Chapter 21 - Training

Korosu hovers calmly on the ground in a sitting position, his brow creased up in concentration. Heavy winds blow around him, swirling at higher intensities as he falls deeper into his meditation. Beads of sweat have slowly begun to drift down his face, and within minutes there is a small puddle of it underneath him. The intensive winds get to their peak, and begin to create a swirling vortex. Many things are sucked into it from atop the beautiful lookout, and it quickly attracts everyone’s attention. They immediately stop their training and gaze in awe at the aura that has seemingly spontaneously been created as a miracle of nature. Being at such high power levels as they are, it requires little effort to plant themselves firmly on the ground, but even so it is an incredible sight to behold.

Only Vegeta has noticed the power of the aura, able to sense Korosu’s familiar signature on it, and managing to figure out just how strong it is. It is then that it occurs to him that all this is being controlled by the Saiyan’s mind. The prince cannot believe that such a weak individual can create such an amazing force by use of telekinesis. Rapidly the swirling wind gains power until it slowly pulls the rooftops off the small rooms dotted across the palace-like grounds. Before it can completely destroy the surroundings though, the havoc-wreaking gale finally comes to a halt, and gradually disappears, losing all of its power.

Everyone hastily searches for the source of the wind, believing that there is no way that there can be a natural hurricane of a wind like that. Vegeta sees them all scampering around and looking for problems in the air currents and lookout, and grunts in disgust. He then does the sensible thing and locates Korosu’s KI. Within moments he has found it, albeit an extremely weak version, making him march over with a degree of concern. What the Saiyan prince finds is a sight he certainly could not have predicted in even his wildest of dreams – Korosu lies on the floor, completely motionless, his torso a bloody wreck, and his face almost sucked of all its life. In a frantic panic, Vegeta grabs the injured Saiyan by the scruff of his neck, and hurriedly pulls him to the centre square of the lookout. This consists of a comparatively large clearing, isolated from the remainder of the lookout, which is scattered with exquisite architecture. It is often used as a place to train, or the host of a meeting or announcement.

Vegeta drops Korosu onto the floor, and everyone is immediately surrounding the two, desperately trying to figure out what has happened. Gohan is frozen with horror, thinking that this nice man is going to die, as his power keeps on facing a demeaning descent. Vegeta looks down thoughtfully, almost showing signs of sympathy on his cold, hard face. It doesn’t take long for Kami to pick up on the goings on, and quickly hatch a plan.

“Goku, go and get a sensu bean off Karin, tell him that I need it” the old Namek quickly said. “The rest of you, get back to training, there’s nothing any of you can do to help him now. Bardock, Goku, I want to see the two of you sparring in the training room. Piccolo, Gohan, you two can practice your moves…but I suggest that you do it back on Earth because the conditions are better.” Piccolo nods his approval, and prepares to take off with his newly acquired training partner, and best friend. Before they go though, Kami puts his hand on the Namek’s shoulder. “Return tomorrow, and you two shall use the room of spirit and time. Good luck.”

Piccolo and Gohan nod once more, almost robotically, then speedily wrap themselves in their own blindingly bright KI, before diving off the edge of the lookout, and flying off to train elsewhere.

“Kami!” a voice shouts loudly from behind God, making him jerk round hastily. “Catch!” the voice hollered, completely taking the Namek by surprising. Somehow Kami managed to get his hand up to make the catch, albeit barely. He looks at his hand, and sees a sensu bean inside it, looks at is hesitantly, then scurries over to Korosu. “Thank you Goku” he calls out on his way to the battered Saiyan.

Vegeta looks on as Korosu is fed the magic bean, and slowly regains his energy. He sits up in disbelief, not really knowing what has happened. When he sees Kami, Vegeta, and the welcoming face of Goku, he realizes that his meditation went dreadfully wrong. The Saiyan forces a smile, then squints in pain as he holds his head. The action of the bean slowly takes affect as Korosu’s pain gradually deteriorates. He manages to struggle up to his feet, then gazes around at everyone surrounding him, all looking on expectantly, as if waiting for an explanation.

“I…I was meditating…I pushed myself too hard I guess…” Korosu stammered, slightly shocked by the impact of him passing out.

“Damn right you were you idiot! You almost killed yourself!” Vegeta shouted, almost in a caring way. “It was you who caused that wind wasn’t it!” the Saiyan demanded to know.

“Yeah”

“Care to elaborate on how?”

“I just pictured this wind in my mind, and concentrated really hard. Kami taught it to me while you were practicing your attacks. It can be really useful if you’re trying to learn a new technique, or want to test your power.”

“Why did you hold on for so long?”

“I didn’t want to give in to the pain, I really thought I could beat it!”

“You idiot!” Vegeta yelled, enraged at his teammate almost killing himself. “If you die then we’ve got less of a chance against Frieza! I may need you to be a decoy, or distraction or something!”

“And for a second I thought you were being compassionate” Korosu joked. Vegeta merely grunted at him arrogantly, then walked off. “Sorry Kami” the Saiyan said dejectedly, looking up at his trainer but avoiding eye contact.

“Korosu, I want you to do 10,000 press-ups” Kami said, almost ignoring Korosu’s previous actions. “After you’ve done that you can do 10,000 sit ups without any rest. After that I’d like to see 10,00 squats and then stretch if off. Oh yeah, and you seem to have torn those weighted clothes I gave you, well here’s some new ones”. The Namek held out his hand, and yelled, emitting a beam right at Korosu. The Saiyan’s old clothes were replaced by brand new ones, which take him down to one knee.

“Ka…Kami! These are heavier than before!” Korosu whinged.

“They’ll make you stronger then” The Namek casually replied, walking off and leaving Korosu to do the exercises set to him. Not wanting to disobey God, the Saiyan does what was asked of him, although had a lot of trouble even doing one press up, due to the hugely increased weight which he was now carrying.

‘I can sense a great potential in that one’ Kami thought to himself, referring to Korosu. ‘I hope those weighted clothes will help him gain the most from his training.’

***

In the training room, Goku and Bardock are moving at almost undetectable rates, hitting hard and fast. Occasional flashes of light are scattered across the room along with numerous thuds and clattering sounds, signalling that the two are fighting. To any untrained eye, and even most well-trained ones, this would look like some sort of phenomena.

Bardock lunges forward and swings a wild punch for his sons head, but Goku effortlessly dodges the badly aimed attack, and moves in closer to Bardock, hitting him with an agonizingly harsh knee in the stomach. Not giving his dad any time to regain his composure, Goku slams his clenched fists into Bardock’s back, in an axe handle smash-style attack. The Saiyan falls to the floor at an unbelievably fast rate, hitting it incredibly hard, and having his forehead opened up.

Bardock gazes up at Goku, bloody face and all, and merely smiles. He gets to his feet, and cranks his neck, before stretching out his legs.

“Now it’s time to get serious boy”

“Bring it on old man!” Goku mocked, letting down his guard for a split second. This was more than Bardock needed, and he quickly capitalized on the opportunity and blasted a beam of KI at the powerful Saiyan. Goku easily manages to block it, taking most of the impact from it, and making it cause relatively little damage, but a lot of smoke. This was exactly what Bardock intending, and he charged into the smoke, rotated his waste slightly, then delivered a kick to his dear old sons face, with massive momentum. It was so forceful in fact that it sent Goku through the specially made reinforced walls, and made him skid across the floor agonizingly. Bardock doesn’t let his son gather his bearings though, and immediately goes straight back onto the offensive.

Goku shakes his head and holds his shoulder painfully, his dad hit him pretty damn hard considering that they were just sparring. Before he could contemplate his injury any further though, Bardock delivers a huge punch of epic proportions straight across his face, making Goku fly backwards, blood spurting forth from his lip, and his eyes almost completely glazed over. With excessive determination, Goku manages to regain control of his flight path, and comes to a halt, looking up to see the now familiar sight of Bardock viciously charging in with the goal of causing some damage.

Goku shakes off as much pain as possible, and then continues to stand his ground, not even bothering to put up any sort of defence. His father smiles, thinking that Goku has given up, and showing off his ignorance. As Bardock swings his fist, aiming for his son’s temples, Goku seemingly disappears, then reappears behind his dad. He extends him the same courtesy that Bardock showed him just a few seconds ago, and hits the old Saiyan hard in the ribs, sending him onto the floor, gasping for air. Goku takes a quick rest, obviously just as hurt, as these two seemingly equal warriors try to get a mental advantage. Bardock gets to his feet, and the two go at it again.

***

Korosu is grunting with every squat that he does, hanging his arms limply at his side, and holding his stomach in agony. Unusually, he has hairs that are out of place, and for a Saiyan this really is a rarity. Sweat also pours rapidly down his face, and there is literally an inch worth’s of it collected in a small puddle underneath him. His clothes are as wet as newly washed clothes, and thus have gained slightly more weight. Every single muscle in Korosu feels as if it has been pulled, and is aching with utmost agony. Not even he was used to doing such intensive training, and it is currently killing him, almost literally.

“9,999…” Korosu struggles to say as he squats down, his eyes squinted in pain, and his legs vividly shaking. All of his muscles are definitely bigger than before, and seem to be almost swelling with every second, bright red, and throbbing intensively. A vein appears on Korosu’s head as he fights hard to get back into a standing position, with his back completely straight. The muscle in his leg is completely tense, and is slowly losing feeling as he bends down, his rectum touching his heels for the last time as the final squat is achieved. “10,000!” Korosu manages to shout out loud before falling on the floor, unable to move due to the pure pain that is immersing him. He breathes heavily, with his chest rising to dizzying heights, then rapidly falling back down. His muscles begin to contract into their normal position, and he develops a huge, goofy grin on his face, proud of himself of finally achieving his task. “Looks like I’ll be camping out here for tonight” Korosu said thoughtfully, before closing his eyes, and immediately dropping out due to being so tired.

It must have been another 10 hours before Korosu woke up, and all of his muscles were still in pain. What he needed now was a nice long bath, but he didn’t have time to relax, as Frieza would be arriving very soon. The sleep was too lengthy anyway, and the only reason he was woken was because of two massive powers. It didn’t even occur to him that he was now sleeping on a bed rather than on the cold tiles of Kami’s floor. The Saiyan jumps out of bed, and immediately goes to see whom the power belonged to.

Apparently Korosu wasn’t the only one who was disturbed by the huge KI levels, as the others had gathered round the place that he’d just reached. The huge signatures were coming from the entrance to the room of spirit and time, and were roughly near his. One was slightly lower, and the other was about the same. Korosu couldn’t believe this, and he knew everyone’s comparative power levels off by heart, so it couldn’t be anyone he knew. Maybe they were strangers come to help them fight Frieza? That’s a doubtful outlook, but an optimistic one. Could it have been one of Frieza’s henchmen come to soften them up? Surely he couldn’t already have arrived! Korosu was dragged out of his thoughts as one of them spoke up.

“Yo guys!”

“K…Krillen?” Goku asked curiously, recognising the voice. Everyone looked at him oddly, not believing that one of these huge powers could possibly be that midget.

“In the flesh bro!” Krillen replied, smiling intently. “So what do you think of mine and Tien’s power levels then?”

“How…how did you increase by that much in one day?” Vegeta asked disbelievingly.

“The room of spirit and time” was Krillen’s simple answer. Tien could tell that everyone was looking at them both expecting more of an explanation, so he elaborated, explaining exactly how the room works, and its odd time compression system. Everyone was amazed by this, especially Piccolo who had just silently arrived with Gohan.

“We’re in next” Piccolo grunted, before casually walking past everyone into the room with Gohan accompanying him.

“Do me proud Gohan” Goku exclaimed to his son, giving him a going away hug. “Good luck Piccolo, I hope you manage to increase as much as Tien and Krillen have!”

“No problem Goku” was the Namek’s simple reply as he disappears into the misty regions of the room’s entrance.

Frieza is due to arrive soon, and whilst everyone’s power is rapidly increasing, it may not be enough to beat the evil fiend. Can Piccolo and Gohan become strong enough to defeat the dastardly menace? Only time will tell.