In the dead of night, where buildings hardly emit light, the sky was filled with countless stars. Planet Vegeta, the rejection base, where its inhabitants never gazed up nor stayed up later than necessary.
Zukki, the daughter of Kappa, practices after waking late in the evening. Wearing a version of that armor his faction despises. A black body suit, a chest piece like all the rest, that was basically it aside from worn white boots scuffed up already from all the hard work.
Her hand is like a lighter that sparks and catches flame. The heat builds and then dissipates as it grows too hot to bear.
Holding her right wrist with her left hand, the girl no older than three concentrated on that sharp and sudden heat. She could feel her body temperature rise to abnormal levels and that heat move from all around it. It creeps up her legs, down from her head, and towards her arms. It's when the heat is focused in the palm of her hand that it sparks. When she catches that spark with the heat concentrated in her hand, it ignites into a hot flame.
Nights could be cool on planet Vegeta, but not enough to make this ability more than just means to combat. Zukki was never so sensitive to the cold anyway.
Holding the flame in her hand, releasing her wrist now that it has been ignited, she has just one thought in mind. Recreating her fathers ability to slice targets with the sheer heat of his flames. It was the only thing he demonstrated for her before leaving on his mission.
But just as she has attempted in the past, lifting her arm up and swiping it down only blew away the little embers she created. Zukki's face scrunched up slightly in response, quickly relaxing right after.
Once again, hand to her wrist she began generating that heat, and then the sparks ignited into an ember. Within her palm once more was the tiny flame.
Before just repeating the same mistake she realizes that a weak flame would not withstand even the smallest air pressure. Her mind flashes back to when she first learned how to conjure flames. It went out of control and Zukki nearly set her body on fire. For a second she seriously hesitated before letting out an exasperated breath.
Zukki was about to do something dangerous so she had to calm herself. "Mother once said, " a steady breath produces better decisions" or something like that" she resolves herself mentally with reassuring memories of her mother.
Steadying her breath Zukki held her hand as far away from her body as she could, generating more heat into the ember. With her palm facing upwards and the temperature rising she began to sweat. The light emitting from her could be seen from a fair distance away. Slowly she let the flame surround her hand until it began to hurt.
Wincing from the pain she found her current limit. she stopped generating heat and yet the flame remained strong leading her to panic and waver her arm around. Thankfully she was not burnt.
Zukki bit down in her lips while looking at her dominant right hand. Her lips parted as a happy go lucky wide grin painted her face.
"I don't burn myself every time now, hehehe" she let out a mischievous laugh. Happily prepared to spend the foreseeable future learning to be like her father. "Father's gonna be so proud"
***
After a long night of setting her hand aflame Zukki saw the sky lighten up across the horizon. Though the rejection base is within the shadow of the Saiyan capital, a large mountain, with a tall metal castle where the King hails. It could be poetic, if the idea was not entirely lost on this toddler.
She was finally catching her breath after the last attempt to control an ever growing flame. The exhaustion of generating the heat required to spark and ignite flames was a given. Zukki was only now truly understanding that due to her stubborn resolve. This being the first night she did not stop after nearly burning herself.
She leaned against the building before falling down onto her butt. The gravelly ground is not something Zukki would complain about. Palms resting on the many cool pebbles is soothing to her.
The girl had no sense of time aside from day and night, dawn and dusk due to nothing to measure time at her disposal. A scouter would solve this problem, however she got hers confiscated like the rest of the uninteresting members of this base.
The timing mattered because this was the daily meeting spot she was obligated to be at every morning. Zukki had never missed a meeting yet, so she had no clue what the consequences were. She never intended to find out either. The young girl was excited to continue learning the physicality of her race of warriors.
"Is it time...yet.." she says out loud with no one around to hear. The exhaustion creeping on her. Zukki's eye lids getting heavy until sleep won this battle.
Zukki would sleep with her back to the wall for about an hour as the meeting time approached. She couldn't tell, but the saiyan woman in charge of her instruction was always on time.
Negi arrived getting a read on the child's energy signature. Flying down before Zukki she assumed the kid had been sleeping out there all night. Since this was a consistent occurrence she was starting to think "sheesh this isn't my kind of torture, you don't belong in this base kid. It's down right disgusting in this place "
Then again Negi was not nice or anything positive like that and picked up the sleeping child by the armor. Tossing her away from the building.
"Wakey wakey, time for your morning beat–drills" she had to correct her casually abrasive intentions.
Zukki was sleeping like a log. When her eyes opened the world was upside-down. Before she knew it her head was crashing down into the million pebbles that made the pinkish red ground. Well that's one way to wake up.
When she picked her head up it was scuffed to all hell, no permanent marks, but the look would stick for the day. Zukki wiped the gravel from her face before turning to face the adult woman.
"Ready? Only warning since you woke up right away I'm feeling generous" Negi said sarcastically.
"Yeaaaawww" Zukki intended to agree while ignoring the woman's sarcasm only to let out a large yawn.
Negi closes the distance before swiping her arm horizontal. Throwing a back fist with a lax amount of speed. "Didn't get enough sleep!?" She would taunt.
"Something like that" Zukki acts coy while slipping under, sucking the backfist. Her first thought to counter attack, but rejecting that notion as a knee came her way.
Negi had followed her back fist with a knee strike at the kid's jaw. With the height difference it takes so much less effort to connect attacks coming from her legs. The attack was smothered by Zukki's hand as she hopped back. The sound of gravel crunching underneath is the only noise to result from this bout.
Zukki returns fire by leaping in. This action though with a respectable amount of force and speed left her wide open for a counter attack by a faster enemy.
Negi's reflexes kick in as she reaches out to grab the child by her face. Instead it was her wrist that was captured in a show of adaptation.
Zukki pulled the adult's arm back and aimed the sole of her boot for her unperturbed face. It was a great series of actions as she used her target's own arm as a leverage point.
Of course the superior fighter Negi caught this foot before whipping the child around and down into the gravelly surface. Zukki's face slammed into the ground before flipping back to her feet. Pushing off the ground she dove right back into the fray.
Zukki's fist would slam into Negi as the adult woman briefly humored the exchange. Only for her to overpower the kid into the ground. The superior fighter used overwhelming force to blow away the newbie's attack.
The child was shocked she was overwhelmed in an instant, but the difference in strength would always be apparent. The mind games Negi pulled always took her opponents off guard.
Turning her body, Negi slammed her foot into the child's open face, sending Zukki back. Flipping back she landed on her hands and feet. By this point the effort in each return attempt was apparent.
"Haa!" Zukki returned to attack only to be batted away. She could hear cackles as Negi started to let out her sadistic side.
The woman watching as Kappa's daughter struggles underneath her oppressive strength, each bit of hope crushed, the cycle intoxicating to her. Zukki was like the perfect masochist to her sadist. The child's expression began to mirror her own. Really Zukki continued to be strung along by the false openings the adult left open.
Eventually two distinct silhouettes had crept up to watch this instruction.
Zukki felt her stamina depleted much faster than normal as she was struggling to get to her feet. It was much earlier than usual with it taking even less punishment.
In the meantime while the kid struggled to return to an upright position Negi had to point out the audience.
"Hey look, your fan..fans are here. Wow they're multiplying" Negi pointed out with a tiny bit of confusion. Still ants to her, it just felt like a good way to antagonize the kid.
Zukki hardly paid mind to the first reject to watch her struggle day after day, what would one more do. At this moment she hardly even noticed anything, but her heart beating in her ears.
The two rejects silently observed her rise to her feet. Zukki was drenched in sweat and gasping for air. Negi had given her the second to breath coincidentally and catching her breath is what the kid did.
With one foot after the other, Zukki rushed down Negi with all the strength in her body. All of it packed into one punch aimed for her chin.
"Hhrreaah!" She screamed the battle cry and only jumped to reach her target at the very last second.
Negi sadistically looked over at the two watching before raising her knee into Zukki's gut. The sound of the kid getting her wind stolen from her filled the yard.
The knee robbed Zukki of all the air in her lungs as she took a brutal counter. After getting hit she flew onto her back gasping harshly. The pain or the choking sensation, one or both of them made her nearly instantly lose consciousness.
Negi cackled with a heinous and twisted gaze down at her victim. Soon her smile would turn into a frown once realizing she would not be getting up.
"What..why was she so exhausted today. She let herself get brutalized by that counter. That's... disappointing" the disappointment was evident on her face.
Negi's eyes fell onto the two rejects who happened to be standing by. With her eyes landing on them they were clearly unnerved. With Zukki knocked out they seemed to lose interest in sticking around.
As they attempted to scurry away a voice would stop them in their tracks.
"Hey where do you think you're going, i was just about to request a volunteer from the crowd" Negi face says it all, as her voice forces them to turn around like they were caught red handed.
"455 and 456 huh" she notes the carvings in their chest armor.
"C-can we help you ma'am?" The boy with knife-like hair asked. He was the most affected by her unnerving smile.
"Haha..hahaha" Negi began to laugh only to slap the boy with the back of her hand sending him skipping across the gravel. "Ma'am!? What am I, an old lady!?"
Her smile morphed into something ugly and angry as she turned to the sharp Scruffy haired boy.
"Can I help you..um young lady?" He spoke in a monotone, assuming saying the opposite thing or pandering to the woman would save him from his friend's fate.
Well he was correct, instead of a back hand, he received the bottom of her boot to his face.
That's three toddlers knocked out on the ground. Looking around, Negi couldn't help but feel so dissatisfied.
"Tch, what a waste of energy"