From One Little Seed

“Hm?” Nero looked over to see Saiba-Ban, an oddly welcome surprise. The likelihood that he was in the area still was slim, let alone him still being on the planet after his declaration only a short while ago. “I’ve been told I exceed expectations like that. But, honestly, they’re my friends, and they’ve lived here about as long as I have. It would be their story to tell though, not mine.” Nero shrugged casually.

The three other Saibamen however, looked over at Ban and had mixed reactions. Deizi waved politely and smiled. “Hello!” Dahlm waved lazily and once again huffed at the flower petal covering his face. “Yo.”

Sprout, on the other hand, eagerly waddled all the way over to Saiba-Ban, looking at him as if he was one of the coolest things he had ever seen in his life. “Woaaaaahh, you look so different from my brother and sister!!” Sprout kinda just bounced on the spot before tilting his head and pointing to the top of Saiba-Ban’s head. “You’re older den me but you don’t have a flower! How come? Did it fall off? Oh no— did some bully take it from you?!” Sprout took in a deep breath, comically puffing out his tiny little chest while pouting. “I’m gonna beat dem up!!”

Deizi and Dahlm’s jaws both dropped as their eyes almost bulged completely out of their heads, they started babbling for Sprout to slow down and stop, but their caregiver, Elder Sida the Namekian simply chuckled and walked over to Sprout, slowly kneeling down to be able to put a hand on the Saiba-kid’s shoulder. “You have quite the imagination, Sprout, but asking too many personal questions like that might offend some people.” Sprout immediately deflated but looked up at Sida as if he was about to cry. “But papa, what if someone took his flower, den what?!”

Sida responded calmly once again. “Then, someone will handle that situation properly, and maturely, I’m sure.” Sida then looked to Saiba-Ban. “Anywho, I believe you mentioned planet Plant? Well, to answer your question, no, these three here are born from Namek’s soil under my care. Am I correct in guessing you were born from Plant’s soil?” Sida inquired, now looking back to Sprout. “You see, Sprout, Saiba that are born from the soil of Planet Plant very rarely— if ever— grow flowers. Most of the time they develop buds on their head that can expel explosive energies or acid.” For a moment, Sprout looked confused but eventually he looked like he understood when he gave a slow nod. “But you’d tell if you had a flower, right?” He looked up at Saiba-Ban expectantly.

Nero meanwhile, was calming Deizi and Dahlm, and once he had managed to do so, he turned his attention back to Saiba-Ban. “Sprouts a good kid. He’s wildly curious, but he means well.”

Sprout was kind of sad that Ban didn’t get to have a flower, he had no idea how strong Ban was either, but since he was definitely older, Sprout figured he knew what he was on about. So, Sprout nodded, understanding what Ban had said to him, happy that the older Saibaman would pinky promise to tell him if he ever had a flower! Sprout could hardly keep himself contained as he zipped off to his siblings, telling them everything he thought about the situation, which was nothing they hadn’t already heard themselves but they were good older siblings so they let Sprout be excited and talk to them.

This left Sida and Nero to freely speak to Saiba-Ban if they wanted to. Sida himself was rather interested, given that Saiba-Ban could speak clearly despite the obvious that he wasn’t born in particularly nutritious soil, his surprise in seeing Sida’s three kids only made it more obvious. “There is a lot to learn about the universe, if you seek to do so.” Sida smiled and nodded sagely.

Ban suddenly apologized, and turned to leave. Nero did know that he wanted to be somewhere. He said it himself, and you don’t just make the kind of declaration Saiba-Ban did without sticking to your word unless you were a coward, and from what Nero could tell, Ban was no coward, not really. “Oh, I’ve been meaning to talk to you, actually. About earlier.” Nero didn’t bring up the specifics, leaving it up to Ban to do so if he wished. “I think you were quite brave.” Nero began. “You made a tough call even if it could have put you in danger. Also, about what you plan to do in the future— while rough around the edges in how you worded it, your goal has some merit to it.”

Sida himself was curious, tilting his head to the side. “Oh? What is this goal?” The old Namekian pondered, looking to Nero and Ban. “Its for him to explain, it is related to his aspirations after all.”

Off to the side, the three Saibalings were yammering away, Sprout even tried to get his older siblings to play a little game, Dahlm protested, but Deizi ultimately convinced him to humor their youngest sibling.

Nero followed Ban’s glance, seeing the spectacle for himself. In Nero’s opinion, it was becoming increasingly obvious that Ban was a bit more stunned than he was letting on, but he chose not to bug Ban about it, seeing it as possibly impolite.

Being no stranger to anger, Nero nodded, scratching the back of his neck idly, he could definitely relate to what Ban was saying to a point. “Anger is just a part of the emotional spectrum, I get what you’re saying.” Nero nodded, he didn’t understand why a lot of Saiyans and even Tuffles treated Saibaman so terribly even if his own stay on Plant was very brief. “I won’t get in the way, I can promise you that. Hell, I’d offer to help, but I don’t want to risk something happening to Namek in my absence.” Nero was sure Ban would get what he was meaning in saying that.

“It is a shame that planet Plant has fallen so deeply into despair... I have no reason to disagree with describing it as a ‘hellhole’ if I’m being quite honest.” Sida, who had been listening this whole time, frowned. It was a shame that such sad things had befallen planet Plant. “I wish you the best in your endeavours, young one.” Sida smiled at Ban, hoping to bring the Saibaman some form of comfort.

“Pfft, hellhole doesn’t even begin to describe it...” Nero snorted, baring a bit of his teeth, he clearly had his own issues with planet Plant. Normally he would be saying there was a chance for the state of that world to change, but due to personal feelings, he wouldn’t bother at this time.

It seemed Ban got a bit more defensive after Nero spoke about how he saw his actions. Nero didn’t really expect Ban to change his mind overnight, but Nero still held his belief. Nero had no way of knowing what Ban was thinking, but if he did, he would say that it wasn’t about the numbers to him, it was about conviction and where in your heart they came from. “You’ll make something of it I’m sure. All I can say is maybe try and see if anyone would help because there’s probably some really loopy people out there that would try and beat you up for giving the downtrodden and forgotten some help, let alone the time of day.” It was sad to say, but there was truthfully a chance of that happening. “Oh? ‘Might makes right’, huh?” Nero smiled slightly and simply shook his head. “Nah. I don’t think so. To me, Might is simply might, what matters is what you choose to do with it. I would say that you’re in the right to help your kin get a better lot in life, and I would say that no matter how strong you are.”

Nero had expected as much, Ban wanted to do his thing his way, almost anyone could relate to that kind of feeling. “Fair enough, fair enough.” Sida nodded as well, hopefully Ban would indeed figure something out as he so claimed. “I will be just over yonder, if either of you have need of me. My children and I must attend to our gardening. Do take care.” Sida smiled and made his way back to the other three little Saibamen, the four of them eventually returning to their work.

Ban certainly had a lot to say about their more broad discussion, and Nero welcomed it. Philosophy wasn’t something many seemed to think about, at least those that weren’t from Namek, as in his experience a philosophical conversation was quite common around here. So, engaging in such a thing with someone from somewhere else was always interesting, as their experiences were often the most different from his own. “I think there is a lot more to it, and using simple statements doesn’t really do anything justice in the end. We both made our decisions, and what might or mindset we have has got us here, to where we are right now. To be honest with you, I would much rather not fight if I can find an alternate solution to a problem, so you aren’t alone there.”

Nero smiled, hoping to be closer to reaching some understanding with Ban. “There are situations and places other than business where one’s mind is king. For instance, right now. You and I are simply speaking our minds and having— at least in my opinion— a valuable discussion. So, here’s something we could think about— what if we’re both not quite right? What do you think would be the middle ground between our individual stances on ‘might’ as a concept?”

“We’re in luck, since we’re both okay with talking we don’t need to worry about a what if.” Nero shrugged. “You do make a good point though, if we weren’t who we are this moment would be different, even the past would be different too, I think.” Still, Nero didn’t believe that anyone was unstoppable, even himself. “It’s unfortunate when people don’t listen to reason, but at some point you gotta think about if their listening was valuable at all to begin with. Some people are just... Awful and nasty. They’re weak too. Weak in the heart, weak where it matters more than some people think.” Nero sighed, he didn’t really want to get into such a dreary topic, but this was something he believed to be true.

Nero was quite confident about who he was, he was quite a crafty fellow and reasonably strong as well. He wasn’t sure how Ban saw himself, and perhaps the Saibaman was struggling with parts of who he was working in unison. As far as Nero could tell, Ban was similar to himself, both brainy and buff. “You’ve got an advantage over people like that, I think. You’re clever and powerful. I’m sure you’ll be able to figure things out. As far as I’m concerned, the Saibamen of Plant are in safer hands than they would be without you, that’s definitely a plus”

Nero gave Saiba-Ban a nod. “That’s the best part, you don’t have to agree. Neither one of us do, but we’re also not being stupid and punching each other over it.” He said with a bright smile. “That said, to a point, I think talking instead of exerting power shows its own strength, a form of patience and recognizing you can be more than muscle. There’s a lot of ways to get things done, we just uh, gotta deal with dopes that like violence a lot I guess.”

Regarding Ban’s overall idea, Nero listened patiently as he thought more on it. Taking over Plant might not be viable given the current internal situation, and that made sense. Moving the Saiba population, or at least a large majority of it somewhere else could be smarter too, but the question was where would Ban really move them to? “Hmm. It’s quite tricky, I agree. You could try and make Plant work in your favor but we both know that place stinks right now. Unless you have friends leading both the Saiyans and Tuffles or a good support group of your own, it’ll be really tough. Personally, if you think Plant is too dangerous for your people, I would consider relocating, less harm would come to them that way. You would have to gather as many as you could first. I’m not sure of where to go. I’d suggest Earth or Namek, but anywhere out in the open could attract your enemies to them.”

Nero tapped his chin in thought. Maybe, if Ban had the right business connections he could do something pretty much in secret, away from anyone that wanted to do him or the other Saiba harm. “Hmm. I’m not a super science whiz kinda guy, but what if you created a sort of stealthily concealed area somewhere? Maybe in space, some kind of space station that’s like an artificial planet with various soils and stuff from lots of other planets? I think that would be cool!”