บท 11: Recuperation
Kakarot's spaceship is remarkable. Of course, Kakarot had explained that it is far faster than anything we could currently make, but when I find out exactly how fast it is I'm mind blown. Even Bulma wore a look of positive surprise when she realized exactly how incredible the technology is. While it would take a normal ship years to reach planets, this one takes only days, maybe just a month or two. This discovery alone has both Dr. Brief and Bulma all too enthusiastic to take apart the ship and start reverse-engineering the technology for our use. I'm impressed with how fast they work and how focused Bulma can be when she's doing something that seems to come so naturally. Knowing she was a genius is very different than seeing her in action for it is a lot more impressive, let's say. I'm disgruntled that I can't do much for now, but I'm more than happy to watch Doc Brief and Bulma do their work.
There's a major downside to being in a wheelchair and that is that people can just carry me off as they please, which is what happens often with Bulma's mother. I never caught her name and she never actually tried to rectify that so Bulma was kind enough to enlighten me. She likes me quite a lot, that much I can tell as she says so pretty often. She's a kind enough woman, weird, surprisingly young looking, but most of all quite weird. The only reason I let her move me around so much is that it's oftentimes to feed me and make sure I take my medications, something Bulma had made sure almost everyone knows so I can take it on time. She left me to my own devices for one day and I had failed to take my meds, so she doesn't let me do much on my own anymore.
"I've made some cookies today," says a smiling Panchy as she steals me from the lab once more. I look to Bulma for help, hoping she would keep me there a bit longer but she hardly glances at me. I do see her smiling though, and I wonder if she's amused by my plight. "Would you like some, darling?"
Accepting my fate I just nod to her question, not too opposed to having some cookies right now. I did feel like munching on something anyways.
Capsule corporation is huge, which I had learned on the very first day. Yes, from a look alone you can see the sheer size of the structure but when you're inside it feels far bigger. I worry I'll get lost on my own with all these rooms and halls and the likes. So far it hasn't happened yet as I started using Bulma's ki as a guide.
I'm brought off to a living area where an assortment of food is spread out on a medium-sized table. Panchy sure cooks a lot, and that's very much an understatement. You won't find me complaining, though, because I like food and I like to cook. Sometimes I watch her when she's making something I have no clue how to prepare and she even gives me the recipes with the promise to help me when I'm recovered. It's been just two days and I have an exhibition of recipes already.
She hands me a full plate of cookies before sitting next to me with my ointment and some bandages. Is it bandage time already? Hadn't I just showered and replaced them? A look at the clock indicates that it is three in the afternoon, long after I had showered and reapplied my bandages.
Wow, I really can't be trusted to do these things on my own.
Panchy makes conversation while she works, very careful when she applies the ointment to burned skin. It doesn't hurt anymore, just an odd feeling. The skin has gone from an angry purplish red to just a light shade of red now, proof that the ointment works as fast as the monks had promised. The burns truly will be gone within a week's time. Within these two days, I had been hoping I could get out of this wheelchair, but my legs still refuse to support me, so I'm left to wait a bit more. I can stand no problem, it's trying to walk that has my knees buckling. I'm still cursing that old man for doing such a thing to me. That attack seriously messed with my body and I'll have to get my body used to moving around again when I'm better.
"Do you feel any pain still?" Panchy asks me in the middle of my thoughts. I shake my head no but am surprised when she laughs at me. I would question her if my mouth weren't stuffed with the cookies she had so kindly offered me. Perhaps that's why she's laughing. I must look like some tree animal or something. "I'm glad you like my cookies"
"Who doesn't like cookies?" Cookies are amazing snacks and there is a variety of them one could make, so why would someone not like them? Of course, there's going to be someone out there who does not like them for some reason.
"They're delicious"
"Yes they are, a universal fact"
We talk about some random things while I continue to eat more and more cookies she gives me. She at some point finishes her work on me and proceeds to pack everything away. I continue to eat while thinking of the ways I can train when I'm allowed to move around again. So far the only training I have been doing is ki control and output as well as containing my ki. With nothing better to do, I do this every couple of minutes which is a great practice. I do not have impressive ki control so it is vital I grasp this skill as soon as I can. As for output, I would like to be able to put out ki without being left drained for too long. Normally when I move ki outside my body, my entire body, I'm depleted to the point I need to rest a good few minutes. However, my Master could do that without resting as his ki would quickly recover. It was amazing and when asked how he does such a thing he simply replies he has quite a bit of reserved ki, or what he likes to call passive ki at least. I failed to grasp what he was saying but now I'm trying my best to understand because it would be very advantageous to learn. I also try to contain my ki as to hide it from anyone who can sense me, something my Master can do as well. That old man knew quite a lot, though I often jested about it being due to his incredibly old age.
"Can I have some of your cookie recipes?" I ask Panchy after consuming another type of cookie and now liking the idea of making a batch of my own when I want to.
Of course, she agrees and I get a few more recipes added to the collection.
~~~~~~~
Day three at capsule corp and I'm in Bulms's room, having been brought here after I just took a shower. Since I'm not training as much as I usually do I'm left to wear casual clothing around the house. Bulma concedes to being surprised I had casual clothes because of how many times I wear my gi and that is understandable. Why was I brought to her room? I don't know. I think she's on her way to the lab and had to stop to get something. Either way, I'm here now and I have no shame in searching through the drawer of miscellaneous inventions. Most of them look very off but have even odder uses, though they are quite impressive creations at the same time. I find a spheroidal contraption during my exploration. It is made of some sort of metal I believe and is light in my hands, weighing as much as a glass of water. I turn it this way and that until I find a button that blends into the design. I press it after some consideration, curious to see what it is supposed to do.
Seconds later everything is floating in the room, including Bulma and I. I was surprised when I started lifting off my chair with no sort of control, trying to hold onto something as to not impact the ceiling. Bulma let out some sound of surprise at the switch of gravity, looking at me in accusation.
"You can't just push buttons, Durian" she scolds me, snatching the gravity device out of my hand and pressing the button once more.
Everything crashes to the ground just as suddenly as they had arisen into the air. Bulma lands safely on her bed, I nearly collide with my wheelchair, just missing it and collapsing to the floor. Somewhere hurts but all I can think about is the fact that Bulma has a zero-gravity device just lying around in her room as if the invention wasn't amazing.
"You have a zero-gravity device just lying around"
She huffs, rearranging everything that scattered, before helping me up and back into my wheelchair. She gives me the machine, warning me about pressing it again, but telling me I can have it.
"I made it a while ago, it affects the gravity of a certain area" she explains.
"Can you teach me how to make one?" I could use this, I don't know what for but I can use it.
"Yeah sure, later" she agrees, pushing me out of the room and down the hall towards the lab where her father is hard at work with some piece of Kakarot's ship.
The small gravity device is fascinating and I'm sure Bulma could easily make another. The question now is that if she can make a zero gravity machine, could she quite possibly create something of the opposite effect? A machine that could increase the gravity even by just a little, just something that can increase the force of gravity we are all so used to. Kakarot said that the gravity on his planet could have been around ten times as much as our own. Living in such extreme gravity sounded dangerous if one is not used to it, but there could be benefits no? It would be better than training with weighted clothing as it affects more than just one person.
There's no time to ask her because she's immediately getting to work with her father and I'm not one to disturb either of them while they work. I can only watch and listen as I have been doing for the past few days. It could be boring, but it's not. I learn something new each day when watching them and I like to see how they do things, I suppose. As I've said, it's one thing to know someone is incredibly smart and talented, it's another to see them harness that intelligence.
They both struggle with moving some of the pieces around the room with how heavy the parts are. Had I not been in this condition I could have easily helped them and I will do just that when I'm able to use my legs again. I'll give myself another day or two for my legs to stop failing on me when I try to walk. What's more, I have been incapable of doing my morning stretches which have disrupted my entire morning routine and schedule and that's not something I like very much. But what can I do?
Climb the tower and hope those magical beans my master spoke of actually exist.
How did the old man know so much? I understand that he was old and everything but sometimes his knowledge seemed almost omniscient. As if he knows far more than anyone should or could. Even Master Roshi doesn't know as much as master Lao and they're both practically the same age, or would be. I suppose my master was just a wise old man with incredible knowledge. Every time I asked him how he knew so much he would simply shrug, always saying the weirdest things.
He was terribly odd.
I wonder what he could be up to in the afterlife. According to him - I never believed this but it could be true - there are multiple gods with rankings that vary and duties that differ. Some of them can be found in the afterlife and are incredibly knowledgeable and far more competent than any on earth. He was always open to death, never seeming to care whether or not he just keeled over and died one day. He didn't care much. He would continue his training in the next life under these gods I'm not sure to believe in. Maybe that's exactly what he's doing, training under some god I likely won't ever meet.
Whatever he's doing I hope he's happy at the very least. I hope my parents are happy as well and I hope they don't worry about me. I always caused them to worry over one thing or another despite the many times I urge them not to. I'll be fine, I would tell them, and I was always perfectly fine. Didn't stop them from worrying.
Bulma practically runs past me, mumbling something and bringing my mind back to the situation at hand. I watch her rummage through a desk and sprint past me once more to join her father. We'll be in here for a while.
I'm not much help, so best I entertain myself somehow.
The form of entertainment that comes to mind involves me creating a small ki ball between my palms. It's an activity to keep me distracted while still focused on Bulma and her father enough to listen to the genius talk. I practice better ki control while learning a thing or two about Kakarot's ship and the technology he brought. It's a win-win situation.
Ki control is a very important thing to master and sadly I am not there yet. I can do many things with practiced ease and skill, but when it comes to ki attacks in any shape or form I cannot execute. My master has tried to teach me many attacks, all of which I remember vividly, but until I have a good grasp of my ki I will not be using them. I always assumed that the reason I have no control is simply because I have so much, however, I'm just starting to believe it's because I let my power run wild. I can focus and direct my energy to any part of my body as easily as I do my stretches in the morning, the problem is the quantity. I fail to comprehend and control the precise amount needed to perform certain tasks. I may add too much and jump too high or hit someone a bit too hard. I may add too little and mess up my attacks. The first will just have me running out of energy far sooner than I normally would.
And I'm also working on a way to not be completely useless when I let ki flow outside my body.
I really need to train.
Luckily, I can do so even when confined to this wheelchair.
The ki ball between my palm glows brightly as it grows in size. The light is spasmodic as the ball pulses, growing and shrinking as I try to regulate my output. I must keep it steady so the ki ball does not become unstable and cause damage. The sight is something I often enjoyed. The white glow of ki always calmed me despite the way it pulses and the lack of control I have over the energy in my hands. My output becomes less sporadic with time, sheer determination driving me to not stop until I can keep the ball of energy steady, until the small ball stops pulsing and alternating between sizes.
"What are you doing?"
"Practicing," I say, not glancing at Bulma who is somehow by my side all of a sudden.
"And how are you doing this?" She wonders, sounding genuinely curious.
"With Ki, life energy," I say shrugging.
She goes quiet, not moving from where she stands by my side for a moment. I'm not sure what she can be thinking or if she's wanting to ask me more questions. She's free to do so if she likes, I like curious minds.
"Never understood this" she admits.
"I could imagine it's hard to understand something that seems so out of the ordinary and hardly explainable through science"
She makes a sound, I'm not sure what it means or what to make of it, but she's walking away with no further words exchanged, though she continues her questions.
"You're practicing, so you're no good?"
"Something like that" sensing ki is something I am incredibly skilled at, control, not so much. "It's a bit hard to control"
"Yeah, Kakarot and Chichi said something about that, but I had no idea what they were even talking about" she reveals. "Aren't you the best when it comes to ki?"
"No" the best would have to be someone like Master Lao or even the God of earth. I would assume he'd be very skilled in that department. "I'm good at sensing ki, but that's about it. I can't control mine very well, I can't suppress my ki and I can't preserve ki"
This seems to baffle Bulma because she's looking at me in disbelief.
"I thought you were good at the entire fighting and martial art concept," she says sounding as if she had been betrayed. "Kakarot and the others make you sound like a god"
They really put me on a pedestal.
"I'm no god" that's an embellishment. "I've been taught martial arts since before I was even ten years old, I'm good at it, but I'm not god tier. I'm fast, almost as fast as Master Roshi. I've got techniques as well as strategies that I use to my benefit. I can sometimes be a wild card, which can also work to my advantage. I know when someone is stronger than me and know when I can't win. I've got an affinity for magic. And most importantly I don't give my opponents the chance to pull something out of their sleeves"
"Sounds pretty amazing to me," Bulma says after a pause.
"Yes, I must agree" comes the voice of Dr. Brief somewhere far off.
"Well, I'm glad you think so"
It's nice to be appreciated and it's nice that people think I'm incredible. It's a good feeling, but not something I would let get to my head. I must never be egotistical, prideful, or arrogant. They are ugly mindsets to have and will only bring me down in life. It's good to be humble and to know that no matter how strong or skilled you are there will always be someone out there who is better and stronger. No matter how much people praise you it's crucial to remember that you are no god that should be looked up to.
Ugly emotions and mindsets will only lead to destruction, whether it be of thyself or others.
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