Going Native: Rewritten: Wilds 1.3 (ch. 3) (Patreon)

“I think he's related to my dad and me somehow, but I dunno how,” Raditz admitted with a small shrug of his shoulders as he ripped off a chunk of meat from a thigh bone in his hands. “Beyond that, I don't really know that much about him. He's the Forest King. He ruled over this place for years after he beat the last Forest King.” 

I mulled over that for a moment, still feeling like a massive bruise the morning after our fight with Raditz’s tribe and then our beat down by Turles. It was interesting to learn that hairstyles were a genetic trait, but it was far more important to learn about Turles himself. Raditz was surprisingly open to joining the tribes together, as I’d half expected him to split off after we were defeated. 

But apparently that was just how Turles introduced himself to everyone. Anyone who entered his forest caught a beat down and a demand for tribute. And I was almost impressed by the ingenuity the Saiyans must have had to create such a uniquely stupid way to develop their children. 

Turles’ type wasn't uncommon. He ruled over the forest, but there were Sea Kings, or Sky Kings, and everything in between out there, apparently. Ninety percent of Planet Vegeta was left in the hands of children going through a proving ritual -- and across the planet, there were countless ‘Petty Kings’ like Turles. It almost felt designed, in a way, with how uniquely awful the whole set up was. 

The tribe leader would always be the strongest, and they would usually find some resource in the Forest to lay claim to -- usually food or hunting grounds. Tribes would then compete for those resources, both as a means to feed themselves and to have enough to provide tribute. That, in turn, created a social ecosystem that further reinforced the whole ‘strong survive, the weak die’ mentality that the Saiyan race was determined to inflict upon itself. 

Tribes usually stayed small as a result, with weaker members suffering similar tyranny within their tribes as the tribe leader took the lion’s share of the food in exchange for protection and resources. However, the tribes were malleable. When they encountered another, it wasn’t at all uncommon for tribes to kidnap members that they decided were strong enough to recruit but weak enough to enforce obedience. 

Then that tribe would turn inward, purging itself of what they saw as the weakest members, banishing them and forcing them to either strike out on their own to form their own tribe or find another. The one cast out wasn’t always the weakest member. There was a term tossed out -- the Support-Class, which amounted to slavery, but they were saiyans that were weak yet could perform some kind of task. Like bone carving, painting, or whatever the tribe leader thought was worth keeping them around for. 

All the while, the other Saiyans under the Petty King would fight over resources, standing, and to challenge themselves. All in the hopes that they could then become the Petty King, while the King himself fought to keep his position. So, he would fly about, crush challengers, and in doing so, he would slowly increase in strength until his power level crossed the threshold to join Saiyan civilization. 

It was brutal. It was wasteful. It was dumb as all hell. But it was a very Saiyan approach to making sure that only the strongest survived. 

“It doesn't change anything,” I decided, running my tongue over my gums to poke at the teeth that were thankfully growing back. They itched like crazy, but I'd rather that than be left missing half my teeth on one side. “The plan remains the same,” I said, standing up as I looked at all the others. 

Raditz seemed doubtful, “How are you going to pay the tribute and feed so many of us?” He questioned, and that was a fair concern. It was the reason so many tribes chose to slim down -- they cut off what they considered the dead weight so they could eat their fill and pay the tribute. 

“That's the easy part,” I dismissed, and everyone perked up at hearing my confidence. The mood had certainly soured after our swift defeat as soon as we tasted victory, but I knew just the thing on how to change that. And if teaching them about seasoning made me their god… then this would turn me into whatever a god prayed to in their eyes. 

“We start training.” 

…

Back in the incubator, I could only really theorize about ki and move it around a little. Practical applications had to wait until I was free of it, but now that I was, a lot of my time went into exploring the nature of ki. And, as far as I could tell, it was basically magic. Like, it wasn't. But it kinda was. Sorta. There was some overlap. A lot of overlap, even. Probably. I didn't know a lot about magic. Or ki, for that matter. 

What I did know was this -- ki based techniques were limited only by three factors. First and foremost was imagination. You had to visualize what the complete technique would look like in your head. What form it would take, how the technique was expressed, or the effect.

The second was understanding. You had to understand the steps between conception and completion. How that understanding was manifested mattered far less than the fact that you understood how the technique worked. You could understand a Kamehameha by learning the math and expressing the components via an equation if that struck your fancy. Or, you could just as easily understand each step of the technique by learning how each step flowed into one another and accounting for variables like how heat was created via compression and how gravity affected your surroundings depending on the density and weight of a ki attack. 

Or you could understand literally nothing about a technique and simply follow the steps like a recipe without any deeper understanding beyond that it worked. 

The final step was the most important -- ki control. It determined your ability to put both imagination and understanding into practice. It covered everything functional about the technique in question -- density, shape, power, wastage, and functionality. If you sucked with manipulating your ki, then you couldn't use a technique, even if you could envision it and understood the steps. In fact, better ki control meant everything about your techniques worked better as you could compress an attack more, funneling more ki to it, which made it stronger. 

And when all three factors worked in harmony, you got perfection. 

“Ki manipulation is defined by three facets,” I began my lecture on a topic I barely understood, my hands behind my back as I looked out at my students who understood even less. There were a dozen faces looking back at me, but at the forefront were Caulifla, Cabba, and Raditz. “Output, shape manipulation, and expression. Controlling your output minimizes wastage of ki, in addition to avoiding overburdening sensitive techniques that require fine control. Expression is how you express your ki -- if you want to produce light or heat with it. And, lastly, shape manipulation is your ability to… well… shape your ki.”

Not the strongest finish, I could admit, but the message was pretty clear. Or, so I thought before Caulifla immediately raised a hand. “I didn't understand anything! Could you repeat that?”

Yeah, I figured that'd be the case. Though I had hoped that more would have gotten it because all I saw were clueless expressions. And some panicking in a ‘will this be on the test?’ kind of way. 

I swallowed a sigh before I pointed to the teaching aid that I had placed, anticipating this development. Saiyans were more visual learners than theoretical ones. The teaching aids in question were three rocks the size of an average Saiyan kid, so about three feet tall and a foot and a half wide. Under Planet Vegeta's gravity, they weighed about a metric ton or thereabouts. 

“Output is like this: Hnnh!” I grunted, forming a ki ball around the rock, and I began to lift the rock up. I kept the exertion off of my face for a few seconds before setting it down. 

“Ki manipulation is like this: Hmmm!” I said, going to another rock and focusing on a bead of ki underneath it. Then, raising a hand, a stalk of blue ki lifted the stone up with branches of it expanding at both sides to avoid the rock tipping over. 

“Then, finally, expression: Haaaa!” I said, moving on to the third rock and imbuing it much like I did a cooking slab to heat it up. It required touch, which was something I was trying to work out, but I hadn't managed it before the demonstration. Only instead of using ki to produce heat, this time I had it do something else. I made the rock lift up, not by lifting it like before but by making it defy gravity by applying the same principle that allowed me to fly -- I pulled up at the ki in the rock. 

Now there were noises of understanding while Caulifla just shook her head at me. “Why didn't you just say that the first time?” 

My brow twitched as I lowered the rock. I counted to five before I continued. “All of you try. Remember: Hnnh. Hmmm. Haaaa!” I concluded my lecture, and if nothing else, when it came to getting stronger, they were attentive students who were eager to learn. They rushed over to the other rocks I had prepared and started trying their hands at it. 

It was a good thing that I prepared a bunch of them because some immediately exploded when they channeled too much ki into them, or were destroyed in a ki ball, or had a pillar of ki that split right through the stone. They had a real problem with applying too much ki to everything, so it would double as a useful exercise to teach them that more wasn't always better. 

I crossed my arms, watching them progress, and all the while, there was an itch in the back of my brain that wanted to learn more. Everything I just expressed was the tip of the iceberg, and a lot more lurked beneath the surface, but I wasn't certain how to get to that point. While my time reading cultivation novels in my last life wasn't the complete waste of time that I thought it was, I couldn't apply everything I thought I knew about ki. 

Ki didn't have a ‘nature’. It could express itself as lightning or fire or light, but it wasn't inherently any one of those things. It was completely neutral. To get lightning with ki, you had to apply it in a way that would produce lightning. For something like telepathy, while I knew it was possible, I had no clue how I could go about using ki in a way that could connect my mind with someone else's. What's more, something like Multi-Form was also beyond my grasp because I just didn't get how you could divide your ki in the shape of yourself to create fully functional, if temporary, clones.

While I was miles ahead of the rest of the tribe, I still had a very long way to go. As frustrating as that was, it was a good thing. The challenge of it was just a reason to work harder. 

After a bit, some of the kids were starting to get the hang of it. A surprising one was Raditz, who earned more than a few dirty looks from others at his wide grin. 

“That’s not fair -- you had your dad explain this stuff to you in the tank!” Caulifa complained, and my ear twitched at that while I pretended not to be eavesdropping. “I bet he taught you all sorts of techniques. Jerk.”

“It’s pure natural talent!” Raditz bragged, puffing out his chest as he effortlessly lifted a stone with his ki without destroying it. “It’s one of the perks of being born from a mid-class Saiyan like my father.” He said with a leering grin that radiated smugness. 

“Your father?” I echoed, acting like I hadn’t been listening as I walked the class. The barren stone underfoot trembling ever so slightly every time a stone dropped when someone’s concentration slipped. Raditz looked over at me, faintly surprised, then he looked sharply at Caulifa when she kicked him in the butt. 

“He keeps yappin’ about his father, Bardock. He’s like you- he wasn’t part of a batch,” Caulifa remarked, and I looked to Raditiz for more of an explanation. “Course he’s still here because he wasn’t strong enough to go straight into missions,” she said, giggling behind a hand at his expense. 

Raidtz snapped in her direction, “I was born with a power level of three hundred! I totally crossed the threshold, but those stupid royals sent me here! My dad said so,” He snapped, kicking back at her. I mulled that over for a moment, and that did sound like something King Vegeta would do. The guy sucked. Like, a lot. Raditz glanced back at me, “My Dad’s name is Bardock! He’s a mid-class warrior, but he’s one of the best warriors in the entire Saiyan Empire!”

Bardock. Goku’s dad. And Raditz’, I guess. Not sure what canon we were working with, so he could just have sharp instincts or have a vision-...

…

…

…

Wait, what?

What did he just say? 

“The Saiyan Empire?” I echoed, my brow furrowing. “What’s that?”

Raditz glanced away, looking a bit sheepish. “I dunno?” He admitted with a small shrug of his shoulders. “I just heard my mom and dad talking about it sometimes. Well, mostly my mom since Dad was always on missions. She said that he would conquer planets for the Saiyan Empire, or complete super challenging contracts, and sometimes we got a lot of money because King Vegeta would sometimes sell planets to the Planetary Trade Organization.”

I beg your pardon?

I knew I shouldn’t take Raditz’s word for it because it sounded like he wasn’t sure what he was talking about, and he was just echoing whatever he heard from his parents. But from the sounds of it, the Saiyan race was independent. That King Vegeta ruled over an entire empire rather than a single planet under the heel of Frieza. I could be misunderstanding something, and maybe Raditz was misunderstanding something too, but if true that was a massive deviation to canon. 

The Saiyan race was meant to be functionally slaves conquered by King Cold, then given to Frieza at some point. We conquered planets for him and committed a laundry list of war crimes, with genocide at the top of that list with a big ol’ checkmark right next to it. But there was never any mention of payment or any kind of compensation at all. That didn’t mean that there wasn’t -- it all could have just gone unsaid, but… 

That was the third deviation that I had found. One could just be a one-off, twice a coincidence, but three times?

I think I had better start preparing myself for the idea that I was in some manner of alternate universe or something. Maybe I was in one of the other universes rather than Universe 6 or 7? 

Irritatingly, the only way to find any answers was to leave the forest behind. 

“Tarble! This can't be it, right? What else is this trainin’ stuff you were talkin’ about?” Caulifla questioned, breaking me from my thoughts. As much as I wanted answers, there was no point in dwelling on my questions. I would get answers in time. 

To that, I answered her question with a grin. “Of course this isn't it. This is just one part of our training!” I informed, making Caulifla and others whoop in delight. 

…

Caulifa groaned, and her groans were joined by others. I, on the other hand, had a large grin as sweat dripped down my face. The unrelenting sun was overhead, but I was in the vast shadow of the rock that I carried on my back, my legs trembling just to keep it from crushing me, much less taking a step forward. 

“This sucks! What are we even doing lugging these things around?!” Caulifa managed to complain, and I could feel her hot gaze on my back as I stumbled a step forward. “And why is your rock so much bigger than ours, huh?!”

“Because I'm stronger than you,” I replied in a breathy gasp, managing another step forward. I would prefer some weighted clothing or something, but this wasn't a bad alternative. It worked a lot of the muscle groupings, but mainly the shoulders, back, biceps, and legs. The stone that was cut out wasn't that different than a cooking stone in function, just a bit thicker and taller. They were stacked up one at a time until the Saiyan carrying them could barely carry them, and we couldn't drop them as we made one hundred laps through some rather hilly terrain. 

“W-what was that?” Caulifa huffed and puffed, as my pushing that button worked like a charm. She started to speed up, so I did as well to maintain my speed. 

It was a bit harder for me as, like I said, I was stronger than her. And any other Saiyan in the tribe. 

My hair brained scheme worked even better than I’d hoped, as Turles kicking my teeth in had increased the effectiveness of the Zenkai Boost dramatically. I read a lot of theories about the Zenkai Boost back in the day, and I think one of them had the right of it -- being able to sense ki made the Zenkai vastly more effective. The Zenkai Boost was a defensive response to predators, as far as people had reasoned, so being able to sense how much weaker you were than something would have the Zenkai working that much harder to bridge the gap. 

In my case? I went from 200pl to a very respectable 750pl. So, a 550pl boost.

In other words, I had gotten almost four times stronger from one Zenkai.

As such, I needed a lot more weight to push me to the limit. 

“I… hate… this… why… did… I… join…?” Raditz gasped with each step that he took, slowly being crushed by the weight. With Planet Vegeta's gravity, he was carrying around… ten or so tons? Not bad considering that kid Goku had effortlessly flipped a car, which should have only weighed about a ton. 

“The pain means it's working! It's weakness leaving the body,” I said, feeling my muscles strain with my veins bulging underneath my skin. “Training like this damages the body, and it lets the body build itself back up stronger than ever! So, keep it up! This is the last lap! Who wants to give up just before they reach the finish line?” 

“Not me, Boss!” One of the other Saiyan shouted, picking up the pace. Okarot, his name was. While Raditz, Caulifla, and Cabba were all characters that I knew, that didn't mean they were the only ones worth keeping an eye on. 

After a night's sleep, everyone woke up just a little bit stronger than they had been before. Caulifa in particular had a pretty big jump of around 50pl, bringing her power level to around 200. Which wasn't bad at all considering that she couldn't sense ki. Cabba, likewise, had a much more reserved 10pl increase to his power level, with Raditz only getting a much smaller 3 points to his. 

Ki sensing was the game changer. I’d thought about teaching it to them but… I wasn't sure that was a card that I wanted to play. Mostly because it felt like something I couldn't take back. Teaching Caulifla and Cabba? Sure, I could see that. Teaching everyone in the tribe even? No real problem there. 

But if they started teaching people? And that trickled its way up to assholes like King Vegeta? What would he do with ki sense and more effective Zenkai Boosts? King Vegeta with the former might not be that bad. I hadn't seen a scouter yet, but odds were that he had them. It was just if he figured out the Zenkai Boost like Vegeta did in canon -- that was the real danger. I didn't want to contribute to the number of destroyed planets in the galaxy. 

With a final push, it became something of a race to the finish line. I, naturally, came in first with Caulifla a close second, Okarot in third, and Raditz in fourth. Something that Caulifa was quick to point at.

“My rock was heavier than yours!” Raditz was already cutting her off, knowing what she was going to say even before she opened her mouth. “Because I'm stronger than you!” 

“Oh yeah? How about you prove it?” Caulifla challenged and they looked like they were about to square off for a moment. Right up until they both realized that they were exhausted. Which still might not have been enough to stop them from fighting by itself, but the wind carried the smell of cooking meat and their little spat was swiftly forgotten. Their attention snapped in the direction of the smell and they quickly tossed off their stones to fly up. 

I wasn't far behind them, flying up to the cave that Raditz had set up in. It was a nice location. It just had to be expanded a bit to accommodate everyone, but all that extra stone became training tools. At the cave itself, I saw massive slabs of meat roasting over a fire with Cabba spinning them at a steady slow pace. 

“Boss!” He greeted me with a smile. I flew over to him, giving the roast a quick inspection. There was something drizzled onto it and he was quick to explain, “It's a sap from some of the trees. It's supposed to be super tasty!” He said, puffing out his chest. 

Then my gaze drifted over to some of the new faces, “I take it that they told us that?” I remarked, looking at six Saiyans that were off to the side, presenting rocks and herbs that they had discovered. All of which was being recorded into a codex that was being written into the stone wall. Which could be broken down into a few categories -- what was tasty, what was gross, what was dangerous, where to find food and where to avoid. 

It was my hope that we could compile information from the various tribes to more effectively live in the forest. And, thankfully, the powers that be deemed being able to read was important enough to include in the incubator education. 

Cabba nodded, “I stumbled across them during our hunt. They tried to ambush us for it, but we managed to beat them.” I had sensed as much but nodded all the same. “The other hunting group is already out and they should be back soon.” 

They had already found something and they were in the process of killing it. “Good,” I said, nodding to myself. 

This was my answer to Turles’ tribute. I steadfastly refused to accept the brutal stupidity that the Saiyan race seemed determined to inflict upon itself. I wouldn't compromise on my efforts to correct what I saw as stupid and wrong. So, if half of our food went to Turles, then that just meant we needed to hunt more effectively. 

The tribe was split into groups -- one group was always hunting for food. Another group, during the meantime, would be training, whether it would be their ki abilities or physically. A third group would be resting as when it was time for them to wake up, they would go out on a hunt while those that had hunted earlier would then train, while those that had trained would then rest. All of it on a smooth rotation. 

It was my hope that as our tribe expanded, we could send out multiple teams of hunters. So, even if one group didn't find anything, another might. Or that we could expand it as it looked like there was a notable selection of fruits, vegetables, buts, roots, and various herbs that were edible that we could gather. Already, the bone bowls made out of animal skulls were filling up with them. And I wondered if we could make maple syrup from the trees here?

“There have been others that have noticed us. Word got around that we beat Raditz, somehow,” Cabba continued. “Should we…?” 

Nice. More recruits. “We'll head out and crush them before they get any bright ideas,” I said, giving him a nod. While I trusted Cabba and the others to take care of themselves, I wasn't going to leave it to chance that one of them couldn't be killed in an ambush. “We'll recruit them too. Though, we should probably set up a secondary location,” I remarked, looking at the cave. It was a good location, but unless we hollowed out the entire cliffside… 

“Yeah. It's probably not a good idea to have so many Saiyans living in one place,” Cabba admitted, and that was another thing to worry about. Saiyans were a rowdy bunch, and as they grew stronger, the playful bouts were only going to get more destructive. I didn't want my home collapsing down on my head because a fight got out of hand. 

“I'll scout some locations,” I decided. Probably do that when we crushed the groups on our periphery, who were probing for signs of weakness. “We have food, shelter… some place with hot water wouldn't go amiss,” I remarked, scratching at my cheek. Saiyans apparently didn't stink when they sweat, but after four days, I just felt gross. I was covered in sweat, dust, and blood. 

To that, Raditz perked up, “I know a place?” He offered and a slow smile spread across my face. 

Jackpot.

…

“Ahhh… that's nice~!” I gasped as I slid into steaming hot water that was just shy of boiling. The very last thing I expected for Raditz to bring us to was a hot spring. It sat in the depths of a valley, and it was a pretty sizable one. It was around the size of an indoor pool at a rec center, the kind used for those swimming races, so a hundred Saiyans could fit inside if they wanted. 

A bath was an unthinkable luxury, and a hot bath, to boot? I was in bliss. 

Right up until I heard a massive splash with a cheer that sent a wave of water splashing over me. “Woo! It's hot!” A Saiyan cried out. 

“I told you so!” Raditz shouted back, his tone smug as he swam across the bath. “I found it a couple of months ago -- the spit blowers used to come here, but I think they all got eaten.” The spit blowers were evidently an animal that could store water like a camel which could then blow out that water in a focused stream with enough force to carve through dozens of trees. I was actually a little sad that they were apparently gone from the forest -- they sounded neat. 

“Ahhhh…” I sighed, my gaze falling to the rippling waters. It was the first time I had a chance to see my reflection, I realized. Unsurprisingly, I didn't recognize myself. My hair defied gravity, spiked up in thick locks with a lone one drifting down to my eyes. I was going to be handsome once I lost the youthfulness that clung to my jawline and cheekbones. My eyes were an onyx black with no trace of an iris at all. 

That wasn't the only reason why I didn't recognize myself. 

The idea that I could take charge, and willingly at that, of a tribe of Saiyans was absurd. I’d never once considered myself leader material. I’d never wanted to be one either. I was perfectly content with my slice of the pie, finding a quiet corner, and reading a book or something. I never considered myself to be ambitious either, and here I was trying to upheave the Saiyan way of life. 

And the real kicker? 

I still planned on bailing on the Saiyan race. I had no idea if Frieza was in the picture or not, but that didn't really change anything for me. I had absolutely no intentions of ever flying to an alien planet with the intention of committing genocide -- Vegeta said it in Super, those sins belonged to the Saiyan race. The blame didn't rest solely on Frieza's shoulders. 

Raising my hands up, I splashed water on my face and rubbed vigorously as if I were trying to wash away my thoughts. I had no idea what I was going to do about everyone else, beyond, perhaps, a vague notion that I’d just… take them with me. Do something like toss a steak into a spaceship, take off, and resettle on a planet to create a new Saiyan race that didn’t suck. 

While I was washing my face, I heard Cabba speak up. “Raditz?” He started, looking to the long-haired Saiyan, who glanced his way with a raised eyebrow. “Did you see any of the city before you came here? When you were with your family?”

My ears perked up, but I was swiftly disappointed when I saw Raditz shaking his head. “Nah, not really. Well, I saw a bunch of buildings and some weird-looking aliens. They were tall, too, but not as tall as the trees- the buildings, not the aliens. I saw a lot of Saiyans, though. But Dad took me straight to the Badlands before taking me out of the pod and told me not to die.” That sounded about par for the course by this point. I suppose I should be grateful that there was one Saiyan that seemed to vaguely care about their offspring. 

“Oh,” Cabba muttered, sounding a little disappointed. 

“You didn’t see any of it?” Raditz asked, cocking an eyebrow. 

“No. My parents were low-class, so I was placed in a batch. When we got done growing, and none of us made the cut-off, we were placed in a ship and brought to the Badlands. After we were taken out of the incubators, the ship took off.” And now I’m getting pissed off again. “So, I just wondered a bit what it was like. I mean… We were told that we would be allowed into the capital city once we were strong enough, but…” 

Cabba didn’t seem to know how to finish, so offered a small shrug of his shoulders. Raditz seemed to know what he meant, though, as he nodded along. 

“I figured I’d see it sooner or later,” Raditz admitted. “Once I get recognized as a Saiyan warrior, of course!”

“Yeah,” I said, speaking up out of curiosity. With my Zenkai, I was already pretty close, and to say nothing of my sneaking suspicion about Turles. “Does anyone know how it actually works? Like, who tells you that you’ve hit a thousand PL?” 

“I heard that a warrior will come grab you, but I’ve never seen it,” Raditz replied.

“I suppose it doesn’t matter. We just need to set up a system that keeps going after we leave it,” I ventured, spying two Saiyans getting in a splashing contest. They were laughing as they went back and forth, seeing who could douse the other the most. 

Raditz stilled, “We?” He echoed, looking vaguely alarmed. 

I smirked in his direction. “I plan on taking you all with me, of course. So, get ready for a lot of training!” I said with a laugh, and most of the Saiyan immediately snapped their attention in my direction. They were like a dog that just heard the word ‘treat.’ One track minds, the lot of them. 

It caused one of the two Saiyans having the splashing contest to seize the opportunity and hit the other with a big wave. And, predictably, in response to getting outdone, the other Saiyan immediately snapped and punched the other in the face. That made my smirk slip as a brawl erupted between them, sending out waves of water -- one of which smashed right into me. 

The relaxing bath was suddenly a lot less relaxing as everyone else started cheering them on and I felt a headache coming. 

Why was I trying to save these idiots again?