punches and kicked him once more up in the air. But this time the man disappeared and reappeared behind him; halting his flight with a knee in the back, before sending him flying down to the ground as he lifted both of his hands up and struck him with a double axe handle.

As the Android hit the ground, the impact lifted up a huge amount of debris, but once the smoke faded away, the Android was once more visible. He was standing almost as if nothing had just happened. However, there was something different; there was an electric field around him similar to the one when a person would stun a person with the Thunder Shock Surprise. He didn’t exactly realize the sense of it, but on the other hand, Metal Aspargus wasn’t going to wait for the man to make the next move. He lifted up his hand and aimed a finger at the Saiyan as he charged a laser beam.

“Die.”

He fired it, and it passed through-- Cornatto’s afterimage. The Android widened his eyes, turning around only to see the man who spread his legs, with his palm lifted up in the air. It was time for that technique that the Kamesennin had tried to teach him last night, but this time it had to be perfect if he wanted it to damage Aspa.

He suddenly created out a razor-shaped disk out of nowhere, and before the Android could realize what was going on, he tossed it at the man, and this time, the attack passed through. Or to be precise, cut through his opponent and what was left of Aspa was nothing more other than a mechanical bust and legs that suddenly turned into a cloud of smoke and disappeared. Not only that but also the dome made out of plants did.

For some reason, the Earthling Saiyan didn’t seem surprised in the slightest and even less when he saw a little herb that had grown on the spot where the Android was once standing. Cornatto’s features seemed to soften, reverting to his base form before he chuckled.

“It was kind of obvious! No way that the damn robot could be so weak-- he was much stronger back then, and as an Android, he can’t get weaker than that.” - he said to himself before lowering himself on one knee, gracefully collecting the herb from the ground before he took off, flying away in the direction of the Kame House.

And then!

“Oh-hoy, well it seems that I’ve nothing left to teach you then.”

The Earthling Saiyan was once more on the Kame House, and as soon as he arrived, he showed the herb that he was holding in his hand and explained him everything that had happened.

“Huh? Seriously?”

“Mhm, you’ve done everything I had in store for you. You’ve successfully passed the trials of the Turtle School, congratulations. I expected no less from you since even before you were my student, I had realized that you’d have surpassed the master sooner or later. I didn’t expect it to be so fast, though.” - he said, letting out a faint chuckle.

The Earthling Saiyan grinned, rubbing the back of his neck. “Haha, well thanks! And uh, what are you going to do now?”

The old rat stroked his chin briefly, turning his back on the Saiyan. “Hmm, I think I’ll go back to the Kame Island and finally take some rest. I don’t have much to do here anyways, feel free to pay me a visit anyways. Kamesennin. Tehehe.” - he said before turning once more to look at the Saiyan, holding up two fingers in a ‘V’ sign.

Cornatto’s grin shifted into a warm smile as he nodded. “Yes! I’ll be back one of these days, see ya old timer!” - said the man before he took off, flying away.

“Huh… I’d probably go check up on Kabocha. It’s been quite a bit since I’ve heard from her.”