Pit Stop

Well, there you go. The bike was gone. Yogu's stuck in the middle of the diablo desert. His body was one big sunburn. The End. Story over. "AGHHHHH!" Yogu picks up what's left of the bike and gives the chunk of trash a solid throw into the wilderness like it's a toy. It got some good air before crashing into the dirt not too far away, "DAMN IT!" He starts stomping the ground hard, like a child throwing a tantrum. The kid sighs and sits himself back down. He didn't know silences could be so awkward when you were by yourself. As he watched a lizard crawl in and out of the different cracks in the pavement, no doubt as hungry and thirsty as Yogu was, he thought about his life. All the chances he had to go down a different path. Did he even have any dreams growing up? Was there anything he really wanted to do? The anger faded with time and was replaced by sadness.



He had started sniffling, the telltale sign that a Yogu cry sesh was incoming. That's when someone just... Popped into existence on the other side of the road to let him know how far out in the desert he was. Sarcasm was the go-to there, "Yeah, thanks, buddy! I hadn't noticed!" A moment later, what had just transpired finally registered for him. "WOAH! WOAH! WOAH?! WHAT?!" He scrambles to his feet, tripping over himself a couple of times in the process. He looks around everywhere for a place to duck and cover, but there wasn't anything aside from a dead shrub or two for miles. "How did- WHAT?! How long were you there?!" A second later, Yogu's head picks up on the energy coming off the guy. He tries to gulp in fear, but he had not had water in so long that all he manages to do is hack and cough up a cloud of dust. He gives the guy across the street a once-over. Sure, this was the most suspicious guy ever, but what did Yogu have to lose at this point? "Hey dude, I know this is a long shot but do you have, like, any water? Or the front half of a bike?" He starts stumbling over to the guy, squinting his eyes as he gets closer. He crouches down a bit to get eye level with the stranger. "...You're real, right?" You can never be too careful about mirages.

---

Total WC: 861

Alright, so this goblin thing in front of him wasn't a mirage. It was Kore. His name, that is. Yogu still wasn't sure if he could trust the guy, but that didn't matter much anymore because there was this cute thermos of ice-cold water staring him right in the face. The fact it appeared from nowhere, much like Kore himself, was unnerving. But, hey, it was this or death. He takes the thermos and any recommendations that Kore has falls on deaf ears as the dehydrated husk once known as Yogu unscrews the cap and pours it over his face, drowning himself for a moment. He coughs and hacks, but this time he's coughing up water and not dust! A pretty huge improvement as far as the poor sap was concerned. "Th-Thanks Kore- HACK! I'm Om- BLEGH- Yogu!" In between heaving he shoots a hand out at the weird little guy to shake.

Next, there were chairs and an umbrella. "What doesn't this guy have?" This was the first comfortable seat he'd seen in weeks! He was given two options, take a seat or hit the road. Normally, Yogu would assume this was some sort of scam and ditch the guy. But there wasn't any situation more desperate than the one he found himself in. That road looked long... So he throws himself into the lawn chair, nearly flipping it over in the process. "Thanks again for that save, Mister Kore! I don't know what would've happened if you hadn't shown up like that!" Oh right, the bike. "Yeah... See, funny thing, I kinda got mad and lost the front half. I threw the other half somewhere over there..." He points to the heap of scrap a good distance away on the other side of the road that was once the bike. Suddenly it erupts into a massive fireball, sending chunks of it flying, "WOAH! Ho-ho-hooo-holy shit! I thought that was only somethin' that happened in movies!" A flaming tire soars right past their little chair and umbrella setup and bounces off into the desert. "Wow, it's still goin'!"

He spent a bit sipping on what was left of the water, "So how are you doing all of this anyway?" He gestures around at the seats and umbrella. "Are you just teleporting stuff from somewhere?" He looked into the thermos, swishing the water around. It hadn't killed him yet, so it must be real water. There really didn't seem to be some larger trick to this whole thing. Just a genuinely nice... Something? "What are you anyway? Sorry if that's rude, but I've never heard of any aliens just... Teleporting. And pulling things outta thin air." Well, whatever Kore was, to Yogu he was his guardian angel! What a job that is.

---

Total WC: 1,322

So it wasn't just pulling things out of thin air. Well, since it was magic, Yogu supposed that it was just pulling stuff out of thin air. Just with a much longer and complicated explanation. "Anyone can learn it, huh?" Being able to make food and water pop into your hand whenever would be pretty helpful when you spend most of your time wandering around trying to scrounge up zeni. All this talk about magic brought back some forgotten memories. Of times as a kid when he'd refuse to go to bed like bedtime was a death sentence. His dad would tell him stories about his grandfather's grandfather's homeworld. A place where wizards and warriors fought horrible beasts. Maybe one of his ancestors was some badass wizard, and Yogu could pick up magic no problem!

Kore reluctantly told the kid the truth. It turned out that by pure luck, Yogu had run into a Shinjin, a being from another dimension. The custodians of the universe. "Huh. Neat. Should I be, like, kneeling down and praising you or...?" Yogu tries to brush past the fact that this would mean their completely random meeting of each other is the most important day of his life. Hundreds of questions raced through his mind. I mean, A REAL SHINJIN?! They have infinite wisdom and knowledge, stuff that would make his head explode! How did the universe start? Is there a greater meaning to life? Is fate real, and if so, what is Yogu's fate? All of that seemed way too heavy of a conversation to have right now so, he asks this instead, "So... Is it true you all grow from a big tree? I've never understood that part. I get you all have to come from somewhere but... Ya know what? Never mind." What would be a better question?

"So you're all bigshot universe custodian guys, right? Why are you here on Earth? It's not exactly the most exciting place to be I'd think. And no offense, but I've never heard of you guys ever showing up unless some serious shit is about to go down." Yogu leans in close, "Spill the beans, what is it? Is some scary space alien comin' to blow us all up or somethin'?"

---

Total WC: 1,700

The whole learning magic thing piqued Yogu's interest for a moment, but upon explaining how much work it'd be, it sort of lost its allure. That whole 'willpower and time' part of it isn't the kid's style. "Seein' as how I didn't even keep up with martial arts past, like, age fourteen, I'm not sure I'm magician material. Heh heh..." Yogu shifts uncomfortably in his seat, "I miss training..."

So why didn't he train? He'd just gone on a trip around the world! Sure, it was because he was on the run, but still! That's some inspiring stuff! Real life-changing for most people! The kind of thing that makes them change their lives for the better! But here Yogu was, half-dead in the desert with nothing but regrets. Maybe this completely random meeting meant something. That would be something he'd have to think on.

Well, at least this wasn't the get down on your knees and pray kind of deity. "Well, I've never really been a say a prayer before bed kinda guy, so I probably won't start now." But if there was a time to start it'd be now he supposed.

Kore clarifies that the tree is magic, which totally explains everything. For sure. "Ya know, I don't- I really don't think that helps much." He could barely get the sentence out without breaking down into giggles. The visual was just so strange. It flip-flopped between hilarious and horrifying in his mind.

Now came the real meat of the conversation. It turns out Shinjin have been leaving their home to learn more about the people they spend so much time spectating. That answer relieved Yogu a little bit. For one, that meant there weren't some omnipotent guys that knew every little detail of his life. And that privacy felt pretty reassuring. And secondly, that meant there wasn't something coming to destroy the earth. It had been a half-joke but something like that scared Yogu. "Phew... Well, at least nothing too serious is goin' on- WAIT DID YOU SAY THE MOON?! I gotta read a newspaper sometime..." He sinks back into his chair. Was the moon getting destroyed much better than the earth itself turning into spacedust? What about the tides? And in the very back of his mind he wonders, if someone tried to destroy Central City, like that robot kid he fought in prison, what would he do? What could he do? The world was getting more dangerous. And martial arts training from when he was a kid wasn't going to cut it. It hadn't been cutting it for a long time now. Sure, his grandfather had taught him some neat tricks, but what would that be against someone destroying a moon?

Kore's talk about how the Shinjin are supposed to be apathetic spectators left a bitter taste in Yogu's mouth. "Ya know, I may just be an individual mortal so I guess in the grand scheme of things I don't matter all that much, but I'm pretty glad you repaired this cog." He points a thumb to his chest. "I say, if all the other Shinjin did what you're doin' now that big picture would be a lot nicer and a whole lot clearer. You're a better Shinjin than most if you ask me." Never mind the fact that Kore is the only one he's met. Yogu takes a long sip of his drink and looks out at the desert.

"So ya think you could teach me magic if I tried hard enough?"

---

Total WC: 2,286

"Oh-OHHHH...! Right, yeah, that makes sense. That would be pretty silly, huh?" It should've been pretty obvious the whole blowing up the moon thing was a joke. Wouldn't he have seen it if it had happened? "Man, I'm really out of it..." Dehydration will do that to you. Still, Yogu was right. The world was getting way more dangerous. He'd met some pretty strange and scary people in his time spent wandering around evading arrest. That weird old crime boss guy. And what could only be described as a mute demon and a killer child robot? It was honestly a miracle his luck hadn't run out yet. He should've died a LOT of times, barely scraping by without turning into some maniac's pincushion. It would be nice if that'd change for once.

Kore continued talking about the challenges of learning magic in a backhanded, albeit unintentional, way. "Well, I do have the time I guess..." It was then that it finally hit Yogu. How sad and empty his life is. He really had nothing going on. No friends. No job. Nothing. He, like the desert, was empty. Devoid of life. Now came a thought that hadn't crossed the boy's mind before. Wouldn't someone have told his family he was in prison? Wouldn't they have had a chance to call him? Visit him? Anything? Maybe this is what they expected from him. Maybe when his parents got the call that their son was in jail all they did was shrug and see it as an opportunity to not have to think about him again. And maybe, just maybe, Yogu needed to stop making wild assumptions about people when he gets emotional. "That whole 'sheer drive' part of it is another story, though..." He'd figure it out in time. He was only eighteen.

Kore didn't seem to share Yogu's naive vision of the shinjin helping out with small as well as the big. Where the mysterious shinjin went with it made the boy scratch his head. An unknown 'god above gods'? Just how far up did this go? "Man, I'm even smaller than I thought..." If he thought about it too long, he'd get pins and needles in his hands. This point that Kore raised only made Yogu more inclined to ask that the green fella get even more involved and train him in the ways. "Yeah! Why not directly train me? You've already gotten involved in us mortals' lives so why stop now? Plus, if you teach me enough I could pass it down, and then maybe you shinjin will never have to step in." It seemed like Kore was on board, which made Yogu absolutely stoked! Getting trained, and by a SHINJIN! Could anyone say they've done that before?! Not only was he going to learn magic, but martial arts too! What a coincidence! But at this point, it was hard to believe that the two meeting each other was mere chance. If Kore hadn't shown up, a moment or two later Yogu would've certainly been dead. "Yeah! My grandpa taught me some martial arts stuff when I was growing up, I'd love to get back into it!"

Yogu leaps out of his seat and hunches over, trying to stretch his back but there's no real form to what he's doing so it just looks like he kind of hurt himself. "AHHHHHH-lright! Can we get started right now?! Ya think we could start off with somethin' simple, like chuckin' fireballs at stuff?!" Needless to say, he had a lot to learn.

---

Total WC: 2,875

So fireballs were a little out of the way. For now. Kore lost Yogu a bit on the talk about mana. If he had to guess, it must be a pretty similar principle to ki. But even that he didn't really get. Sure, he could do the whole manipulating ki thing, but that didn't mean he understood it. "Whatever. I'll have to learn it sooner or later if I want Kore to train me!"

Kore's style of fighting sounded pretty, well, different than what Yogu did normally. Self-defense and preservation weren't high up on his priorities when he was kicking the shit out of someone or getting the shit kicked out of himself. Sure, he knew how to dodge and block. He just got a little caught up in the craziness of a brawl most of the time. Taking a punch just seemed a whole lot easier than remembering to get the hell out of the way to him. He'd have to unlearn that though. He knew that. Because what good is your ability to take a punch when someone has the strength to blow up the moon? Hint: It won't be much help.

It didn't matter all that much at the moment. Kore wanted to focus on martial arts and on what Yogu already knows. It was as they walked out into the desert a good, even distance away from each other and the road that Yogu realized he might've downplayed what he knew a bit. He had a feeling Kore could sense his energy, but he made it sound like he knew how to throw a kick or two and not... Shoot lasers from his hands? Oh, Kore was waiting on him.

Yogu cracks his knuckles and gets into a rather poor stance at first. He looked like a wet noodle trying to stand up straight. After quickly realizing that wasn't going to work out for him, he resigns to just copying what Kore was doing. "Alright, well, if you're sure I'm not gonna hurt you..." He breaks from the stance again, cupping his hands together and bringing them to his side. "Wait is thiiiiis...?" He adjusts his stance a little, shifting his feet until it felt 'right'. "Wait one sec, sorry..." He bends his knees a bit and squares his shoulders a little more. "Here goes... Kame..." Is he gonna get sent straight to hell if he accidentally vaporizes a shinjin? "Hame..." A little sky-blue ball of ki starts to form in his hands, no bigger than a marble. The image of the building burning and collapsing as he runs away flashes in his mind. "HA!" He thrusts his hands forward and the ball of ki rapidly expands and shoots outward, a beam of energy coming right towards Kore!

"Pleasedon'texplodepleasedon'texplodepleasedon'texplode!"

---

Funni

Yogu fires a Kamehameha! It's smacking Kore with 2,500 Damage! This technique has the Homing variant.
KP: 6/6 -> 2/6
MP: 0/6 -> 2/6 (I think?)
Damage: 0%

Total WC: 3,338