In the clearing, Lila and I rush at each other a high speeds, my fists and her palms booming over and over again until we both clash with a flurry of fast blows.
"What is that?! Your strikes are all over the place!" She yelled, striking me in the chest. "Get it together!"
I grit my teeth and strike at her faster than before, but none of my attacks land as she seemed to know what I was going to do before I did it, blocking and redirecting everything I threw at her with ease.
"Your movements are a joke! Sloppy!" She yelled, planting another palm straight into my chest, but this time with even more force than before.
I get sent flying back about fifty or sixty feet before I dig my feet into the ground to stop myself from going back further. I then immediately turn my gaze back up, only to see that she was gone.
The hair on the back of my neck stands on end and I quickly send a roundhouse kick behind me, connecting with her hand that was about to strike me in the back.
"Oh?" She smiles softly before sending a kick of her own straight into my abdomen.
The force of her blow feels as though I've been struck by a damn freight train, but I push through and quickly wrap my arms around her leg, latching on tight to prevent her from moving away.
Turning my gaze upward, I open my mouth and blast her with a dark yellow ki blast, finally hitting her for the first time today.
"Hah... Hah... How's that...?" I asked as I stumbled back, holding my midsection.
The smoke from the blast clears and she stand over me with a smile, wiping away some of battle debris that got on her clothes.
"It was decent." She says, dusting herself off. "You're improving."
"Damn... right..." I replied through an extreme amount of effort, my breathing labored, before I collapsed to the ground on my knees.
"I mean a newborn Kai still has better technique and you still can't redirect oncoming attacks to save your life, but you're improving." She says teasingly, kneeling down in front of me before putting up a hand and pinching two fingers together. "Slowly. Little by little."
"Fuck you..." I groaned as I fall forward.
Before my face could plant itself into the ground, I feel a pair of soft hands press against my shoulders, catching me before gently laying me down onto the ground and turning me onto my back.
"Aww, is the big guy all tuckered out?" She says, her voice using that annoying tone that I've quickly grown to hate so damn much. "I could kiss all your bruises better if you want?"
"Y'know, at first your voice was soothing to me, but then you do that teasing tone of yours and it really makes me want to punch you in the face." I tell her, my eyes narrowed into slits.
"What? Mocking and teasing? Me? Never." She says, looking at me with a that damned smile of hers that makes me both weak and infuriated.
"You are so lucky that I can't feel my arms right now..." I told her, feeling nothing but numbness all over, "...or any of my upper body for that matter..."
She chuckles and shakes her head fondly before going into her back pocket, pulling out the pouch of infinite Senzu Beans.
"Here, open up." She says as reaches into the pouch and takes out one bean.
I do as she says and she plops the bean into my mouth, to which I then obviously consume. The pain disappears along with numbness and I slowly sit up.
"I thought we were supposed to be training, all you've been doing these past few days is kicking my ass." I tell her as I stand up on my feet and stretch out my arms and legs, hearing a satisfying cracking sound come from my right shoulder.
Lila visibly cringed from the sound before she replies with, "We are training. You told me yourself that you learn better through doing rather than anything else."
That's true. I did tell her that. Though right now I'm beginning to wish that I didn't.
About a week ago, after we had just renamed our planet, she asked me how I was used to training. Considering that all I've been doing up until this point is destroying myself and coming back stronger, that's the approach that I was most comfortable with.
Big. Goddamn. Mistake.
She somehow knows the exact limit of how much punishment I can take before putting me in a near-death state, intentionally stopping me from getting any sort Zenkai boost. And while I have been growing due to Black's unique Zenkai, it's a slow process because she isn't deliberately causing me enough pain either.
When I confronted her about this, she said that the way that I've been training is inefficient and that she's not going to let me undergo a Zenkai until I was better at fighting.
And when I then asked what was wrong with the way I fought, she said that while I have good instincts, my style is as unrefined as a newborn baby. I waste movement, defend when I should make a counterattack, and my moves are obvious to everyone that have been taught even a little bit of technique. Basically, I'm the equivalent of a brawler with no brains, and the only reason I've gotten this far was through instinct and sheer raw power alone.
I wanted to refute her claims, but when I took a step back and reflected on all the encounters I've had, I couldn't really argue with anything that she had said.
My first planetary invasion, my fight with Antauri, my encounter with Frieza...
All of those encounters I survived all of those through sheer dumb luck or raw power.
And as much as it annoyed me to hear it, I had to admit that she was right in the end. Because eventually, luck runs out.
"We can change our approach if you want, but I don't think we will." She says before turning to walk away.
"And why's that?!" I shouted as I ran to catch up to her.
"Because you're stubborn." She replied casually, sticking her tongue out at me.
Can't help but feel as though she's learning about me a little too quickly...
---
As we return to the cave, Lila walks over to her small garden that she had planted just outside the entrance and picks up a small watering can that was beside the plot.
"Looks like they're coming in nicely." I said as I walked up beside her and knelt down, inspecting the plants and noticing how well they were growing.
"I know right? Bahamut really went all out on that wish you made." She says as she waters the plants growing in her garden. "They'll probably be ready to pick in just a few more days."
"Wow, that is impressive." I muttered.
She was right. Everything she had planted just a week ago looked like they were almost ready to pick. I guess when I wished for anything to flourish, he really took it seriously.
"My dragon is the best." I said with a hint of pride.
Lila rolls her eyes and shoves me a little, "You say that every time he comes up in conversation."
"Doesn't make it less true." I pointed out.
"I swear, it's like you're a proud father gloating about his son." She says as she shook her head.
I was about to laugh at her words until I tilt my head a bit and ponder on what she had just said.
Does Bahamut count as my son? I mean, I did create him out of my own energy... Does that make me his deadbeat father that only talks to his son when he wants something?
"Stop debating about whether or not the magical wish-granting dragon is actually your son and help me water the plants." Lila says as she shoves the spare watering can into my chest.
I roll my eyes and snatch the can from her before walking out a bit into the distance to go water the fruit.
It was a joint effort between us. I looked after the fruit, she looked after the vegetables.
Obviously I had brought all these fruits and vegetables from Earth. Lila insisted on it after our first training session, so I went and ...acquired... some.
I stole them.
What else was I gonna do? I don't have any money.
Lila probably planted just about every vegetable that I had brought her. Lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, onions, carrots, some other veggies that I had no idea existed but the market had anyway.
I told Lila that there was really no need to do all this since we had a food synthesizer, but she was adamant about growing her own food. We also wished for an abundance of animals to roam around for a source of protein, because I'll be damned if I just eat vegetables and fruits for the next decade.
All of that seemed like a waste of two perfectly good wishes to me, but I didn't really care all that much. As long as the dragon doesn't die, the wishes are infinite. So what the hell would getting upset about wasting two drops out of infinity do?
I arrived at the beginnings of my little fruit forest and started watering them. They took a bit longer, but that's to be expected. Some of the fruit actually needed to grow from trees, which should be ready in another month or two seeing as how these have already grown into saplings.
I never really expected myself to like farming or taking care of fruits, but it's actually quite calming after a long day of getting beaten into oblivion.
I haven't planted any of the Ensenji yet, which was the primary reason I made the wish for anything that was planted to flourish, but that was because I wanted to find a more secure place for them.
I'm not going to have them lying around out in the open. Even if it was a small possibility someone actually finds there way to this planet, an even smaller possibility of them surviving the lightning storm above, and an even smaller possibility of them actually crashing near enough to the Ensenji to actually find them, I wasn't taking any chances.
Preferably somewhere along the lines of the cave Lila and I currently inhabit, only deeper underground and the entrance a lot less noticeable.
I found a few contenders, but nothing definitive.
Then there's the possibility of the Tree of Might eventually coming into play, as if my theory about Turles' Crusher Squadron being sent to find it is true, we'll need a planet to grow it on.
"After a few days, we'll finally have something other than a solitary bean to fill our stomachs."
Looking behind me, I saw that Lila had walked up when I was lost in my own thoughts.
"You say that as if you don't feel absolutely stuffed after eating that solitary bean." I said to her.
She rolls her eyes and pouts, "Yeah, but they have no flavor."
"Oh my god..." I groaned.
As much as I pretend to be annoyed at her antics, I'm slowly growing fond of the time we spend here on Celvana.
It was peaceful.
[Word Count: 1,920.]