Visi frowned as she stared at Sean. "Could you stop?" Sean ignored her in favor of the food he had bought. "Geez, how much do you want to eat?" she asked as he finished another roasted chicken he got from a stand nearby. A box of donuts was sitting on the table for his dessert.
"Until I'm done." Sean answered as he devoured another entire chicken as if it was a mere wing.
"…Right. So, what the fuck happened?" Visi crossed her arms and leaned back while regarding him.
Sean raised an eyebrow, not sure what she was getting at.
"Hellooo? Since when are you strong enough to push a van on its side by fucking shoulder checking it?"
"Oh, that." He spoke in between chewing.
"Yes, that! Just yesterday you got beat up like a helpless child. With that kind of strength, you could have thrown him across the room… Well, Jeremy would still fuck you up with his powers, but it wouldn't have been that embarrassing!"
"I got stronger." He simply said before crumpling the paper bags into a ball and throwing it into a trash can several meters away. Her eyes narrowed at that.
"Why did you get stronger?" She then leaned forward, her eyes having a dangerous glint to them, which surprised Sean. Her eyes then started to run across his body as if she was searching for something. "How did you get stronger?" she asked again.
"Part of my powers." She snorted at the answer.
"The past month, you didn't show that kind of strength… Were you approached by someone? Did you get a surgery to increase your powers?"
"What, you can increase your powers by surgery?"
She frowned as she continued her stare. It was like she was figuring out if Sean was messing with her before a realization hit her. "Right, memory thingy. It's… on the black market. There are several people that offer to 'upgrade' your power, usually hella unreliable and dangerous long term."
"You mean like steroids for your powers?"
She scoffed. "You would wish it was steroids. I've heard some horror stories that leave the person in constant pain. Besides, even if their enhancements work, they usually have an off-switch, which means you'll be their bitch if you want to keep the upgrade…" Her gaze turned distant as if she wasn't seeing him anymore.
"…Sure. I'll stay away from any sketchy surgeons that I meet in an alleyway."
Hearing that, she leaned back, her intensity reduced by a lot. "So, no surgery…"
"Just part of my powers-" He stopped to stuff a donut into his mouth, which caused her to raise an eyebrow.
"Yeah, you keep saying that. What entails that exactly? What, you get beat up and now you're back stronger?" She chuckled at the idea, while Sean instinctively opened his mouth to retort, only to freeze before closing it in silent disbelief. Although it wasn't the reason he got stronger, he couldn't really deny it either. She raised an eyebrow, seeing his lack of retort.
"Could you not come to a conclusion and let me explain?" he finally said before taking a sip from his soda to wash down the greasy feeling in his mouth, which seemed to piss Visi off. Her leg started bouncing and Sean almost thought a vein on her forehead was about to pop. "I seem to have been malnourished, so I started eating more-"
She snorted. "Yeah, no shit- Oh, that's why you look different- Wait, that's not how digestion works. I think. At least, for starving people one shouldn't eat a lot, it causes-"
"As I'm trying to explain, it's part of my powers. Food gets turned into energy almost instantly and apparently my body builds muscle and fat at the same pace."
"…So, your stomach is a literal engine. Some super metabolism? No wonder the four chickens disappeared like nothing!" She glanced at Sean's stomach, seeing the lack of bulge.
"Yep, my body adapts quickly to any input." He nodded as he glanced at the last two remaining donuts in the box.
"That's… so enviable. Fuck, I would eat donuts all day! …Though, that doesn't really sound like normal Wereape stuff- Well, not that I know much about Were-anything." Sean could practically see the envy in her eyes.
"Not sure about Wereapes, but it is normal for Saiyans."
"Right, you said you're actually an alien." She frowned as she contemplated for a moment before speaking again. "Why did you undereat before then if you have that super metabolism?"
Sean shrugged. "Kohjin had to have also suffered from that Hunger. If he knew he was a Saiyan and he wasn't trying to starve himself to death, he wouldn't have eaten so little."
"Kohjin? That's what you- he is- was called…? An exotic name…" Visi, with crossed arms, started tapping on her bicep, looking uncomfortable for some reason. "So, he didn't know he was an alien- a Saiyan, but you do? Why?"
Sean let the question go unanswered for a moment. "I don't think my memory is wrong." Sean finally responded with utter conviction. Her eyes widened in response. "Kohjin and I have lived very different lives. I can only speculate about his situation… Don't you have to work?"
The topic switch caught Visi off guard. "Fuck, the fun police at it again… I get it, you don't want to spend your day off with your work colleagues." She rolled her eyes before snatching the last donut out of his hands and putting it onto her middle finger as she took a bite.
"That's not it." Sean said slowly as he wiped his hands clean with the wet wipe that the chicken stand gave him. "You're a hero, no? Someone is relying on you to show up. Don't let me distract you from doing good."
Her chewing stopped as she glanced at him with a disbelieving expression before quietly placing the donut on the now closed box. "Never mind, all that talking ruined my appetite." She stood up and walked a few steps. "See you tomorrow, loser." A farewell wave with her back turned to Sean before she turned invisible as she left.
Sean's gaze lingered in the direction she disappeared in, his thoughts on what Kohjin's life had to be like. He still couldn't guess why he wouldn't have eaten. Was it purposeful? Did he intentionally starve himself and, if so, for what purpose? Was it a way to keep his power level low so he wouldn't be discovered? Would a prideful Saiyan do that? At some point, he would have to uncover more about Kohjin's life, but for Sean his background was secondary. His first priority remained to become stronger and become a legend.
He then wondered about Invisigal's powers, whether he could take advantage of her invisibility to accelerate developing his ki sense or perhaps letting her attack him, so he could try his hand at achieving Ultra Instinct. As soon as the thought came up, the rest of the donut disappeared in his mouth before he picked up his sports bag and searched for the route back home.
He had already achieved his main objectives for the day. A weight vest that could be loaded up to 50 lbs, which should be a bit more than 20 kgs. The shop owner said that there were heavier weight vests, but they didn't have any of those. He also got some ankle and wrist weights, 2 kgs each, in his bag. He hadn't worn them, nor did he load the vest to its max, having left half of it in his bag when he trained at the martial arts school. It was all he could get at the moment and he had the feeling that he would outgrow them rather quickly with the way his strength increased after each meal.
He would have liked some weighted clothes to better distribute them across his body, but he wasn't sure where he could acquire something like that. Obviously, more weight would be better, but for now, he would have to do with what he got.
Besides the weight, he completed his first martial arts sessions and he could already see why Saiyans would be addicted to it, well in a way. The fighting itself was fun, but what truly did it for him was his rate of improvement, especially in the sparring where everything clicked and flowed together. He felt light, quick, and powerful. The amount of force he could generate just through a few tweaks of technique was incredible.
And once he had the knack for it… his mindset completely shifted. Sean could now fully relate to why Vegeta and Gohan acted the way they did once they got the upper hand. Once he got a read on his opponent, Matthew, it was like he could predict the future. It was like he had complete control of the fight. Nothing could touch him and even if it did, he would hardly feel anything. It was a pure thrill of power. It made him feel like a war god incarnate, it was like he was [Invincible].
To say his martial arts session gave him some confidence would be an understatement. And his growing fitness had already put him into superhuman territory. Whether it was a knife or a low caliber bullet, he wouldn't be afraid. Besides, since his body had been able to survive this job for the past month, he shouldn't do a worse job now.
There was only one important thing left, something that he couldn't do in public. Ki control. The one thing that made Saiyans true powerhouses of the multiverse. Having some basic ki manipulation would mean he had an ace in the hole that was equivalent to a nuclear weapon that he could carry with him wherever he went.
Although his thoughts were strategic about his next steps, he also couldn't deny the excitement of what it would mean to be able to use ki. Kamehameha or the Genkidama were something he had tried multiple times as a child, but the biggest boon for him would be the ability to take to the sky. To fly even more effortlessly and faster than birds.
Despite the heavy bag, his feet let him speed through the streets at top notch speed. After having run for almost 10 km, he noticed a duo flying through the sky. It completely caught him off guard. He wasn't sure what he expected in a world of heroes and villains, but seeing someone casually fly through the sky wasn't on his daily bingo card.
Seeing this only made him run faster, to the point he started overturning cars. It got too dangerous to continue on the sidewalk as even a single mistake wouldn't spell well for the other person. If he could dent metal by running into something, a normal human would hardly be able to survive that. He wasn't going to start the formation of The Boys in this universe.
With that in mind, he continued to run on the street. If there was a red light, he just slowed down and continued on the sidewalk. He felt like he was blending well with the bicycles on the way. Besides a few looks, nobody seemed too surprised to see him.
The martial arts school was about 16 kilometers away from his home, which was exactly on the other side of the city in the northeast of Torrance, while his home was outside of Torrance to the southeast in what his maps displayed as an area called Harbor City.
It didn't take him too long to arrive. 16 kilometers took him about 40 minutes while being dragged down with his weight filled bag. Once he arrived, he took a shower as he had skipped over the street. Washed his clothes and then went on to search for anything that could be related to ki manipulation on the web.
He had expected something similar to his past life when he searched for ki or chi, chakra or similar things. A plethora of wiki links for fandoms describing power systems of any series that used the concept or some companies that used big money to be promoted at the top of the list. He did find those as well, but at the top of that list were headlines of some news made by some disciples.
He went down a rabbit hole and found that there were apparently some masters in Asia. Even though the title of master was apparently difficult to achieve, there were quite a few of them. Some would even hold semipublic lectures and take in disciples, who in turn did the same. In fact, as Sean read more about it, he found out that a lot of heroes in Asia were either practitioners themselves or had some connections with them. "What is this, a cultivation universe? Do they have sects too?" Sean muttered in disbelief and to his astonishment, after some research, his guess about sects and clans turned out to be correct.
Unfortunately, this ki manipulation they practiced wasn't something one could easily learn. It was somewhat closed to the public. Just getting some touch points with it in California was almost impossible. There was only one school of a disciple of a disciple of a… you get the point. Being able to become a student of the school took an assessment and then at least 2 years before getting access to the real teachings, which, after looking into other schools in America, was already somewhat lax.
Sean huffed as he closed all the tabs of the expensive laptop sitting on the kitchen counter as he snacked a bit. Besides the rather strict entry into the arts, the results were rather underwhelming as well. Although they seemed to have 'mastered' ki, they were only as strong as early Dragon Ball Yamcha. Certainly tough, enough to beat dozens of men single handedly, but flying was rare and blowing up mountains or even just hills was practically unheard of, even by the strongest of them.
"Seems I'll have to fumble around alone for now." Sean muttered. As a Saiyan, getting a foot into the door that was ki manipulation should be easy and afterward, he doubted that any school of those disciples would deny an exchange with him, a fellow 'practitioner'. Whether he could actually learn from them was something he had to find out.
With no better alternative left, he sat down into a comfortable position and started meditating as he always did to calm his mind. His goal wasn't to empty it, but just to relax and try to banish any unwanted thoughts by focusing on his breath.
In the beginning, his mind automatically looked to the future, making plans, thinking of backup plans if he didn't respond well to the training he was envisioning, where to find a gravity increasing device. His mind didn't want to stop, but each time he pulled back from the thoughts to his breathing, forcefully ignoring or dismissing all the uncertainty of the future. It was like a game of tug or like taming a wild horse, it wanted to run in all directions while the goal was to keep it still.
He forcefully made breathing his anchor even as his body fidgeted, begged for movement. He remained still and concentrated on what was important in that moment. His breathing. That sustained his very existence. It reminded him that he was alive.
He had some experience with meditation. He wouldn't say he had delved deep into it. In fact, he would say that he didn't really know much about it. He was aware that there were a lot more types of meditation, different styles for different circumstances, mindsets, expertise, but he never bothered to dive deep into them.
Focusing on his breath was all he needed on regular days as he wasn't chasing some elusive enlightenment. It taught him how to actually focus on something, to strengthen that mental muscle, so he could home in on a singular thing of his choosing. It was the single most powerful thing he had taught himself to improve his willpower in the past. After all, if even his own thoughts couldn't bring him off course, how could anything else do it? Even if giant companies invested millions to invent the single most attention attracting video or game, it could only steer the direction of his thoughts. Whether to respond, it was still his agency.
It made him resilient. Once his mind was set, he would stubbornly persist, sometimes to his detriment, but it gave him a solid sense of self. Now thrown into another universe, it seemed like he had forgotten even this powerful tool in his utility belt and he had to work this mental muscle up to standard. Fortunately, his brain seemed to have quickly realized what he wanted to do and thoughts stopped coming up. His mind turned singular with what would have normally taken dozens of weeks or even months.
He wasn't sure how much time passed, but when he opened his eyes again his body felt stiff from sitting for so long. After stretching for a moment and looking at the watch, he realized he had spent three hours on that meditation. Such long sessions were rare even in his past, only happening under the best conditions and with some luck, but now it had come almost naturally.
Although he felt sharper and like he had completely mastered that meditation, he hadn't taken a single step toward mastering ki. It was as elusive as before. It left him thinking, so he took a walk around the house, started to transport all the piles he had created the evening before into the basement inside some boxes he had found.
As he cleaned up, he let his mind wander, trying to find a solution. In a single session, he felt like he had reached the peak of his human self in breath focused meditation. However, Saiyans weren't supposed to be good at this. "I guess, Ultra Instinct is a form of meditation or at least a state that could be reached with it, something difficult even for gods." As the thought came up, he stilled in thought with a box in his hand. "I should play to a Saiyan's strength, the body... Body scan meditation should do the trick."
Right where he stood, he implemented his theory. A scan, a simple focus on each body part starting from the crown of the head, down to his forehead- "Is that ki?"
He had barely started and he instantly recognized something he had never felt before in the few times he had done this as a human. Having mastered controlling his focus, he used it to home in on this new sensation.
"It's everywhere." He called out in disbelief. His focus moved along his body, but wherever he focused on, there it was. Ki. There was no dantian like it had been described in cultivation novels he had read in the past. It was interwoven with his entire body. No, it was his body, he was ki. In a way.
He shouldn't be surprised since it was just another name for life force, for the energy that sustained or represented life. For a moment, he just observed its nature, akin to a slightly swaying ocean. 'The breath of life.' He mentally added. It was like his own breath, a certain rhythm to it, like every part of his body was breathing, manifested in this energy.
Then he started to stir it, as if taking deep breaths. The energy started to vibrate and he could feel his muscles being energized, his body tensed with a deeply buried hidden strength. Without second thought, he aided the mental stir through using his body. The box dropped to his feet, his limbs tensed, fists clenching as if to pierce his own palm with his nails. Every muscle contracted with maximum effort for a singular purpose, a simple command to every cell in his body to breathe, to excite, to shout out their existence, to give everything they had.
The world around him seemed to respond to their announcement, as if they too were called upon. Something he realized when he opened his eyes. Objects around him vibrated, the lighter things slightly being pushed away, papers barely rising into the air like a whirlwind was starting from his position. "…AAaaaaha haaaa." He hadn't even realized that he had screamed until he calmed down and focused on the surroundings.
The ki in his body seemed to recede like the ebb after the flood. The stirring had taken a toll, a lesson he realized quickly as his body slumped as if he had just exerted himself to the extreme.
"Holy shit, that was intense…" He muttered as he glanced down. The concrete floor was slightly cracked beneath his feet. His eyes were drawn to his sleeves next. The tight-fitting shirt now sported some tears.
His body calmed and he could feel like he could do this again for some short bursts. A short burst of him being at least 50 percent stronger than usual. An ace up his sleeve. He could use it to catch his opponent off guard and land some devastating blows. He was pleased, but if he could stir, then he could also calm down his ki. To make it ebb before the flood, to make the breathing shallow, to revert the flow inward as opposed to outward.
With a goal in mind, he went to work immediately. The difference appeared almost instantly. Instead of excitement, his muscles relaxed and even the ki in his body stilled. Instead of an ocean that would flood and ebb, it was now a calm sea. When he tried to tense his body, it was almost difficult, like trying to exert force while relaxed. It took twice the effort to do the same when he was unaware of his ki.
When loosening his control and then flexing, he noticed how his ki automatically heeded the intention. There was a certain delay to it or resistance. In an instant, he knew what he would need to do to grow stronger. It was to control the flow of his ki simultaneously with his body's movement.
With a breath, his ki snapped back to its natural rhythm. He glanced at the box a few centimeters away and slid it into a corner before he left the basement and sat cross legged on a yoga mat he had found. With his palms facing one another, he started to focus on his ki again, urging it to his palms. He was careful with it as he knew how dangerous the stuff he was dealing with was.
The change happened instantly. His palms lit up with a white light cast by the ball of pure energy. A single dot manifested in between his hands.
His eyes lit up with excitement as he remembered the scene of Videl and Gohan, something he had followed in vain back then. Now, being obsessed with these few training snippets paid off.
"I'm going to fly!" In his excitement, his focus slipped and his ki responded to it instantly. The light lit up drastically. The ball of destructive force grew bigger from a single dot to a coin and then to a baseball. He tried to calm it or disperse the energy, but his attempt only destabilized the ball's structural integrity. "Oh fuck!"
'It will blow up!' His instincts screamed, causing him to push his hands away. The ball was launched right into a window. It blasted through it and a moment later a flash of light followed by a-
Booom!
Sean winced slightly, already dreading to know what he had just blown up with his first attempt at a ki manipulation.
…
"Last afternoon, a mysterious explosive devastated Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park only a few dozen yards away from the children's playground. Authorities are unclear about the origin of the explosive, but it has been confirmed to be intentional. As of now, the specific reasons for this villainous act are unknown. According to eyewitnesses, a flash of light was seen coming from the sky…"
Sean smiled wryly as he watched the news in the lobby of the building. He was thankful that nobody was hurt by his botched attempt at ki manipulation. However, it was a good reminder to be careful with the powers he now possessed. His following attempts had been more cautiously done, with some minimal success on the flying front. Some hovering was achieved, but the skies would have to wait until he found a place with more space and fewer people to worry about.
Trying to put the matter into the back of his mind, he headed toward the second floor.
His ki sense for outside ki had developed nicely as well. Most of the time, it was more of an indistinguishable mass of energy around him, but some kis stood out, just like the one coming from behind the closed door in front of him. His body tensed slightly and he could feel himself getting excited. The life force was enormous in comparison to most others, but it also had a weird texture to it. He wasn't sure what it was and he had nothing to compare it with as he was still new to all this ki sense.
To the side of the door, a sign displayed a name, 'Blonde Blazer'.