c2: What Happened to Your Fighting Ability?
"Of course. I've already mastered the method to become a Super Saiyan." Lu Fan nodded calmly, his eyes reflecting a maturity well beyond his years.
"Then tell me! What's the method?" Vegeta demanded, stepping forward, a rare flicker of urgency in his royal voice.
"No rush. First, we need to leave Planet Vegeta." Lu Fan's tone remained composed.
"Tch. Why are you so eager to leave Planet Vegeta?" Vegeta crossed his arms, scoffing. "And besides, if you really know how to become a Super Saiyan, why haven't you transformed already? Why drag me along? Don't you want to become the strongest in the universe?"
"You talk too much." Lu Fan shook his head and slowly circled around Vegeta, stopping behind him.
"What" Vegeta's brow furrowed.
"Thwack!"
In a blur, Lu Fan struck Vegeta lightly but precisely at the base of his neck an acupoint he had studied from elite Saiyan combat manuals and Earth-based martial traditions stored in the Frieza Force's archive. Vegeta staggered, unable to even lift his arm in response.
His vision blurred.
His knees buckled.
And with that, Prince Vegeta, son of King Vegeta, fainted on the spot, eyes rolling back as his body slumped to the ground.
Lu Fan stepped forward and calmly reached for Vegeta's tail his most sensitive weakness. Without hesitation, he lifted the unconscious prince by the tail, holding him like a bag of battle gear.
"Whoosh!"
In a blink, Lu Fan soared into the reddish skies of Planet Vegeta, heading steadily toward the Saiyan Spaceport, a facility on the planet's equatorial ridge used to launch deep-space scout pods. The red glow of Planet Vegeta's atmosphere shimmered around him as he flew, trailing wind currents behind.
Before long, Lu Fan descended slowly, landing at the launch base's entrance.
Guards and technicians stationed at the port stopped what they were doing and stared in surprise. In Lu Fan's grip was none other than the royal heir of the Saiyan race Prince Vegeta himself being carried by the tail no less, limp and unconscious.
Murmurs erupted among the technicians.
"Is that the Prince?"
"Why is he being carried like that?"
"And that's... Lu Fan, right?"
Several recognized Lu Fan. A year ago, his power level was the talk of the palace over 10,000 at age four, an anomaly even among elite warriors. But now...
"Give me a standard-class attack pod. I'm taking His Highness off-world for intensive training," Lu Fan said casually, still holding Vegeta upside-down.
Two techs exchanged uncertain glances. The image was jarring: the royal heir's tail gripped in a reverse hold, his body unmoving.
"Uhh..."
Lu Fan smiled politely, as if anticipating the confusion. "His Highness is conditioning his tail." He gestured with a nod. "You know it's a Saiyan's biggest physical weakness. We're working on nullifying that vulnerability early."
The staff looked at each other again. The explanation made a strange kind of sense.
"Tail desensitization training... at that age?" one whispered.
"Wow. That's intense." said another. "We haven't even done that ourselves yet."
True enough, the tail was a Saiyan's most glaring physical liability a hardwired nervous reflex that could paralyze them if grabbed. Even Nappa, one of King Vegeta's top elites, hadn't overcome it yet.
Still... he looks like he's unconscious, doesn't he?
But they didn't voice the thought. After all, this was Prince Vegeta, and Lu Fan wasn't just anyone. He had once been called the prodigy of the new generation, placed personally by King Vegeta at his son's side not just as a sparring partner, but as a stabilizing influence.
Even so... the decline in Lu Fan's combat ability over the last year was notorious.
From a peak of 10,000...
Down to 5,000...
Then 1,000...
Now?
Only 200.
"Man," one of the techs whispered, "from elite to fodder in a year. What happened to him?"
"Maybe he's just genetically unstable. A mutation," another guessed.
Still, none of them dared question him directly.
"Understood. Please wait a moment. We'll prep a pod right away," one of the techs said, already moving toward the launch terminals.
As the request was being processed, a group of young Saiyans arrived at the bay entrance a squad of five teenagers, clad in basic battle armor. Their ages ranged from 7 to 10.
One of them stood out a completely bald-headed boy with a hardened expression. His ki was slightly above average for his age, though nowhere near elite class.
They halted at the sight of Lu Fan and the unconscious prince.
The bald one narrowed his eyes.
"Hey... is that Prince Vegeta?"
There was also a tall young man whose wild, jet-black hair had grown so long that it nearly touched his calves. His fierce expression and thick brow ridge marked him unmistakably as a battle-born Saiyan.
Lu Fan recognized the two figures immediately.
One was Nappa, already tall and broad-shouldered despite being only a teenager around 11 years old. The other was Raditz, the older brother of Kakarot (Son Goku), and one of the few low-class warriors who had survived multiple planetary missions. Raditz, still in his early teens, stood confidently with his scouter blinking softly on his left eye.
"Hey? Lu Fan? You heading out too?" Raditz stepped forward, brushing his long hair back from his scouter.
"Yeah. Just taking a short trip off-world." Lu Fan nodded, his tone light but unreadable.
Raditz's gaze dropped to the unconscious figure dragging behind Lu Fan held casually by the tail.
"Wait… is that His Highness, Prince Vegeta?" Raditz blinked.
"The Prince was doing tail resistance training," Lu Fan explained with a calm smile, "He pushed too far and passed out."
Raditz's mouth twitched.
"Hah! So even Prince Vegeta can't overcome that weakness?" Raditz chuckled nervously.
The Saiyan tail was infamous a powerful physical tool that could transform them under a full moon, but also a glaring weak point. Grabbing it typically paralyzed even elite warriors. Despite their combat pride, few Saiyans bothered training the vulnerability out.
"Guess I'll skip that kind of training. Sounds painful," Raditz muttered to himself.
"There aren't many aliens out there who even know about the tail's weakness," he added, "and if they do, I'd never let one grab it. Worst case, I'll just slice it off myself like Bardock once did in battle."
Then he looked back up at Lu Fan. "So where are you two headed?"
Lu Fan smiled mysteriously, offering no answer.
"Ah no offense. What I meant was..." Raditz scratched his head. "Maybe we could form a team? You, me, Nappa—and with His Highness Vegeta in it, we'd be unstoppable. We'd tear through sectors and rack up elite-class missions in no time."
Before Lu Fan could reply, Nappa snorted.
"Raditz, you do realize His Highness's sparring partner here dropped from a combat power of 10,000 to" he paused to press the scouter on his face, which beeped twice.
"200."
He gave Raditz a sideways glance and a smirk. "Maybe call it the 'Dead Weight Squad' instead."
Raditz stiffened.
"What the hell, Nappa?" he snapped, pushing the taller boy.
"Hey, I didn't mean to offend," Nappa raised his hands. "Just saying, I was shocked. Last year Lu Fan's power was over 10,000. Now the scouter's reading lower than a second-class scout trooper."
Raditz tapped his own scouter, and sure enough, the number 200 popped up next to Lu Fan's name.
"Damn. That can't be right..." he muttered.
Lu Fan just smiled.
"Weird, right?" he said softly.
Raditz frowned. "You don't look bothered by it at all."
"Just got used to it," Lu Fan replied, still smiling.
There was an awkward pause.
Even Nappa raised an eyebrow.
Raditz rubbed the back of his head.
"Man, you've got guts. If my power dropped that fast, I'd probably lose my mind."
"Lu Fan, your spacecraft is prepped. The Prince's pod is ready for deployment too," a technician called from the launch bay's control post, pointing toward the row of standard-class spherical pods typical Saiyan attack ships.
Lu Fan nodded, then turned around and began dragging Vegeta across the steel floor, the prince's body bouncing lightly behind him like a discarded training dummy.
Raditz: "..."
Nappa: "..."
Several other young warriors near the launch bay exchanged uneasy glances. A bead of sweat formed on one boy's forehead.
"The poor Prince…" one muttered. "He's being dragged around like an old rag."
"He won't be happy when he wakes up."
"Still, I've got to admit…" a younger boy sighed, "Lu Fan's calm is kind of admirable. Dropping from 10,000 to 200 and still acting like it's nothing?"
"Maybe it's all an act," Nappa shrugged. "A bluff. Maybe he's just hiding how shaken he really is."
Raditz folded his arms, his expression more thoughtful now.
"Could be. But going from genius to laughingstock? That's a blow no Saiyan takes lightly."
The other boy nodded in agreement.
"Let's get out of here. Enough weird energy in the air today," Nappa suggested.
"Fwoooosh!"
With a sudden ignition burst, Lu Fan's attack pod launched into the sky, punching through the red atmosphere of Planet Vegeta and vanishing into the void of space.
Moments later, another small space pod launched in a different direction likely a scout on an unrelated mission.
The stars loomed vast and cold beyond the clouds, unaware of the future events already set in motion.
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