Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Introspection in the Tub.
I sighed, letting my body sink into the hot bath. Was this the first real bath I had in this new body? I wasn't nearly as grimy as I should have been, but I had taken a nice hot shower before my bath and now I was just soaking. Letting the hot water work its way into my bones.
I was now in my new living space, the fighting rings living quarters, but more like a city hotel. It was a single large living room with a large window facing out to the cavern city just outside. A single large bed, a small fridge and a television set on the wall. A pair of small nightstands with drawers, I half expected the typical contents and was only half right. Inside was a small pile of local restaurants and their numbers.
It was a step up from just a few hours ago. I imagine this lodging is infinitely better than what lay below. The air is purified, kept at just the right temperature, and has hot water. I was essentially a new fighter for the arena, the cage boss, the man that let me into the ring was impressed by me, impressed by my origin. Just remembering what happened in that hallway makes me chuckle.
I had been facing him in the tunnels around the ring, just beyond the door. Even before I took a step a medic had run up to me to see my cut only to look confused, it had healed already. He double checked me before reluctantly letting me walk to the man that let me participate. Now I was seeing him a second time I found myself actually paying attention to him.
Red skin, a horseshoe mustache, the hair like his head was a steely grey almost like steel wool. It gleamed and something told me it was sharp, his hair slicked back and done in a small ponytail. He wore shades that did little to hide the glowing yellow Cat-eye pupils. He wore a tight T-shirt that marked him as a staff member, a lanyard around his neck. He was muscular, well built.
Once I finished, he took a step forward, "Rettas I presume?" He says with a grin showing sharp metallic teeth. I grinned back and gripped his hand, our two hands tensing testing.
"A good grip." He compliments as we separate. "Good work in the ring, your performance, your ability to work with your fellow fighters, and even your story was a hit." I nod along to his praises.
"Well, it was less a story and more my life." He freezes at my reply, likely completely aware he just stepped on me and unsure how to respond.
"That's fine too, but we can't just hire you out of nowhere. What brings you to this planet? Our ring? There are plenty of other rings for you to make your name at." Well, that's fine.
"You were the closest, I got my ship impounded for illegally crossing republic territory in my ship. I need funds to pay off my debt and figured fighting in a ring would be the best use of my time."
He nods along. "Sounds fair, but we'll need to confirm this, is that all right?"
"Not a problem."
"Good. Do you have a place to stay?"
"Nope."
"If you want, we can house in our rooms and take the cost out of your winnings. At least until we confirm your words?"
"Sounds good, what can I do about food?"
"Fighters get access to a shared mess hall, but… Mm… I can forward your pay to your account… You don't have one, do you?"
"No accounts, nothing."
"Well… your earnings were substantial, for today we'll cover the cost of anything you order. Tomorrow we should be able to confirm your words and if nothing goes wrong, we can hire you officially."
"Sounds great." It really did, I was exhausted, hungry, tired.
And fast forward I am now here. On the way up he better explained his position. He was the manager of the ring. He planned out the fights and timeslots. Apparently, me showing up had saved the wasteland guy. Not that he'd ever know it.
I sigh, the water now warm and nowhere near as hot as before. Having a fully prehensile tail is… nice… I can scrub places I normally can't reach. The feeling of having places not normally meant to be reached scrubbed down was amazing. Like the sweet spot right between the shoulder blades. I probably spent a good hour or two just scrubbing and soaking in the hot shower.
Hygiene aside, I needed to make a plan. This tower was a good place to stay, I could almost feel the energy in the air. I wasn't sure if they were aware, but this tower was built in a perfect place. It was right where a major dragon vein could be, the feng shui was perfect. I could feel the pulse of drawn energy pulled in from its surroundings. It congregated in the base where the cage fights occurred.
The emotions, the life and death. Everything that happened in the base purified the miasma of negative emotions below and purified it, pumping and refreshing it through the cavern. It was obvious to me since I had spent a couple of years dealing with the squid planet core. But there was more to it, something more in the air.
It had a metallic tang to it. A tang that I found… important somehow. After the kaiju squid I felt empty, drained, or perhaps truly satisfied. For two years it kept my blood quiet as I focused my energy on improving the squidizens. But my blood still burned. The heat had been growing and I didn't want to be waiting on the planet much longer, which is why I had left so fast.
I was impatient, but I couldn't just leave the planet unfinished. It was a nagging feeling; one I knew that wouldn't go away if I didn't finish it now. Which is why I held on, why I waited so much longer than I should have. Like finishing a side quest so you don't have to come back later.
I wasn't sure how I'd do around other people, but being confronted with something so familiar, something so… mundane. It put me on the backfoot. Being detained for illegal border crossing? Like, this was an intergalactic civilization. Could they even enforce border policies?
It almost seemed hilarious that they would try to maintain a barrier in the void of space when terrestrial nations can't even build a simple wall to separate borders. I digress though, being in a wholly familiar situation had me playing along, near collapsing when I was confronted with the terrifying similarities.
The crowds, the press of bodies. The eyes, judging and watching. The clustered mass of bodies seeking to choke the life and breath from you. The feeling that your individuality is being stripped away as you move with the masses. Like a single fish in a school, I felt less myself, less who I now was.
The person I had been, found themselves put to the fore, but it was perhaps by happen stance I recovered. A reminder of just how strong I actually was. I was invincible on this world. Brief looks through my scouter only confirmed these thoughts. I wasn't sure how, but it only solidified just how amazing my attack ball and scouter were as plot devices.
My attack ball was actively hacking into various systems and networks. All of which fed back securely to my scouter. It detailed the planets weaponry and even military capacity. Even uploading statistical analysis of their potential power. Simply put, nothing could beat me if I tried.
The biggest threats were a fleet of mechs, but the designations were strange. The military used massive mecha and power suits for the infantry. Most tanks were designed more for point defense, whereas light vehicles were practically non-existent. The ships in the atmosphere would be trouble, but they were paper tigers. Outdated, poorly maintained, and finally only had skeleton crews manning it.
The border fleets were a bigger threat, but they constantly moved around and rarely stopped at planets beyond refueling and re-arming. Funnier still was how the attack ball picked out the report on how I was caught. A fluke. The spacecraft was too small for normal detection and from afar looked like a typical meteor or piece of space junk flying.
Except some idiot, or perhaps a genius had believed my ship wasn't space debris, but an actual ship. Which meant a ship was separated from the fleet and sent to intercept me. Which led to my current situation… I could check on my ship through cameras or even hacking into the holding docks cameras easily enough. Hell, I could talk through a built-in microphone and yell at any questionable people if need be.
Which led to my current predicament. I could leave whenever I want, but… Something in the air kept me here. It was difficult to explain, but it was like something in the air took the edge off the hunger. Like, the burning in my blood, the need for battle was dampened by something in the air.
I had no idea what it was, but the effect was amplified whilst I stayed here in the tower. I almost felt content. But it was less like a full meal and more like I had a tasty morsel. A small holdover snack that just kept on coming. I was curious, what was this feeling? What was causing this dampening effect? And mostly, could I use it?
I never watched much beyond Dragon Ball Z… I was certain it had another two whole series. A whole ton of movies to boot. I never even watched the original Dragon Ball… Ugh, I really should have… It was always on my list, but I never made the time. Dragon Ball Z though, well, frankly like most kids in the west I remember growing up with it. Watching it on Toonami was my go too.
Most of what I know is a mix of what I remember and from the many junk Xianxia novels I read on my downtime. And one thing I knew was I needed to figure out what was causing this feeling, this faux satisfaction. Letting myself be driven into constant battles, constantly seeking stronger and stronger battles, well… It's not a way to live.
I want strength, I want to be the strongest, unfettered, unbeatable, but if I destroy everything on the way to the top, what's the point? I want to enjoy the benefits of my power. I want people to worship me and acknowledge my power. Something only made obvious as I stood in that ring. Even my blood agreed with me.
Saiyan's gained strength for no one but themselves. I don't want to run into a situation like the cast of Dragon Ball where I simply sit on my laurels. I knew there was a super Saiyan transformation, knew it was possible. And that very knowledge was like a drug to my psyche, pushing me to keep improving and going.
If I followed that emotion, I'd likely crack. If I let myself be carried away, well what's the point? However, even if this planet held nothing for me, I couldn't just sit back and do nothing. I was improving my fighting ability, or at least my battle sense and I hoped it would improve more as I fought in battles. Assuming they even let me.
But that wasn't enough… I couldn't train my Ki blasts, not if I want to improve my stance and combat ability. I was so used to simply flying around that I near constantly stuttered on the ground against the butcher, it was embarrassing. I should have been able to tear him apart in a near instant…
I also didn't realize just how much I was starving for attention. Rettas never had any real companions. Her parents hadn't ever acknowledged her, spoken to her, let alone met her. No Saiyan would ever care about those weaker than them. Even I, I found myself desiring the attention. Remembering how I acted with the butcher, how I reacted like a kid. Almost desperate for praise to boot…
It was embarrassing. It wasn't until I was confronted by The Dicer that I realized why I had bothered. Which meant I was now dedicated to earning my money for my debt in a legitimate way, but… It wouldn't be fun if I just kept ratcheting up my power for every challenge. I need a limitation, and also I needed a feasible power to lean on for a trump card.
Something I'd never use…
I sigh… The water was cold… I cup some water, staring at it. Idly, or more out of boredom I use my telekinesis I had. It was barely enough for such a small pool of water. I spun it, feeling the strain in my head as it spun and spun. On instinct, no, or perhaps boredom I place it on my fingertip, miming the finger gun.
"Bang." I said the water ball shooting up, just a little before plopping back into the cold water. I stare at the rippling water, the feeling in my brain like an unused muscle stretched and used… and it clicked.
I couldn't always use Ki… Somethings might be able to resist my ki or even completely subvert it. I needed to boost my mental protection to protect my mind from mind readers and also mind attacks. As I was, my mind was like a shoddy shack and leaving it like that when I had the means to improve it was like skipping leg day.
I got out of the water, letting the water run down my body as I grab my scouter and immediately query it for ESP users or such… The results were, astonishing. Real life Scanners like from the movie named such, people able to manipulate fire and water. Aliens with unique abilities that could only be explained by psionic potential.
My soul howl was powerful, even able to improve my own soul a bit, but how would my defenses hold up against a targeted assault? My own soul howl was no more than a large area mental attack really. People could resist it because it was just a wide area attack and not a targeted knife. Not to mention that it was most effective at point blank range.
Training my telekinetic, or psionic potential that damn squid giant had woken by its attempt at raping my mind. Well, that was something I needed to do. It wouldn't directly contribute to my power, not when I could just smash my problems like a true protagonist. But it was an ounce of prevention for an ounce of cure. It would prevent brainwashing attempts body swaps, like Ginyu had and I bet existed.
I wasn't sure if my ki could smack ghosts, but I was certain psionics could. Not to mention absurd energy beings, like that one weird frog thing… I think it was during the tournament arc after the cell arc? I just remember Goku overloading it with ki and blowing it up despite it being an energy eater. To be frank, that was silly and perfectly Saiyan too… But… Why should I do that if I could just mind wipe it with a thought?
I may also need it for my next level. I don't remember much about what lies beyond super Saiyan. I think I had two bulk up phases still in the Saiyan form. And I also remember the super long-haired version against the pink blob. I wasn't sure if it was actually a form or not, but it felt like it should be.
Either way, I get to work on my ground technique and my mental abilities. Even if I wasn't likely to gain much power over this time period, it's as a saying goes… Time spent sharpening an axe isn't wasted time. Making sure you have a sharp axe is integral to cutting trees and chopping wood. Same with having a sharp mind and body.
I dry myself off, stepping out into the cool room that was mine. I wore the scraps of what was once my under suit. It looked… Uh, interesting. It hardly changed since the fight, but I think this was the first time I had taken off my boots in… gosh, I don't even know!? But my under suit was now in four pieces. A single circular part for my chest, tight underwear for my lower body and a pair of socks…
I didn't bother putting on my boots as I tested if they were still good, but whatever the material was they didn't smell off or even get that dirty… Meh, my old clothes though, my borrowed clothes? Done for. Cuts and dirt and smelled and such.
Now dressed, and my discarded clothes thrown into a corner. I call up some food on the company's bill. Tonight, I feast!!!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone