Cool Off (Now Closed)

Earth had been a delightful experience so far. Not so much, honestly, for Nasu had already experienced so much villainy one could only take in barely a week. Thankfully, however, he had remained mostly unscathed.

Except for his clothes, as he looked down upon them — as of now, he was still wearing his classic battle uniform, mostly for they were still in the tournament period. He was probably better off than just having to switch suits all the time.

Sadly that was never always the case. Many places would often very likely look down upon a person that wore that kind of clothing, especially Nasu with some of his golden plates and not to mention his battered cloths — surely he would have earned one suspicious eye from any and all. Therefore, in a way he decided to just not give a shit, in reality. Mostly because admittedly he was going to have a bite.

It had been too long since he had postponed the chance of visiting a place of empowerment where both his mind and soul could rest and wither in the pleasure of nutrition. He had tried out a few things but never anything amazing, but this… was truly the paradise of a man’s stomach.

His very hand at the moment was holding a fine, soft piece of bread having been roasted, cooked and done so well that it felt like caressing a cloud itself — with boiling, hot, melting and so many other adjectives — sauce on top of it. It drooled down together with the cheese in a manner so beautiful and so poetic it could make the most vile of monsters cry in joy.

He breathed out in pleasure, a quiet smile on his face as he just quietly munched on his slice of pizza. Well sat upon the bar stool, until a sudden movement caught his eye; a battle power notable enough to pull his sight no less. The signature yet he recognized as different — his mind… how odd, he felt as if he had grown a lot more than he could have expected ever since he had come to Earth. He could have sworn he would have a greater reaction at the lady’s power.

He looked down at his slice of pizza once more.

“Since when had I ever grown so much in the past years?”

Nasu felt at odds. He did not experience anything like that and yet he wondered how, given he did not expect any of his latest counters to match his many years that he spent training and then those in exile. He sighed briefly, a question for another time. Nevertheless! This person was strong, no less. And that was a rare trait amongst the Earthlings, from what he had experienced. Therefore he had grown a little interested, surely. Nasu had picked up on a new hobby: meeting new people.

One had not enough friends or sparring rivals in the galaxy to count on the fingers of their hand.

“When I was younger,” - which in itself could have sounded weird given he was a Saiyan and displayed close to no aging, perhaps only the tone of his voice could have given away the fact that he had some experience. “I would have thought power and temperament were one and the same. I thought having power made you untouchable. I was wrong, of course.”

A little bit of his Knight years had trained him to exercise discipline and patience, not always were they easy to manage, even at the good and old age of forty. But he figured he knew how to help this youngster out with her problems, of course.

“And anyone could tell you have had a long day already — and it is not even dark yet. People think being youthful makes things easier but it is just as tiring, honestly.”

His greater monologue interrupted by the very cheese that had nearly slipped down the counter, but Nasu caught an eye of it and with great speed rushed for it with his tongue and allowed his head to rise up once more and catch another bite of the tender bread. He gulped it down and sighed before he looked up to the orange head: there were either two options.

Either she would have taken him seriously, and from there he would have guided a thing to a spar. Or she could have gotten mad some random was talking to her and assuming she was mad — one or the other led to a battle, all according to plan.

He chuckled when her first retort came through: oh boy, he did expect he would have gotten himself in trouble yet again but he did not even consider that this gal was that much of a hot-headed person to just answer like that. But of course, this only made his plan easier to realize: meeting a new sparring partner! Or a person that subconsciously hated him, one way or the other he guessed it was the same to him.

“I don’t know. I came over here to try out this pizza.”

The man was a bit surprised, too. Types like him? What kind of type was him? Was he getting mistaken for something else? “Type? Like what? Of course I don’t know what you are dealing with but that does not mean I do not want to help.”

He knew completely well he was a stranger, therefore he did not really mean it but he also did. He wanted to help but he needed an excuse to try and give her some good advice, whether it was under the form of a word or a fist. But he did not mind if she lashed out against him, honestly. He was pretty okay with it, he was not that weak mentally that he needed somebody to hold his hand, thankfully.

Nasu blinked briefly. He did see her coming to prod his chest and yet he did not move at all, rather his eye just remained on her while his hands began to ever so slightly let his pizza rest in its cardboard, slowly the man also began to turn around to face her. He was not quite sure what her problem truly was at first but he could tell one thing: this woman was going to eat her tacos, gulp it down, go home and then act like nothing had happened the next day. Or well, he figured that would have been the course of things. If anything, the man was going to make her fight back. Even if it meant the Saiyan being merely only a stress relief.

“And so?”

The man breathed out, his lips made a loud snap as he sucked and gulped down all the good stuff that once was in his mouth. Good old pizza before a fight, surely that had to be worth something. But of course, the man also slowly began to force himself to stand up from the barstool.

“I would not have known of your studies. But nevertheless whatever you are, no one will ever think any bit of it and yet talk down to you. What did you expect?”

The man did not expect one bit less from this woman, she was strong and had quite a temper. Perhaps fitting of the hair color nevertheless, he did not wish to go against any principle of chivalry but this was one of the consequences of being a Knight; if he had to be a little rougher around the edges to try and give her a push in a certain direction, he would have done it.

Of course maybe said push could have been wrong. Nasu believed in no way that he knew everything about this person, because he did not and could not for the love of the stars really imagine what kind of life they had. But the Saiyan knew better than just ignoring a person, his interest was in getting involved and hopefully doing a good thing, at the moment.

“If you want to relax, sure. I can accept that. You can relax, have a good nights’ sleep and once more get stepped on again in the morning. That is what you want, right? Or would you perhaps want to try fighting back… and show your value?”

By no means he believed she would have listened and she didn’t have to, she was basically already boiling in the plate before he could have spoken another word, as a matter of fact, though, he was ready to suddenly spike his power up should she try and use something funny in the bar. He did not want people to get hurt over this. But the man chuckled at the perspective of him liking the beat down.

“Modestly, frankly and honestly? Yes. I would like that. But not here. We are not savages. If we fight, we will do it outside and at the edges of the city.”

His senses yet careful of whether or not the woman would have done anything to try and get him from behind, but if anything, he just walked out and waited outside, with both his arms folded over his chest. He was kind of sad, though, he really wanted to finish that pizza… ah well, maybe he could have made a new friend, at least. Or enemy, he did not know. If the latter, at least it was his fault this time.

If anything, he stood by right there. And waited outside, he did not honestly expect the woman to reject this. He knew as much as she could possibly think he was only a crazy Saiyan, that she would have also come. He was sure, in his mind at least, that a fighter like her was not going to pass the chance of duking it out until she would have felt better about her day. But who knows, it was most likely she just thought he was a dick and wanted to beat him a little for how annoying he had been to her earlier.

Still, the same effect would have been achieved and Nasu could have slept soundly the next night. Then not too long after she came out, she looked pissed still of course. But most likely it would not have gone away really even after they would have had their spar. But well, he guessed he could at least indulge her in the stress relief. The man did not immediately begin to follow her, he did not quite feel the need until she suddenly took off and there, he called out his magical cloud and jumped on it. In the blink of an eye, he zapped into the sky and quietly chased the Earthling, sitting with both his legs crossed on the very cloud.

At some point they finally came to a place, she stopped and so did he descend, sitting on his cloud still in perfect comfort.

The Saiyan was somewhat curious when he witnessed the things she was holding turn into nothingness, or rather, burned away with their ashes. He had never seen anyone use any kind of ‘element’, in a certain sense. So even somebody using fire naturally without the use of a weapon was new to him, was this what the Earthlings had to offer as martial artists? Ah, that was quite exciting, indeed. But of course he also began to wonder if he could really help relieve some stress; he had seen her personality and by now a lot of things began to match up — her personality and her abilities surely were connected.

“This will do.”

Nasu commented, seemingly his personality as well changed quite a bit now as unlike before, when he was seemingly looking way more intimidating and prone to jabbing or annoying the stranger, now he looked relaxed if anything and as if he had just been done taking a nice scroll in the park. Soon enough he stood up from his cloud and hopped off, allowing it to fly off into the sky.

“Also look. I don’t challenge every muck that looks strong.”

He kind of did. But he usually had somewhat of a reason as to why he challenged them besides the pure sense of getting a bout in, some hands and kicks here and there. But again, she probably did not care therefore he just closed his fists together, soon enough one and the other pushed the limits of his knuckles to the point they made several pops.

“Name is Nasu.”

The Saiyan pulled away his hands from his sight and rushed over to Jackie, before his body vanished into nothingness — with very little time he reappeared and this time with his leg way high, it aimed for a kick and then his body vanished and reappeared to the other side and so yet again — three kicks in total, in quick succession, one after the other fired at high speeds before he would reappear once more where he stood before, hoping to observe the result of his attacks landing.

He could feel that thing they called sarcasm in her word, but nevertheless it was probably normal for her. He could tell from a single look by now: this was her personality day by night, so most likely one would not have gone across one day without hearing comments like that. Personalities were colorful on Earth, no less. But he was more curious to know how her fire fists worked. It was kind of cool.

“You should be a little more grateful and feel like a fellow fighter has taken an interest in testing you out.”

The man advised with little more than a few words but soon enough fell back into stance to execute his technique; the execution was great no matter, with her responding with such a tenacity and yet with techniques that managed to rival one another in power. It was kind of a delightful reaction, surely.

She jumped away and once more Nasu landed on the ground, his very back straightened and his eyes pushed back to look at… Jackie. Right, that was the name. He nodded his head briefly with a faint smile over his features.

“Yeah. That felt good. But you do not have to hold back at all. If you do, you might end up regretting it.”

Of course Nasu was hiding his true battle power as of now, he preferred giving her freedom to fight and go all out against him; it would have made the battle better no less, although he would have probably just revealed it eventually after the spar was over. He did not like keeping secrets. Especially from cool people.

“Looks like you have made up your mind, then. You do not look like the same person I was talking with a few minutes ago.”

Not that it was a bad thing no less, but it was an interesting change. Almost like he had a Saiyan in front of him, one that enjoyed a good battle as much as Nasu did.

There was no doubt. This girl was definitely a natural born fighter, all it took was just the union of their two strikes to get her mind off the entire annoyance the two had gone through just earlier. He could not account for anything more but perhaps he had truly done well to approach this stranger, after all. He was quite happy with the result, of course. If anything she was somewhat Saiyan-like herself, but the man thought better than falling into her invitation, as inviting as it was to once more reply with the same technique he instead decided to save his energy for something better.

His very persona found himself soon to once more reach for the Tuffle, he jumped and spun in the air but it was merely a distraction to hope and catch that very ‘come hither’ wrist of hers under guarded, hopefully, with his tail to wrap around her before he let himself be like a monkey.

He allowed the planet’s gravity to drag him down and once more use his tail as a leverage to lean his body forth, upwards — his ascension coming to a close due to his body weight, but it was more than enough as he let go of the waist and as the fall would have taken him down, bending his body face-down, he used the very momentum and chance to instead fire a low kick right at her head.

All things considered, he did not mind her being abrasive at all. He believed it was probably due to him being a Saiyan, the more one had a fight to offer, the greater was the reaction from the former. Of course, though, there was also to wonder what kind of person she was; he had not met other Earthlings besides one who could use elements, was it really that common? Common per se, as most Earthlings did not even fight.

Oh, wait. The fight, right. Soon enough the man, with his very hop forth, allowed himself to indeed try to get a kick on the woman but it failed. It felt good honestly, his heart exhilarated in the joy of even such a hopeful tactic gone astray, it made the fight better. but soon enough consequences came as soon enough she went for his tail.

“H-hey, that’s dirty!”

The man exclaimed. No doubt that he believed grabbing tails was cheating but he was by no means vulnerable to the touch, but rather, his tail grew stiff and tense — she could feel it trying to whip itself out of her grip. Sadly she had one hell of a grip too, one that she used as a leverage to once more try and pummel him, but this time, in attack rather than defense. Therefore he decided to use her very advantage as a leverage to pull himself away and once more let his leg raise high for it to meet her strike, in succession he used the heel of his other foot to force himself left and right— using his previous technique as a way to counter her strikes until she threw him away.

His steps were slowly failing to catch himself, but he soon enough stomped the ground to rely entirely on one foot and looked up at her.

“Hmpf.”

His tail dropped to the ground to stomp it as well, it was so strong it apparently caused a crack in the terrain beneath him, he soon smiled however.

“Well. I do use it to fight at times… so I guess it is not unfair. Besides, though, you are good… why are you doing all that mechanic stuff? You could have a future as a warrior.”

A little bit of praise, perhaps she would have grown proud or softer, or perhaps told him to fuck off again but either or it was fine with him, instead he began to wonder a bit.

“How did you learn all this? Even that fire stuff… it is kind of cool.”

From this distance the man could not help but wonder what her next move would have been, his very footsteps slowly went ahead and had him wander about in the area — the two kept at a relatively close distance, the tension was high and the excitement even more as to who would have been the one to strike first but of course Nasu himself would have been way more pleasant to seeing her come at him, in all of her glory, after all the Saiyan had already struck both times, did he not?

“I guess we did start on the wrong foot. But surely there is no reason we can not try again and become friends.”

Truthfully, the Saiyan was probably meant to try and recruit her in helping against the Vegeteans but he decided against even mentioning such a thing. If it had to happen it would have, but otherwise he saw no reason for himself to go and find fighters. Cheri was the one who did it, his very mind led him to meeting more fighters out of delight and interest in trying to find as many warriors as possible — it was sort of a ‘catch them all’ but meant to also help him grow and… no idea, he just wanted some friends.

He stomped his right foot down and let his stance wide open, his very arms spread as well; he was inviting her to the challenge no doubt, of course it would have been up to firecracker whether she would have liked to hit him or not.

He did not know what she meant exactly. Could you ever stop being a fighter? In a way he also had a similar moment, during his very exile he decided not to fight for a long while. But of course he wondered why a job would get in the way of fighting, but then again supposedly he did not really know this gal at all. So if any and all chances, something had to have happened to her as well. Not to mention the fact that she had quite the temper — he decided not to inquire any further but he could see that she was probably pent up for a good battle. Of course, sadly, he had to either go all out and put her in a tight situation or keep things at her level.

He guessed he would see the outcome of the bout to see what kind of person she was: would she have been fine with fighting on equal terms? Nasu did not usually mind receiving that treatment albeit it could not quite sit right in his mind at times, still he supposed that at least the woman had not fought for a while now. So that probably she used to be stronger.

“I do not know. I am not an Earthling, but I guess you really need a job around these parts then.”

The man implied he did not have one and of course he did not, he had duty and honor. Precisely they gave no money but he was already settled in a fair enough way that could allow himself to live and just go on about, he was not tainted by Earthling ways thankfully. Well, this planet was not his at all, so it did not matter really. Soon enough he would have probably returned to Plant. The Saiyan soon quirked a brow, too. So he was right. She did have some tear-jerking backstory! Ah, figures.

That was the norm, apparently. But again, too, came the question: what exactly? But again it was useless asking, she was not going to answer, therefore he guessed it was as well worth just focusing on the fight. She came to him — with kicks? Could she possibly favor those as well? He did, due to their ease at being paired with sword play (back when he had one) so therefore he soon followed not with his legs but his very arms that cleared the path to his sides, blocking the kicks that came in his way.

She was quick and strong no less, but of course, he was also limited in power right now — yet again as he eyed her left and right, he soon realized he lost sight of her and gone distracted, as the frontal kick got him and pushed him away, with a small grunt. He patted his own torso, it kind of hurt. His body leaned back briefly before he pushed himself forth once more, his eyes began to look at the cool fire trick.

It was pretty impressive; he could tell it was fire, too. He wondered if it also was as bendable like flames as well, he already had a couple of experience with fire-breathing dragons, after all.

“It does not look bad at all, firecracker. Take a shot!”

The man said, this time focused as instead of thinking about the spar he began to enjoy it instead as his leg rose and stomped the ground, the very air around his body was scattered and yet from a further spin of his form, to allow his other leg to stand forth, he manipulated the air — causing the fire ball to shift in directions and follow the wind, that caused it to once more fly towards Jackie.

“You are right! But you know what, get angry some more! I want to see what you can do, kid!”

The gal not only would have faced her own ki, but if she looked past it, Nasu was now flying at her upon his cloud until he dropped down and once more immediately he spun, before he halted in mid-air with a high knee that aimed to suddenly slam down, aiming to catch her head and forcing it, as a ballistic bullet, down.

As he did so, he prepared himself to once more unleash and rocket her head up in the sky with an uppercut, and even if she could recover from that, he began throwing fists without even a break for breathing — yet something was strange; did he have… four arms? One could think it was high speed alone, and of course, it was that too, but in reality the man used the Four Witches technique to try and land as many hits as possible!

His very first kick did not seem to go that well, this Jackie was smart if anything and adept at battling; she had been trained by a master, so she did have some kind of tutelage. Still again, he believed the master did not make the student. She was probably just a natural but decided, for her own reasons, not to pursue this career. The man, however, knew that she could not have predicted his next move: the very flurry of quick, rapid fists that flew at her was a lot to deal with.

But she did nevertheless as she let out an even greater flame, and under her barrage of fists, he did not have enough time to turn away and counterattack as her fists made their dent into him and pushed him off her. He slid into the ground, dragged by the force until he stopped and smiled a bit towards her.

She was slowly getting more and more into it. A very feeling began to exhale from his soul but it was no feeling or sensation he personally felt, it was the very air that began growing thinner now that she was literally growing hotter by the second. It was hot enough he could feel warm spots on his body, even at this distance.

“In a while? You do not look that bad on a first impression, I can not see why you would stop fighting, honestly. You are throwing away talent.”

She could tell? How odd… he did not believe there was any way that a person could get a hold on information like that, after all he was suppressing his own ki. It was not like it could be felt or read otherwise but of course something else popped in his mind: was it the way he spoke or did something in particular? It was more likely she had figured it out not by actually finding out the truth in itself but rather, she had to have seen or felt something suspicious in the way he behaved himself.

But sadly she was right, and Nasu shut his eyes briefly. Soon stepping forward, she came even closer, as well by hovering, while he walked and faced her once more with his orbs way open.

“Yeah, you are right. I am holding back. I wanted to make it fun for you.”

The man slowly began to wonder, instead, would she get angry or was she even more excited at the perspective of the spar? He guessed he would try to taste the waters himself, with a quick power up and see how she would react. He knew Earthlings could unleash some latent power, surely this one was no different.

He said and soon enough the Saiyan returned to battle the young flame. Nasu soon lit his hands in energy, they came flashing but nothing more than empowering his fists in ki before he soon fired a pair of blasts. He used the very distraction to charge in but this time his hand went immediately for her stomach, his very fist shaped not after a punch at all but a straight hand, rigid and firm and it was no punch.

It was rather a quick jab at her stomach, deep and quick to try and break her guard. His very hand rose then to try and uppercut her hand, all in one motion, as he closed his fist as it flew upwards. His very body spun and tried to arch his legs back and forth, when one leg rose to strike across her body, he spun back and let his other leg try to jab her body frontally instead by the very base of his foot.

A mixture between a roundhouse kick and a doorslammer. If that was not enough to even break her guard, he continued; his very long tail decided to become the weapon and catch her off guard by wrapping around her leg, he would pull, as hard as possible to drag her across the ground before it would rise again and slam her back into the ground.