by Jamie L. Word
"A New Beginning"
Other World.
Koji was training very hard on a small, high-gravity planet under the watchful eye of a venerated Kai. Massive weights were attached to his wrists and ankles, and a golden halo hovered over his head. Sweat poured profusely from Koji as he struggled under the strain of working out with the heavy weights under the effects of the high gravity. The old Kai watched intently as the mighty Saiyan trained harder and harder. Koji was wearing a sleeveless, skintight dark blue tunic and long, skintight dark blue pants with white gloves and white boots.
"You're doing well, Koji," the Kai said with a sly smile as he observed the training Saiyan. "Maybe we should take this training session to the next level."
"Fine by me," Koji grunted from under the heavy exertion. "I am a Saiyan elite. I am not afraid of a challenge!"
"Yes," the Kai replied in response to Koji's declaration. "That is why you're here in Other World, but your great heroicism is why you are here with me. Let's just increase the weight load just a bit, shall we?"
With but a thought, the Kai caused the weights attached to Koji's wrists and ankles to swell as their great weight increased dramatically. Suddenly, Koji could barely stand, and he slumped badly from the pull of the weights. He strained with all his might, but he could not lift his arms or legs due to the heaviness of the weights. The Kai smiled slyly at him, and then he saw a smile break through Koji's grimly determined countenance. In an instant, Koji's eyes turned green and his hair spiked upward and turned blond as he was suddenly surrounded by a golden, flaming aura, and his muscle mass increased slightly. He could then train with the increased weight like before. The pride of the Kai beamed from his aged face.
"I think we should take this work-out to a whole new level!" Koji proudly proclaimed as he raised his energy even higher, causing his hair to spike a bit more, his muscle mass to increase slightly, and electricity to crackle in and around his golden, flaming energy aura.
As Koji stood proud and bold before the old Kai, the old Kai looked on at him in complete amazement, astounded at this latest development. Koji smiled slyly at the dumbfounded Kai, wrapped in all his splendor.
"Yes, I can take the Super Saiyan power to a higher level," Koji declared with that smug grin on his face, his usual fashion of cockiness. "Now, if you would be so kind as to increase the weight of these training weights once more, I can get on with a real work-out."
"Very well," the old Kai said with an amused chuckle and an impressed smile as he mentally caused the weights a-fixed to Koji's wrists and ankles to increase in weight until they finally caused the Super Saiyan to be tested. "I must say that I am very impressed with your power and determination, Saiyan. No one has ever displayed as much of either in all of my recollection. You are truly astounding. Perhaps you might even master all of the techniques I have to teach you."
"I'm looking forward to it, old Kai," Koji grunted as he threw punches and kicks into the air, fighting against the extreme weight of the training weights compounded by the planet's high gravity level. "I am ready for anything you can throw at me!"
"Yes, I believe you are, Super Saiyan," the old Kai replied with a hint of being quite impressed with the mighty Koji's supreme confidence. "I believe you are."
Zodoria.
Kato, Yoshio, Kien, Sumio, and Sumie were flying through the air. Yoshio held a device in his hand which seemed to be directing their path. All of them seemed to be in better physical condition than when they lost Koji.
"This dragon ball radar that Yuko fixed up based on the design of Bulma's dragon radar indicates that the first dragon ball is somewhere up ahead," Yoshio informed the others.
"It's been well over three hundred days since the last time the dragon balls were used," Kien commented in stoically informative fashion. "They are ready once again. Actually, they've been ready for almost two Zodorian years."
"Well, I don't think we'll have any problem getting our hands on those dragon balls and making our wish!" Yoshio said, beaming with newfound confidence.
"You said it, Yoshio!" Sumio replied, equally confident. "With each of us having trained for two days in the Chamber of Spirit and Time, we've all gotten much stronger than we were a couple of years ago!"
"Keeping up our training regiment at the intensity we were training at after exiting the Chamber of Spirit and Time helped out as well!" Sumie added.
"We're gonna get those dragon balls and wish my Dad back!" Kato chimed in, returning everyone else's attention to the task at hand. "Let's do it!"
"Despite the incredible power we've all developed through our training in the Chamber of Spirit and Time, Kato is still the most powerful one among us," Kien thought to himself as they continued on their quest. "I equal his power as a Super Saiyan, but,when he transforms into an Ascended Super Saiyan, his power greatly exceeds my own. The others are far more powerful than before, but Kato and I are far more powerful than any of them. I suppose that Saiyans, Half-Saiyans and Nameks are of sturdier stock than humans and Zodorians. I wonder what Koji has been up to all of this time, how much he's improved, what new abilities he's acquired."
Other World.
Koji stood before the old Kai, once more in his normal form but without the heavy training weights on his wrists and ankles. The old Kai stood with his hands cupped behind his back. Koji stood with his fists clenched down at his side and his feet planted shoulder-width apart.
"So, what's first on the agenda?" Koji inquired with his supreme confidence, giving the old Kai his undivided attention.
"You've learned the almost all of the techniques I have to teach you in an incredibly short period of time," the old Kai said, quite impressed with Koji's accomplishments. "Now, I am going to teach you my most difficult technique. This will require even more concentration and determination to learn. You won't learn these techniques in a few hours, or even a few days. It may take months."
"Then let's get cracking," Koji replied with eagerness in his eyes and in his voice. "I'm ready to learn this technique of yours."
"My friend, you never cease to amaze me!" the old Kai responded with a chuckle as he admired the Saiyan's eager determination to master his most difficult technique, which was as strong as it had been when he was preparing to learn the first technique, if not stronger.
"There is something that you've not revealed to me yet, old Kai," Koji said with a somewhat serious look on his face, getting a serious reaction from the Kai.
"I've taught you everything but this last technique, and I'm about to begin teaching it to you now!" the old Kai replied, seeming to be a bit aggitated by Koji's comment. "A little patience, please!"
"No, I'm not referring to techniques," Koji elaborated on his earlier comment, seemingly not phased by the Kai's irritated rebuke. "In all of the time I've been here under your tutelage, since the day I died on Zodoria, you've not once told me what your name was. You know who I am, but I don't know who you are."
"So, I see," the old Kai responded with a much calmer demeanor this time, lowering his head as he cupped his hands behind his back once more. "I am sorry for the misunderstanding, my friend. My name is Tong-Li."
"It is an honor to study under you, Master Tong-Li," Koji replied, lowering his head slightly in a respectful manner to his instructor.
"It is an honor to train a warrior so skilled and strong as you, Koji," the old Kai remarked as he returned the gesture of respect to the Saiyan.
They both then raised their heads up once again and looked each other in the eyes. Each noted the other's resolute determination to the task at hand, and each readied himself for what was to come.
"For this next technique, I will require a training partner for you," Tong-Li stated calmly as he extended his hand to a point a short distance away from them.
As Koji looked in the direction in which Tong-Li was pointing, he saw a light begin to form before him, growing to the size of a man. Moments later, the light subsided, giving way to a male form who was now standing there before them, a golden halo over his head. When the light had completely dissipated, it was visibly clear that the warrior's form standing before them was none other than Yukio, the Saiyan warrior who had died in battle with the biomechanical menace Egami.
"Yukio!" Koji gasped in stunned disbelief as he questioned his eyes with his bewildered thoughts while trying to discern this new turn of events.
"Koji!" the dead Saiyan warrior with the halo over his head replied with a smile on his face. "I had heard that you defeated Egami at the expense of your own life! I am honored to be once more in your presense!"
Koji and Yukio exchanged respectful head-bows before approaching each other. When they had closed to within punching distance of each other, they then exchanged Saiyan salutes by placing their right hands across their chests so that their salute crossed over their hearts. Both warriors smiled.
"Cousin to the King and to the Prince, I swear my allegiance and my fervent loyalty to you, my liege!" Yukio declared as he knelt upon one knee before Koji with his head bowed to the royal-blooded Saiyan warrior.
"Yukio, rise to your feet," Koji rebuked him ever so gently with a voice that seemed to more befitting to a man of the cloth than to a member of royalty to a warrior race. "Our homeworld is destroyed, and our people vanquished. Of royal blood I may be, but what use is royalty without a people to stand behind it? You are a first class warrior, are you not? Are you not also a Super Saiyan? This great Kai who has taught me so very much now wishes to train us both in his most difficult technique. We are equally honored. Besides, did you not give your life in battle against Egami also? Did you not make the same sacrifice as I?"
"My liege," Yukio said, not yet rising from his humbled position nor lifting his head up to look Koji in the eyes. "My death was preceeded by dishonor, and I failed to finish the fiend whom I allowed to reach its final perfect form. I am unworthy of any distinction of respect from you or any other. It was my fault that we are both now dead and not alive as we should be. If I hadn't so foolishly allowed my pride to blind me to the terrible folly of allowing him to achieve his final perfect form so that I could find to true challenge to my power, if I had only just destroyed him when I had the chance instead of letting him absorb the last android for the sport of fighting him in his ultimate form, we'd both be alive right now."
Koji's eyes narrowed as if he was angered and fighting to restrain his fury from the brow of this humbled warrior kneeling before him. Yukio waited in silence for what would surely be a violent rebuke, and Tong-Li watched apprehensively. Koji's hand fell rather reassuringly upon Yukio's shoulder, prompting him to look up into Koji's smiling face dumbfoundedly.
"Perhaps," Koji said calmly with a slight smile upon his face. "Hindsight's twenty-twenty, and foresight's aweful hazy."
"Huh?" Yukio muttered, not sure of the meaning of Koji's words. "I don't understand. What are you saying?"
"It is very easy to look back at past mistakes with regret and wonder why you made those mistakes," Koji explained. The past is always clear as crystal. It is the veil of the mysterious future which one's gaze cannot penetrate until it becomes the past. Mistakes are made because we have something to learn from them. You acknowledge the mistake and its cause. That's a good start. What you do from there will determine whether or not you will stand as a man, or lie curled up in a fetal ball waiting for redemption to come looking you up. It won't happen that way. Redemption doesn't seek us out to offer us atonement. You must set course for it yourself and quest for it like a great warrior seeks his glory. Rise and reclaim your honor like a man, and I will be your friend now ... and forever."
Yukio stood up and looked into Koji's eyes, finding reassurance there for his bewildered, perplexed soul. What seemed like a string of eternities passed in the span of a few seconds as the two Saiyan warriors stood, their eyes locked.
"Now that we have all of the mushy comraderie stuff out of the way, it's time to start the training," Tong-Li broke the silence with his redirective teasing, drawing the mighty warriors' gazes his way.
Continued in Chapter 2.