Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 289 KI

I woke up slowly. My memories of the day before quickly coming back to me I sat up slowly. “Finally awake?” Zuina asked. She was over by another fire. I wasn’t too surprised to see a large lizard leg cooking overtop of it. 

“Looks like it,” I mumbled. “Where are we?” 

“Not far from where you made your wish,” she said. “How are you feeling?” 

“No idea,” I said, standing up. One of many things taught to me during ninja school in Naruto World was the Inner Eye. This eye dealt not so much with the mind or trying to understand what was happening to it, but the body. It wasn’t normal for 12 year old kids to jump 20 feet in the air to a branch. You had to use chakra to strengthen yourself to do it. It was hard to use chakra without understanding where it was. 

We trained for weeks on how to find chakra, push to different parts of the body, and use it. Now it was second nature to me. Centering my mind I focused on the large amount of chakra in my torso. Feeling it spread to every corner of my body through the pathways. 

I moved the inner eye to my Spiritual Energy. I assumed in normal people Haki was centered where my chakra was. But because I had chakra it surrounded the chakra acting as a reservoir, holding it in. The Haki also surrounded the chakra pathways in my body. When sensing other people’s spiritual energy it was just a large mass of glowing power in my mind’s eye. Emanating from them at all times. But in my own body I could sense the spiritual energy running along my chakra pathways. 

The last bit of energy I could understand was my Nen. Really my lifeforce, the Nen was in every part of my body at all times. The miniscule power of the trillions of cells that make up me, all added up to my life energy. I could call upon it to strengthen myself, coating my body in the energy to attack what I wanted. 

So where is my Ki? I thought as I kept searching. 

“Uh, Zuina?” I asked turning back to her. “How do you use Ki?” 

“You just use it,” she said like it was obvious. 

“Oh duh, there’s the on switch.” I flipped an invisible switch on my chest. “I’m sorry I’m not as talented as you,” I said as sarcastically as possible. “I apparently spent my whole life without it. How do you use it?” 

“Uhhh, I don’t know. My body kind of naturally does,” she said, her finger moving to her chin as she thought. She stood up walking over to me. “My grandpa taught me how to fight with martial arts. Focusing power to certain areas of your body to strengthen yourself.” I did that currently with all my energies. “I played around with it for years. It wasn’t until I met Kame that I was able to understand it more. Expel it out of my body without destroying anything. Sense it in other people. Ki is the latent energy of your body. I have spent hundreds of hours meditating to feel it. It isn’t something you can simply understand about yourself.” 

She touched my chest as she stopped in front of me. “Before, when I focused on you I could feel your strength. But it was distorted. Like looking in one of those funhouse mirrors at a carnival. Twisted. Now, you appear to be this big ball of energy. Focused right here.” She was pointing where my chakra was centered.

“This energy. What does it feel like to you?” I asked, confused. 

“Hmmm like heat,” she said. “Burning inside me all the time, but it took a long time to feel that heat.” I focused on my chakra. It did feel hot, which was odd. Normally it was a placid energy simply there. Like clay that I could manipulate, but for some reason it was hot to the touch. 

Extending my hand out I focused chakra into it. Pooling energy I had done this a few times now and then. Trying to concentrate it like the 9-tails had done through Naruto. Now the power poured out of me, coalescing into a white ball of energy. With a thought I pushed the ball away. It shot out at a high speed, striking the nearest tree trunk. The energy exploded, causing a large chunk of the tree to blow away. 

“That’s it,” Zuina said, a smile on her lips. 

“It’s so much like my chakra,” I said. 

“Chakra is another name for Ki, it’s also called Chi, or energy. It depends on where you are from,” she said. 

“Yeah but…” I did a hand seal, making a shadow clone. Chakra poured out of me into the form of the clone. The chakra felt like it flowed more smoothly, and instantly there was another me. 

“Oh wow, I saw Tien do a move like that once,” she said while studying my clone. 

“Zuina, can you do this with your hands?” I asked, making the hand seals for beginners. “Focus Ki as you do it. Then picture yourself next to you.” She frowned but followed my instructions. Nothing happened. “So chakra and Ki are different, but the same?” I asked. “Or did Shenron make my energies in the same area to make them more efficient? You and Roshi said my Ki was messed up, but you couldn’t sense my chakra. So what the hell?” I thought furiously trying to come up with some kind of answer. “Or…am I overthinking things and I should attribute it to magic?” I asked. 

“Magic?” Zuina asked. “You can do magic too?” 

I laughed, pushing my worries away. “Sometimes,” I said. “So what now?” 

“What do you mean?” She asked, confused. 

“I mean we found the Dragon Balls. I made my wish, and I can supposedly use Ki now. I’d like to train with it,” I said. “With you if you’d have me.”

Zuina blushed a little. A smile creeping up her lips. “I’d like that,” she admitted. “Do we um, have to get right to training? I’d like to do another one of those date things.” 

“Sure,” I laughed. “Where would you like to go?” 

“Well we are about halfway around the world. Should we head the other-” She stopped moving back to the fire. Her body freezing I could feel fear spike in her Spiritual Energy. 

“Zuina, what is it?” I asked. 

“Power, so much power,” she said, looking off in the distance ahead. Her energy continued to leak worry as whatever she was feeling came closer. Ignoring me she lifted off the ground, flying into the air. I cursed not understanding Ki well enough to fly. Pooling water I jumped and followed straight up. 

Zuina stared off into the distance toward some mountains. I grew nervous as she stared. It was far too early for anything big to happen. “Is it Piccolo?” I asked.

“Maybe, but he is far stronger,” she admitted. As whatever was approaching got closer I grew more convinced I knew who was on their way. Especially as I noticed a lone figure flying straight at us. Mile after mile was eaten away by the man as he approached. As he did I could make out the wide shouldered armor, the black hair, and the green glass over the man’s eye. 

“Fuck,” I mumbled as he approached. Black unruly hair, brown shoulder pads, black chest piece, and a fluffy brown tail wrapped around his waist. Of course I recognized him, but it wasn’t the brother I expected. It was Goku. 

The powerful man stopped in front of us. Standing on nothing as he looked us over. “I’ve finally found you, Neon,” Goku said. It wasn’t the normal fun loving voice I attributed with the anime. The voice was deeper, more serious as it cut through the air. 

“Neon?” Zuina asked. I had the same question. Neon didn’t sound like a vegetable. All Saiyans were named after a veggie, it was common knowledge. What the hell was a Neon? 

“I am Kakarot,” Goku said, moving his hand to his chest. “A Saiyan, like you.”

“A what? What the hell are you talking about? Who is Neon? Who are you?” Zuina asked. Almost panicking from the amount of power she felt from him.  

Goku frowned. “What is the matter with you?” He asked, confused. “Why have you not taken over this planet?” 

“Taken over the planet?! Why would I do that?” She asked, yelling as she became more nervous. 

“That was your job, Neon.” 

“Quit saying that name! My name is Zuina!” She yelled, I felt her Energy spike. 

I was internally panicking as they spoke. Goku was supposed to be the protagonist. Not some villain. It was his job to come to Earth, save it, make friends. So why was he taking the place of Raditz?

“Did you hit your head as a child or something!?” Goku barked. “You are Neon. That is your name!” 

“I…did hit my head,” she said slowly. “My grandpa told me about it once. But what does that have to do with anything?”

“Fucking bitch,” Goku said, very uncharacteristically in my book. He grabbed his temples as he thought. “You have forgotten your sworn duty, Neon! You were sent here when you were a child to take over this planet. And you’ve fucked it up royally. You have forgotten your name. Do you even remember that you are a Saiyan?” He asked. 

“A what?” She asked. 

“Saiyan,” Goku said, annoyed. “Listen, we are a race of warriors. Since birth we are trained to fight and kill. Like me, when you were a baby you were sent off to eliminate the population of a low-tier planet.” 

“That sounds awful!” She yelled, getting angry now. “Why would you do that?” 

“Because it is our job. How our home stayed relevant before it was destroyed,” Goku said. 

“Destroyed?” Zuina asked. “Wh-What is going on here?” She asked. 

“That doesn’t matter right now,” Goku said. “It is high time you rejoin your people. There aren’t many of us left. And unfortunately, you are the last female of our race. This planet will have to be taken over later. We had lost track of you, but we need you back. We need your help to rebuild our race.”

My heart sank as I realized the true implications of what was going on. Anger flared in me as I put together what he was saying. 

“You want her to start making pure-blooded Saiyans!?” I roared. 

“What?” Zuina asked, not fully seeing the big picture. 

“Who the fuck are you?” Goku asked, annoyed.

“Doesn’t matter,” I said, biting my lip. “Your people are dead right? How many of you are left? 4? 5? You want Zuina to start popping out babies, don’t you!? Well too fucking bad, she’s my girlfriend.” I had been in a lot of worlds, and they were always darker than the manga portrayed them as. I couldn’t help but picture Zuina forced into making kids with someone as strong as Vegeta. There was no way I could let that happen. 

“Human,” Goku said. “I don’t know why you think you can talk that way to a Saiyan, but I am on a timeline. Zuina, you need to come with me. Where is your ship?”

“Is this true?” Zuina asked. Her eyes wide. Goku didn’t answer. “There is no way in hell I am going with someone like you!” That was when I got my newest quest. 

“Fuck,” I whispered as I read the quest. I didn’t know what the hell most of those were. I wanted them though. But the stronger the fight, the more the rewards that went out. A Saiyan was here far sooner than I expected them to be. And from Zuina’s reaction, I didn’t think that she could beat him. It was Goku, but he was supposedly a low-tier fighter. It wasn’t until he had something important to fight for that he became truly strong. But he had taken over a planet. This Goku would have no issue killing. 

“World Escape,” I said. The whole area went black. Red appearing all around me I cursed. “Fucking Goku! Freakin premature jacking off asshole Saiyan!” 

A hundred scenarios played through my mind before I left. There was the weakness of his monkey tail. Piccolo would have probably shown up too, so it would have been 3 on 1. I wasn’t sure if he had Special Beam Cannon yet, but the quest had said Defeat Kakarot, not kill. Would I risk the Anti-Hero role if I was able to help kill him? 

I had knocked Zuina down in our fight, but that was my all. From what I remembered Raditz had a power level of 1,200, and Goku’s was only 350 when Raditz showed up. That was almost 3 times stronger. I wasn’t sure opening 6 gates would do the job. And if they didn’t, I would be out of the fight. 

“I gotta get stronger,” I groaned. I had really been enjoying DBZ. Things were progressing with Zuina, but I couldn’t risk losing and her being taken away. Especially if Goku decided to kill me. 

“Goddamn this is annoying,” I grumbled. “Why does DBZ have to be so hard?” I let out a long defeated sigh. I wasn’t strong enough yet. I had to settle on learning my current powers more. That or make an awesome 1-hit kill move. 

Letting out a long sigh I pulled up my Status Screen. After completing my quests in DBZ I had received some nice items. I had assigned my Capsule House as my Item Choice, but hadn’t used my Bonus Slot Upgrade or Ability Augmentor from impressing Zuina. 

I used the Bonus Slot Upgrade on on Hardened Skin, making it Hardened Organs. With a potential fight against Goku in the future, I had to make sure I was tough. I then used the Ability Augmentor. The random power buff item made a new screen appear. 

“Woah,” I said, surprised by the buff. I was already at 100% for Enhancement, but upping the others could be a big gain. Especially after experiencing Ki. Because I didn’t complete the quest to add Ki to my Status Screen, I no longer had the ability. My chakra was back to cool to the touch.

I hadn’t worked much on my Nen attack, but now I wanted to. With enhancement and emission I could create an attack like Ki. Extending my range, and using my strength without having to touch anyone. It was going to be a long road, but I could get there. 

Looking around to my options of doors I only had about 25 days until my next Challenge. The only answer that came to me was One Punch Man. I had trouble pulling myself out of there, but I would be kicked out anyway before my challenge. It was time to head back and see the girls.