A Pleasant Chat

Perhaps Taori shouldn't have brought up Amara's mostly arrogant and dismissive attitude when it came to Lottus, though even as angry as Lottus became when he mentioned what she'd said of him, he supposed he didn't really have anything to worry about. Amara was a veritable genius when it came to technology, which was the only reason she'd come back from this realm. Lottus, though? He was stronger than anyone, no doubt about that, but he didn't have that kind of know-how. Besides... There was every chance in the world that more than just Lottus and Nasu could figure out how to tap into that sort of power in the coming months and years.

And as Lottus walked up somewhat uncomfortably close to Taori, Taori had to steel his nerves to not take a step back, and instead maintain a firm stance and eye contact with the man, even if Lottus was a few inches taller than he was. Although, oddly, Lottus seemed to be giving Taori a pep talk, of all things, in his own sort of way.

"Me? Cower? I would never," Taori replied with a scoff after a moment. He wasn't cowering, he was just... Taken aback, was all. Though, Lottus had a point. If both he and Nasu could achieve that sort of thing... Well, why couldn't Taori do it, too? "Though, you have a point, don't you? If a low-class like you can become a Super Saiyan, then a low-class like me sure as hell can too."

As Lottus took a step back, Taori cracked his neck, and then clenched his fists in front of him for a moment, his ki surging up significantly in power shortly after - he couldn't match Lottus in power, but he was still going to power up as much as he possibly could! And he was no slouch, either. Among Saiyans who weren't Super Saiyans, Taori was perhaps the strongest on Plant, or a close contender for the position. He couldn't have become King if that weren't true.

A smirk spread across Taori's face as he crouched down slightly into a combat stance, his slightly yellowed eyes still trained on Lottus. "Come on, then. Give me a direct sample of that Super Saiyan might. Super Saiyan or not, I bet you I can still handle it."

Alright. Super Saiyan. How bad could it really be? Taori had traded blows with opponents who far outclassed him numerous times. He'd even managed to come out on top some of those times, too. He supposed this just felt different because, well, it was the Super Saiyan. The thing that stories had been traded around from one Saiyan to another since he was a young boy. Something that had seemed a fantasy that was now real. It had far more weight to it than any old form. And here he was, facing it down for the first time, alone in Hell of all places. He'd certainly never have imagined himself in this sort of position ever as he was growing up.

A slow breath was exhaled from Taori's mouth to calm his nerves, all the while his ki energy roared with power, forcing his rate to pump ever faster. And then - Lottus was gone - and then he wasn't! Taori hunched down slightly and clenched his teeth as he just barely even saw Lottus' strike come in, and he reacted as swiftly as he could. 

Both his arms crossed in front of him in the nick of time, and they erected a shield of ki around themselves that Lottus' fist slammed into with an incredible amount of force for how little energy the Super Saiyan had expended. Lottus' fist clashed with the barrier, which reduced the impact of his blow on Taori's body tremendously - but his fist still punched through it, slamming into Taori's raised arms and sending Taori skidding back across the ground several meters, his heels digging deep into the dirt until he finally stopped about a dozen feet away.

Taori exhaled with both some relief and surprise as he lowered his arms, which were sore as hell, but only moderately bruised at the point where Lottus had just punched them. He'd done it - he'd staved off an attack from a Super Saiyan! But he wouldn't let that give him a swelled head. Taori started laughing. "Ha! Incredible," he commented loud enough for Lottus to hear him despite the newfound distance between them. "You've got a mean jab, there. I can tell that hardly took any effort on your part to pull off." Meanwhile, Taori had expended a fair bit of his own energy just to not immediately suffer a devastating blow. Still, the fact he'd mostly warded it off at all said something.

"You're right, though - I don't think it's impossible anymore. In fact, the next time I see you, I can bet you that I'll be a Super Saiyan, too. A real one, not the sort that Vocado kept insisting I was." There was just the question of how. Lottus didn't even seem to know for sure how his own transformation had occurred, though it had happened while he was on the verge of death. Was that the key? ...No, if that was all it took, they'd have seen far more Super Saiyans arise out of the fires of the war against the Tuffles. There had to be something else...

Taori stood up, and cracked his neck back and fork, then shook out his arms before taking a deep breath. "Alright," he said, "Hit me again. Just like you did before."

"Oh, I sure as hell don't doubt that," Taori replied with the smallest of chuckles as Lottus stated if they were truly to fight, for real, Lottus would crush him with complete ease. Taori could quite easily tell he'd be outmatched by Lottus' might in any real situation the two were to battle one another. He had to wonder, would he even be able to wound Lottus? He'd likely have to expend almost all of his energy just to stay standing in the wake of Lottus' powerful Super Saiyan blows. 

Speaking of which, as Lottus reared up for another attack, Taori found he didn't quite have the juice left in him to block it nearly as well as he had a moment ago. Uh-oh. This was gonna hurt.

Taori raised his arms to block again, focusing a special sort of ki into them with a technique he hadn't actually had to make use of in quite some time - a sort of shield specifically made to break, but to absorb the energy of the incoming blow into its shattering, acting as an extra buffer to the strike. And, of course, his shield obviously did shatter as Lottus' fist slammed into it, and it did technically help reduce the blow's strength... Though they didn't mean Lottus' fist didn't essentially slam into the side of Taori's head and send him flying.

"Guh!" Taori exclaimed involuntarily as the blow sent him through the air, his feet leaving the ground this time until gravity reclaimed him, and he tumbled across the ground a few meters until he righted himself, his feet skidding across the dirt until he came to a halt. He was knocked away nearly twice as far by the blow that time. 

"Whew," he huffed as he rubbed his now bright-red cheek. There was no way his jaw wasn't going to be clicking for at least a few days after that one. "Hatred, huh?" he finally replied to Lottus, in spite of the pain moving his mouth now caused him. "That doesn't sound like Nasu to me. Granted, I don't know the man that well... But he didn't seem to me that he hated you. You sure that's the key?" Lottus was probably the more informed of the two when it came to this sort of thing specifically... But Taori wasn't sure. If all it took was hatred then, well, as he'd thought earlier, Lottus would hardly have been the first and only Super Saiyan to appear in so long.

Lottus perspective on just what might allow for the Super Saiyan transformation to occur was interesting. Taori dropped his own power back down once Lottus did, a small sigh of relief leaving him as his tensed muscles relaxed and his yellowed eyes regained their darkness. He seemed convinced that only his intense hatred for Destron in particular was what allowed his realization of the legend, and Nasu's own hatred of him for threatening to kill Cheri - who, apparently, Nasu was in love with. That was news to Taori, and he briefly wondered what Amara thought of that, though she was probably supportive - that wasn't the sort of thing that seemed like it'd upset her.

Though, she'd certainly managed to upset Lottus with how she'd downplayed him to Taori. Though it was true, saying 'everyone lost something' was a bit... Insensitive. Especially to someone actively dealing with their grief like Lottus. Amara was smart, but tactful she was not. Then again, Taori had gotten himself into trouble with that tongue of his more than a few times, too... Maybe it was just a Saiyan thing.

"She lost her father, too, if that's anything," Taori replied. "I think the experience hardened her to loss. She's just a very... 'Matter of fact' type person." Though, it wasn't like any defense of Amara would mean much to Lottus. He hated her. Taori gently snorted as the thought occurred to him that maybe Lottus would just end up hating Amara so much he'd activate another Super Saiyan form. Call it... Superer Saiyan. Super Duper Saiyan. Super Saiyan Two. ...Taori really was bad at naming things. Alpinia was definitely going to be the one naming their child.

"But she's a healthy gal, and seems inclined to tear herself away from any conflict on Plant for the time being. If you're gonna wait for her to die, you'll be waiting quite some years," he added after a moment. Taori looked around the forest, as if he was taking it in for the first time since he'd come down here. "As far as places go, Hell doesn't seem so unbearable. Maybe you can find some peace of mind, here. Some day, anyway. I'm not gonna tell you to calm your ass down right this second or anything... Because, frankly, if I was in your shoes, I'd be pissed to all hell, too. But you're gonna be here a while. At some point, you'll just be torturing yourself for no reason if you can't move on from some of that stuff."

With the way Lottus had been speaking this whole time, Taori had sort of assumed that he had somehow already found out about his recent re-coronation. Though, apparently, he hadn't, and this was news to him. "I don't think the position was ever for her," he replied to Lottus as the other Saiyan continued to spit insults towards the former Queen. He knew Amara had only even taken the role because she'd felt pressured to in his own absence. Had she been given a choice, well, Taori doubted Amara would have ever even wanted to try taking rule over Plant. She was too... Well, Taori didn't want to say egotistical, since that didn't sound about right, but perhaps too prideful to rule over the Saiyans. Amara didn't particularly hide the fact she felt herself above most common Saiyans' desires for combat and bloodshed, and that sort of dynamic tended to not create a particularly healthy working relationship.

Lottus had moved on from Amara for now, though, deeming her not even worth killing. Instead, his thoughts turned back to Rapini. And apparently... She was not here. Taori frowned and placed his hands on his hips as his brows furrowed. "Not here? She should be here. Unless she went to Heaven, but I sort of doubt..." Er, perhaps best not to debase the moral character of the love of Lottus' life. "...That anyone who fought in the war would go there." There, just generalize. That saved it, right?

Unless her soul had already been reincarnated? Amara had made it sound like that was a very, very long process, but perhaps it was faster with some than others. Taori was curious just who her soul might've gone on into, but there was no way of knowing, as far as he was aware. Maybe Ward might have some insight into that, but even Ward wasn't all-powerful. 

"Lottus..." Taori mumbled as the other Saiyan began to wander off, seemingly in defeat. As evil as everyone hade made Lottus out to be, and as much as Taori disagreed with some of his philosophies, it was hard not to feel the slightest bit bad for the other man. Who knows? Maybe if he'd met Lottus a bit earlier, things might have turned out completely differently for him. Lottus then stopped, offering Taori one last bit of cryptic but foreboding advice before he finally left, vanishing into the darkness of the trees.

Taori was the slightest bit unsettled by Lottus' final words, but he'd have time to ponder them later. For now, he really ought to get back to the living realm. Taori reached into his bag and pulled out his devil lamp, then had a brief moment where his heart skipped a beat as he failed to entirely recall how he was meant to use it to get back, and he wondered if he'd have to flag down an Ogre or something to get him back up there, but then he remembered, and after a moment of fiddling with it, he was back in his room.

Surprisingly, he found Alpinia staring up at him when he blinked back into existence, which made him jump back slightly.

"There you are!" she exclaimed with a roll of her eyes as he visibly reacted to her. "You were just standing there, totally zonked out of it for a couple minutes. Did you fall asleep on your feet or something?"

Taori blinked down at her as he regained his bearings. Apparently, his body in this world was just sort of left standing there, zoned out, as his spirit and consciousness were transported to the realm of the dead. That was... Interesting. "Uh, yeah, something like that," he replied to her. As he looked down at Alpinia's face, he briefly thought back to Lottus' words of regret about Rapini, his own love... And he smiled as he suddenly felt a renewed sense of gratitude that he had Alpinia. "Anyway..." Taori leaned down and gave her a small peck on the lips, which surprised her, though she wasn't exactly unhappy with it.

"Well, someone's in a good mood!" she said with a small giggle as she turned around and began walking away from him. "Come on, there's a meeting they need you at. You can shower me with love and attention after you're done."

"I just might," Taori replied as he followed after her with a small smile across his lips. Still, Lottus' final words were weighing on his mind just a bit. War will come for the Saiyans, whether you seek it, or whether you wait for it to come to you. What could he have meant by that...?