Vast stretches of hyper-resistant metal span across the hollow cosmic expanse.
If you caught a side-glance of it from a distance, you'd probably ask yourself: "Is that a lone wire drifting through space?" But if you happened to look at it from above or below, that question would instantly turn into a loud exclamatory shout: "Holy crap, it's a giant freaking flying saucer!"
This bizarre contraption hurtling through the vacuum was no bird, nor was it a plane—no, it was a bloody flying frying pan.
The strange vessel, shaped like a kitchen utensil, crossed light-years in seconds. But as it drew close to a celestial body, it ground to a sudden, absolute halt—as if it had never been moving at all. The surreal moment grew even stranger when a beam of light shot out from its core.
Down that beam, a fleet of smaller scout ships descended, fanning out to survey the world below. The planet seemed peaceful enough, filled with the alien hum of extraterrestrial cicadas and a gentle breeze sweeping across the terrain. Ignoring the tranquil scenery, the scout ships throttled their engines to maximum power, darting off toward the four cardinal corners of the globe. Upon reaching their positions, a bright red light flared intensely from their bows, and the sky turned a blood-red hue as scorching beams rained down onto the planet's surface.
Raditz finished his training session, a wide, satisfied grin breaking across his face as he felt himself growing stronger.
He flexed his arms, feeling raw power surging through every single cell in his body. Though he didn't fully comprehend the mechanics behind his new ability yet, it filled him with excitement—he was rapidly closing the gap between himself and the strongest Saiyans, with the obvious exceptions of Bardock and King Vegeta.
Stepping back into the ship, Raditz punched in the navigation codes on the console to set a course for their next target destination. To pass the time during the flight, he took a warm shower, humming a tune to himself.
When he stepped out, he noticed his young pupil stirring awake. The sight instantly cheered him up—mostly because it meant he could finally get back to training (torturing) someone else. He walked over to the kid, waiting for him to get up, but Boiton simply rolled over and went back to sleep.
A vein popped on Raditz's forehead. With a disturbingly pleasant smile, he crept toward the sleeping boy.
For reasons he couldn't quite explain, young Boiton suddenly felt a cold shiver run down his spine. He snapped his eyes open—only to see a demon leaping directly at him. Boiton thrashed frantically to break free, but it was useless; the full-blooded Saiyan was vastly superior in raw strength.
A few minutes later, Raditz strode out toward the main cabin hauling Boiton, whose hands and feet were now tightly bound together.
"Let me go, you Baka-sensei!" Boiton yelled, squirming.
Raditz responded with a warm, thoroughly unsettling grin.
"As a proper master, it is my duty to train you. And as a certain green alien once said: If you manage to survive this, I'll train you."
Simultaneously, years into the future on a distant world, a green humanoid alien with antennae let out a sudden sneeze.
"I feel like some low-life just ripped off my line..." the alien muttered, glancing off into the distance where a young boy with a sword was currently picking a fight with a dinosaur.
Raditz dragged Boiton right over to the ship's control console, looking down at him with an overly cheerful expression.
"My dear pupil... what is the single most dangerous—yet closest—planet in this star system?"
Boiton swallowed hard, trembling in sheer terror.
And so, our valiant heroes traversed the stars in search of the perfect training ground. Along the journey, the wise master attempted to instruct his young apprentice in the ancient disciplines of anime tropes. However, after realizing the kid didn't understand a single word he was talking about, Raditz deemed it a lost cause and, out of pure mercy, switched to practical martial arts strategy instead.
"...And that is how Confucius wiped out an entire army using proper tactical positioning," Raditz concluded his grand lecture.
Boiton sat there jaw-dropped, utterly amazed at how a weaker, clever fighter could overcome a battalion of powerhouses. The story made him reflect on his own experiences—realizing just how narrowly he had survived past encounters by relying on his wits.
He looked up at his master with newfound fire and admiration in his eyes.
Raditz continued chatting with Boiton, breaking down the essential basics of survival. After imparting everything he deemed necessary, he let out a satisfied sigh, stood up, and retired to his quarters to rest.
Boiton remained seated on the floor, digesting the lesson. He stared at his master's retreating back and wondered to himself:
Just how strong is Raditz, really?
A new day dawned as the ship's interior lighting gradually shifted to simulate a warm sunrise. Raditz sat up with a wide yawn, rolled out of bed, and completed his morning routine.
A few minutes later, he stepped out into the hallway, stretching his arms. Hearing commotion coming from the galley, he walked over to investigate. Inside, he found Boiton grinding out push-ups; upon hitting his thousandth rep, the kid collapsed onto the floor to catch his breath.
Raditz smirked, chuckling softly as he strolled up beside him.
"Your youth burns brightly, my dear Padawan!"
Boiton jumped a mile out of his skin, instantly scrambling into a defensive stance. Spotting his Baka-sensei, his annoyance flared, and he charged headfirst at him.
Raditz watched him with an amused smirk, letting out a soft chuckle. That only fueled the pupil's anger further, driving him to throw a full-force right hook straight at Raditz's head.
Raditz casually sidestepped the blow and countered with a light kick to the stomach, sending the enraged kid skidding backward.
Dropping into a relaxed fighting stance, Raditz gestured with his hand, inviting the boy to try again. Boiton rushed forward once more, throwing another punch that was easily ducked. But he didn't let up—shifting his center of gravity, he swept his leg low to throw Raditz off balance.
The full-blooded Saiyan hopped over the leg sweep effortlessly and, using the momentum, lightly stomped his foot right onto the half-breed's face, sending him falling flat on his backside.
"Too predictable, my pupil," Raditz teased, dodging another wild swing.
"Stop moving, Baka-sensei! I'm trying to hit you!" Boiton barked, fuming.
"Predictable," Raditz repeated smoothly.
The spar devolved into a monotonous loop of Raditz dodging and lightly swatting the kid away. Exhausted and out of breath, Boiton eventually collapsed onto the floor, only for his sensei to openly mock his lack of stamina. Frustrated by the massive gap in raw combat skill, the boy decided his only option was to shift the playing field.
Channeling his Ki, he pushed himself back up.
"You're definitely stronger than me," Boiton gritted out, memories of every brutal fight he'd ever been in flashing through his mind. "But I NEVER GIVE UP!"
He remembered defeating the elite guards against all odds. "I'm going to win this fight!"
Watching the dramatic speech unfold, Raditz couldn't help but think the kid looked like a classic anime protagonist. But a split-second later, he felt Boiton's Ki spike rapidly, and alarm bells instantly rang in his head.
Wait... this kid isn't actually stupid enough to fire a full-power Ki blast inside a spaceship in the middle of open space, is he?!
His concerns were immediately confirmed as Boiton drew his hands back into a classic finisher pose. Dropping the games, Raditz flared his full power, vanishing from sight in an instant.
He reappeared directly in front of Boiton, slapping the boy's hands apart before he could release the attack.
"Are you out of your damn mind?!" Raditz growled, burying a heavy knee straight into his pupil's gut.
The sheer impact knocked the wind right out of Boiton, instantly knocking him unconscious.
Boiton woke to the feeling of a cool breeze washing over his skin and a solitary raindrop falling onto his forehead. Blinking his eyes open, he pushed himself up and looked around, realizing he was lying in the middle of a dense forest.
"Oh, great..." he groaned, rubbing his head.
As he stood up, he felt a piece of paper tucked under his armor. Pulling it out, he scanned the handwriting—his face contorting in annoyance before he crumpled the note and tossed it to the ground.
The paper unrolled on the grass, revealing the message written inside:
"Dummy! You almost blew us both to smithereens! But hey, water under the bridge, right? If you're reading this, it means you survived. Stay alive out there, my young Padawan, until I come back for you! With love, your Sensei~"
(Accompanied by a doodle of a chibi Raditz dressed in master's robes.)
The carefree Saiyan had decided that the best way to cultivate his student's true potential was to dump him in the wilderness to fend for himself. As promised in his note, he would return... eventually.
While traveling to various planets with progressively higher gravity environments, Raditz dedicated every waking hour to his own intense training.
"Five hundred... five hundred and one... five hundred and two..." he grunted, sweat pouring off his brow in sheets. Pushing himself up off the deck, he walked back inside the ship.
Glancing at the gravity regulator on the wall, he smiled at the readout: 4x Planet Vegeta Gravity.
Doing the math... that'd be roughly 40x Earth's gravity, he calculated mentally before heading off to take a shower.
Once cleaned up, he set the coordinates to head back and retrieve his pupil.
While waiting during the flight, his mind began to wander once again.
Am I actually doing the right thing here? Maybe I should try to save the Saiyan race... Or maybe not... Man, I didn't care about saving them before, but there are actually some decent people among them... Ugh! I don't know what to do! the reincarnated youth groaned internally.
En route back to his student, a massive vessel picked up his ship on its long-range radar. The oncoming ship was practically the size of a small planetoid—blocky and industrial in design, painted in rusted reds, and shaped vaguely like an American football.
Deep in thought, Raditz failed to notice the proximity alarm flashing red across his console.
The mobile station closed the distance rapidly. When it was mere meters away from colliding with the Saiyan vessel, it ground to a sudden halt, triggering a series of deafening mechanical clangs.
Snapped out of his daydream, Raditz bolted toward the cockpit—only to look out the main viewport and see a colossal ship deploying an equally colossal weapon system directly at him.
"Holy crap!" Raditz gasped in panic, scrambling over the controls and frantically mashing override buttons. "No, no, no, NO! What the hell is that thing?!"
Before he could react, the super-ship fired...
Meanwhile, on the other side of the cosmos, a young half-breed was sprinting for his life through a dense jungle, clutching a massive egg in his arms.
"HA HA HA! YOU CAN'T CATCH ME, YOU STUPID BIRD! That'll teach you to try and make a meal out of me!" Boiton boasted, ducking under a series of dive-bomb attacks from a giant avian beast.
Sprinting toward a nearby cave entrance, he spun around and fired a quick Ki blast at the rock face above. The resulting explosion triggered a massive rockslide, burying the giant eagle beneath a mountain of boulders.
Safe inside, Boiton hurried over to a crackling campfire he had prepared earlier. Skewering the massive egg with a sturdy branch, he set it over the flames to roast.
Watching the shell brown over the fire filled him with pure, unadulterated joy. He began dancing around the campfire, singing at the top of his lungs:
"FOOD! FOOD! GLORIOUS FOOOOOD!"
"La, la, la, lalalala larala..."
Back on his ship, the young Saiyan hummed a eerie little tune to himself.
"I wonder if my pupil is still alive out there?"
He walked over to the galley and poured himself a cup of hot tea. Surprisingly, Planet Vegeta had a native herb almost identical to lemon verbena. While mostly consumed by Saiyan women, Raditz didn't give a damn about social norms and always kept a stash of the tea handy.
Taking a sip, he sat back down on the deck to meditate.
His new power was undeniably versatile. Not only did it dramatically boost his internal Ki reserves, but it also enhanced his physical durability to the point of turning him into a living tank. The main drawback, however, was how aggressive and impulsive it made him during combat.
Hours passed before he finally broke his trance.
Letting out a tired sigh, he deactivated the state. His muscles felt stiff from sitting in one place for so long. Standing up, he walked back over to the pilot's chair.
Tapping the interface, he pulled up the arrival countdown: 30 minutes until destination.
Taking another sip of tea, he reclined in his seat as the main display dimmed, leaving him to stare out at the open expanse of space.
It was vast, quiet, and breathtaking. Ever since leaving Planet Vegeta and seeing deep space for the first time, he had been completely captivated by it. He'd seen plenty of pictures in his past life, but experiencing it in person was a whole different story.
"Space really is incredible... all these colorful nebulae painting the void just leave me speechless... Everything is so peaceful out here... even that weird flying wire over there," he mused aloud, watching the metallic strand draw closer and closer through the viewport.
"Wait... what the hell?"
The entire ship suddenly shuddered violently. Raditz's eyes widened as a massive shadow blotted out the viewport entirely.
A blinding red beam shot out from the vessel, locking his ship in place.
"Oh no... Oh no, no, NO! THIS IS BAD!"
End of Chapter.