"Hmm." Vegeta retrieved his hand without having to dirty the table with blood when the girl made the wise decision of letting him go, with nothing left but to consider what he had just learned. "Those flames on your hair, what was that exactly?"
Had he not known better, Vegeta would say that a Saiyan was lost in this world. Except that the power increase received by her little emotive episode was pretty laughable, barely doubling what it originally was.
So double of nothing, it was still nothing.
"M-My Semblance..." Yang muttered shakily as she was trying to regain her lost breath. Before trying her luck at this little game, she wasn't one hundred percent, probably not even fifty, because of the training exercise. Now, however... Yang had emptied the tank completely.
Her lilac eyes no longer had the same touch of arrogant boldness as they focused on this man. What he did shouldn't be physically possible, regardless of whether he was a real Huntsman or not.
All that remained in Yang was a mixture of confusion, respect, and a distinct hint of fear.
Semblance, she said. Vegeta did a quick search on his Scroll, seeking to learn the basics he needed to know. A unique ability that Aura users have.
Did that mean that Vegeta might also have something like that? Depending on the ability awakened, it would certainly help a lot.
Before questions could be thrown off-hand, the damage caused drew attention.
"Wh-what happened here?!"
The attendant knocked over the plates in fright, and the food stopped in Vegeta's hands before anyone could react.
"Nothing to worry," Vegeta was the first to speak, ignoring the incredulous stares gained from his little display of speed that made Ruby look like a turtle. "Just put the damage on the bill and you can include whatever they ask for."
His bank account had so many zeros that he didn't care, especially for the unconscious help this group was providing him.
Such kindness won some appreciation and managed to alleviate the uncomfortable atmosphere born of a theoretically impossible feat, but not all of them shared this feeling.
Weiss wouldn't let it end that easily.
"T-that..." The attendant considered what to do, but seeing that the girls were armed, it was clear that they were all Huntresses, and that took away much of her power of choice. "All right...just, please, don't destroy anything else."
"Sorry!" Ruby was quick to bow repeatedly, forcing Yang to do the same. "It won't happen again!"
An honest and respectful girl to a faunus... the attendant saw this and nodded before leaving them.
"Yang, what was on your mind?!" Weiss brushed aside the numerous absurdities she had to question, having a thing or three to say first! "Did you know that civilians can report on misuse of a Huntress' abilities?! That would be a permanent mark on our record with similar weight to committing a crime!"
Vegeta was caught off guard, not expecting this girl to go from being a refined princess of Earthly standards and demonstrate the attitude of a Saiyan.
"I didn't know that one..." Yang wanted to ignore this typical lecture from the little princess, but it seemed that she had really messed up this time. I'd better leave a really generous tip...
Unfortunately for her, Weiss was far from finished.
"Of course not! You never think before you act!" Weiss was boiling, almost outraged. Merely imagining what her sister would say about this got the best of her. Even more, they were taking the risk of interrupting their careers, and for what? Nothing! Her icy blue eyes fell on the man just as irresponsibly, and she pointed her finger at him, ignoring the earned reaction. "And you shouldn't influence that kind of behavior! If you're an adult, act like one! What would you do if one of you had been hurt or injured someone innocent?!"
This time, Vegeta was the one dumbfounded and speechless, surprised and shocked. Not necessarily because he was the target of a lecture given by a being that could be erased from existence in the blink of an eye, but because of the exact image that this princess reflected with the demonstration of her true personality.
This attitude, lack of fear and confidence in having the voice of reason, even though she had no power to change anything, accurately reminded him of his late wife
"W-Weiss, I think you should calm down," Blake pleaded, fearing the worst in case the prince didn't like being scolded like a naughty child.
"Why should I?!" Weiss wasn't having that. She wanted to see the repentance of these two! "They need to reflect on their actions!"
It was almost nostalgic to see someone have the courage to yell at him like that. Although it had only been less than a year since Bulma had been gone, Vegeta hadn't seen her for much longer, thanks to the training he had to do to face Moro.
Although painful, this was a memory he didn't mind reliving, for it was exactly this kind of attitude shown by someone without fear that had transformed him into the man he had become.
"I'll be more careful next time," Vegeta found himself repeating exactly what he would have said to Bulma, and heard a frighteningly accurate response.
"No next time!" Was Weiss talking to the walls? Because he clearly didn't understand the gravity of the situation!
"I... understand," Vegeta forced himself to say, feeling all too familiar with this position. Yet, almost unconsciously, he had the traces of a smile forming on his previously indifferent face.
What he felt couldn't be described, but it was definitely not unpleasant.
"Good!" Weiss crossed her arms and sat down, huffing with irritated satisfaction. Looking at him again out of the corner of her eyes, for the expressive response earned, eventually made her demonstrate something similar.
Despite everything, even if in a very strange way, they seemed to have come to a mutual understanding.
Blake and Yang watched these two, over and over again, until they looked at each other and came to the same conclusion.
Somehow, even after throwing away her princess attitude, Weiss managed to create a moment with this all-powerful man!
At the very least, he liked girls with a strong attitude, or he was a masochist. Yang was betting on the latter, holding some grudge.
Ruby, on the other hand, was finally able to breathe normally and calm down. When Weiss was like that, she wanted to be anywhere but close by. Fortunately, it seemed that everything would be okay, and maybe she could even order some ice cream?!
As things were calming down for good, Vegeta, in a good mood, decided to taste his food and stopped before he started devouring everything like an animal, being sure that he would be scolded again for lack of manners, making use of the cutlery available.
Time for the truth. One spoonful of the stew and he decided that his revenge would also have to be aimed at another clown. This planet really does resemble the Earth. Not only in ecological, social, and culinary aspects, but it also has... His eyes stopped on the snow princess, on the way she played with her hair and pretended he didn't exist because she was angry with him. Someone who reminds me of her.
The taste of the food seemed to have improved, and he found himself enjoying the moment for the first time in months, without that constant hatred gnawing inside his chest.
They all remained silent as Vegeta had his meal, thinking of the questions to be asked when he was finished. Ruby was the only one busy with something else, raising her glucose level with an ice cream full of goodies, one that Yang wouldn't let her eat alone, regardless of the protests she made.
It didn't take long for Vegeta to finish with the recovery of his appetite, but complete satiation would have to wait.
There were more important things to attend to at the moment.
"I believe you must have questions..." he began and couldn't finish, soon being bombarded with doubts created by his minute display of power.
"Are you really a Terminator from the future?!" Yang thought of the fourth movie: a human with a skeleton made of the finest metal coated with living tissue! That alone would explain those muscles!
"Oh, oh, like the machine rebellion?!" Ruby jumped in, wondering if Penny had helped send him back to the past?! Then something clicked, and her mind raced without restraint! "Oh my God! Could it be that we are part of the resistance and he has come to protect us?!" An even crazier idea came up, and actually, Penny sent Vegeta to get rid of them! Why Penny? I thought we were friends!
"Who knows, maybe one of us will be the resistance leader's mother!" Yang just wanted to know who the father was and swallowed dryly as her face warmed at the memory of the first movie, and even Ruby was blushing.
"So... are any of us Sara Conor?" She played with her fingers, remembering embarrassing things that should be forbidden!
"Don't worry, Ruby," Yang assured, what even she didn't know, just keeping in mind that maybe her little sister wasn't so innocent. "Considering everything so far, Weiss must be Sara!"
"No one here is Sara Conor!" Weiss blushed, wanting to choke Yang for suggesting so many...extremely suggestive things.
"Ha! So you watched the movies!" Yang thought the princess was too good for such futilities.
"Everyone watched it!" The movie was a classic, and Weiss wanted to know more about the world outside the prison walls that her home used to represent.
Vegeta had no idea what they were talking about and went to do some research on the subject. He had some time before they were done with their theories and began to take the conversation seriously.
"That's ridiculous." Blake didn't believe in that one about a rebellion...not from artificial intelligence, she means.
"Finally, someone with common sense." Weiss was having a hard time listening to so much nonsense. Fortunately, although she had some conflicts with the faunus girl in the past, Blake was more rational and serious than the sister duo.
At least, she should be.
"Exactly, because clearly, he's a supersoldier!" Blake was more rational about her theories, writing this down to make sure she would remember it later, and everything else that had been coming up nonstop. "So he escaped from an operating facility and blended in with the local population, needing to forge his documentation, and ended up meeting a woman who is a computer expert. So, to pay for her services, he..."
She had stopped talking, but her fingers kept typing. If the color of those cheeks were any indication, one could imagine where her mind was going, and it was embarrassing that she was capable of writing questionable things about someone right in front of her.
"You've got to be kidding me..." Weiss did her best not to imagine what was being written in that Scroll. She expected something of the sort from the sisters, but Blake? The girl had been more serious when no one knew about her true identity.
"All right, Weiss. What's your theory then?" Yang leaned back in her seat, waiting.
"Certainly one that doesn't involve time travel, apocalypse, and genetic modification experiments!" In the end, it fell to Weiss to argue logically and rationally. "He must have a physical type Semblance, similar to yours, Yang. "
"Is that it? Even the time travel made more sense!" Yang pointed to the broken table, not that it was much, but it still served the purpose. "Not even my father or Uncle Qrow could withstand the resulting force of my Semblance as he did... Geez, I doubt anything below a Kaiju-class Grimm could!"
"That's a bit too much, Yang." Blake stopped writing upon hearing a claim almost as exaggerated as all the previous ones. She recognized her partner's strength, just as she knew it wasn't that absurd.
"You guys don't get it!" Yang turned her attention to this all-muscular, scary, and clearly confused man. "What he did is not humanly possible!"
She had a very good point, they would admit.
"I can agree to some extent." Weiss also had some doubts about her own guesswork. There were countless similar Semblances that varied according to the effect caused. While Yang needed to receive and accumulate damage, at her peak, it made her quite a monster. As for Vegeta, she didn't even get a glimpse of his Aura... "However, I still believe there is an extremely logical explanation for all this."
There had to be.
"Well, you're not wrong." Vegeta didn't think it was an exaggeration that these theories were created. Time travel and superpowered androids have given him quite a headache, whether in the past or recently. "Have any of you ever heard of life energy or Ki?"
The girls looked at each other, and the negative answer seemed to be unanimous.
"Life energy? Don't you mean Aura?" Weiss was unsure of her own question, doubting it because of the anomaly this man represented.
"No." Vegeta held out his hand, and a bright point of light lit up in an unexpected display. Their reaction served as an answer, confirming what he already suspected. "Ki is the energy that inhabits the body of all living things, while Aura comes from the soul."
That was definitely information that they didn't know.
"You mean there is another type of energy, and that is the source of your strength?" Weiss was mesmerized, staring at the light with curiosity and fascination.
"Exactly," Vegeta nodded, pleased that she quickly understood what it was all about. "Extracting and manipulating this energy allows access to more than strengthening the body." He made use of one of the Ki applications, and the wooden fragments of the broken table levitated into the air and remained there. "Telekinesis is one of those, as well as..." The bright point of light in his hands transformed into countless others, soon shooting out to destroy everything held in the air without leaving a trace behind. "Being manifested and used to attack from a long distance. Of course, there are many other things besides that, but it should be enough to prove my point."
And he did so with praise if those pairs of wide eyes and open mouths were an indication of that.
At first, each of them thought it was nothing more than his Semblance, an ability capable of manifesting light. But that alone contradicted that physical strength from before, something impossible without a Semblance of the physical type, if he wasn't really some kind of terminator from the future. So there were more demonstrations, and those couldn't be linked with the initial theory about physical enhancement.
Since they were extremely distinctive abilities, it really had to be something else.
"Ki... I've never heard of that before." Weiss thought and rethought about it, going to the extreme of searching in her Scroll and coming up with nothing. This made it all the more mysterious and unreal, piquing her curiosity, and she wasn't the only one.
"That...was...so...cool!" Ruby had forgotten all the post-apocalyptic fantasies and theories, brought back to reality by something even more amazing! "Can you teach us?!"
Her request raised the tension among her classmates, and the expectant response came like a bucket of cold water.
"No." Vegeta destroyed that smile, excitement, and overflowing expectation without a second thought.
"Then why did you show all this for?" Yang finally recovered from that little show and wasn't happy. He practically came up with an entirely new concept and cut their wings off before even letting them fly a little!
"If this Ki is really so unique and unusual, the means to access it must be some kind of heritage from your family?" Blake supposed, cogitating that this was basically some kind of state secret.
The Aura itself wasn't available to everyone, as that would be problematic, so most of the users worked for the kingdoms... or were revolutionary criminals.
Weiss didn't dismiss Blake's words; such a hypothesis would make sense. Even so, there was no way it could be something so unknown and protected, especially for being shown in public in such a casual way as this.
"Again, you're not wrong." Vegeta had learned more about Aura during the theoretical discussion created about him. If it wasn't awakened by an emotional episode over the course of one's life, which clearly wasn't the case for him, as Vegeta went through several, and it resulted in his transformations, outside help would be needed.
That's where his little demonstration and these girls fit in.
"Objectively speaking, using the ki I just demonstrated, I could kill each of you faster than you would be able to register," he said seriously, and the tension returned like never before.
This kind of statement shouldn't be made lightly at any time, affecting them by believing that he might actually be able to do it.
"Are you threatening us?" Weiss asked, nervous about the possible answer, and she wasn't the only one.
What they had in mind for this statement was how the secret of this Ki was kept. If this new source of power were indeed real.
"Where is your bravery from just now?" Vegeta would be disappointed if it weren't for those icy eyes staring at him with a desire to retaliate should a move be made. "My point is that this power is dangerous and can easily be used to kill and destroy."
What he said was vague and didn't refer to the real danger. Kill and destroy? Yes, but the scale could vary according to the level of power attained.
"The same can be said about Aura, and even so, we don't go around saying we can kill people!" Yang was as angry as she was alert. This guy really wasn't someone to be taken lightly.
"Maybe, but you were referring to ordinary people. As for me, the Hunters, those capable of defending themselves." Although it made no difference in Vegeta's eyes. Everyone on this planet and over ninety-nine percent of the universe's population was incapable of defending themselves against him.
"All right, we understand. Ki is stronger than Aura, and that's why you can't teach us. Because it's a power that can't fall into the wrong hands," Weiss assumed that was the case, or they would really have to try their luck and fight their way out of this place alive.
The mere thought of this meeting ending in such a disaster was disheartening, especially when she had finally found someone who could help and who knows...
"But we are Beacon students and future Huntresses!" Ruby understood what was being said, but she disliked being placed with her friends in the 'wrong hands' category! "We would never misuse our powers..." She looked at the shattered table in a public place, and Yang had an apologetic look for messing up her speech. "Again?"
"Nice try, little girl." Vegeta at least appreciated the effort. "While the princess is correct, I never said I couldn't give you access to this power.
"But you just rejected Ruby's request," Blake reminded, trying not to be rude.
"Granting and teaching are two very different things," Vegeta elaborated further on his earlier statement, and there seemed to be no doubt left, except...
"Why?" Weiss tried not to think about the fact that their names aren't being used and questioned his motives. "Why not train us? Having access to that power without proper guidance is almost redundant."
They would waste time they didn't have to spend, and as a result, could hardly win the Vytal Festival.
"Why should I waste my time..." Vegeta paused, almost feeling that he was reliving something similar.
When Kakarot attained divine power during the fight against Lord Beerus, Vegeta asked Whis to tutor him, and a similar question was asked.
While he wanted to plead about the obvious difference in potential he had compared to these girls, there was something in common between them.
The difference in power between apprentice and master.
Vegeta believed himself to be the second strongest in the universe, almost equal to Kakarot, but the concept of god Ki changed that perspective and showed how insignificant he was. Divine energy made him a thousand times stronger and even gave him access to more transformations to raise such power to another level.
And yet, he was still weak compared to his first mentor and even the God of Destruction.
Although these girls were not great now, with proper training, time, and the possible result that would come with the combination of different energies, they had a chance to get on the scale with the most powerful beings in the universe.
"Give me a good reason to train any of you," Vegeta rephrased his words, hoping for an answer that would be able to change his mind.
The girls noticed the change in his behavior and the seriousness of the question, wondering what answer each of them could give.
Ruby was the first to speak, remembering the question that was never asked of her by Doctor Oobleck on the day of her first mission.
"I... grew up seeing my mother as a hero, dedicating her life to helping others while facing the darkness of the world. Most of all, the way she always came home with a smile on her face." Those memories were still vivid in her mind, making her smile along with her sister. "Even though she wasn't the most powerful person, she tried her best to bring peace and happiness to everyone else; she tried to make the world a better place... Summer Rose is the person I aspire to be!"
A dream almost as naive as the girl herself, but which couldn't be more fitting for her. Vegeta didn't even have to ask to know what had happened to her mother. There was a limit to what someone of the level of the people on this planet could do, but he wouldn't take away the merit of those words, nor of the ambition to honor the memory of a fallen relative.
A naive but worthy dream.
"I'm not as noble as my sister," Yang was reluctant to answer, for she knew that her answer couldn't compare with Ruby's. "I like the adrenaline rush of challenge, of adventuring and getting to know more of what's out there. With my ability to fight, I can have that freedom and still help people along the way."
She had the temperament of a warrior, the desire to brave the unknown, and challenge herself in the meantime. As the girl herself said, she was not necessarily noble, but the problem lay in her way of thinking. She was too much like the clown, and that displeased Vegeta, especially when considering what happened earlier.
The universe had enough problems to be nearly destroyed without a female version of Kakarot walking around.
"I... I don't know." Blake had an answer, but not a solution, and doubted that more power could solve it. She wanted to fix the world, correct inequality, and fight corruption. All the power in the world wouldn't help with that, and if it did, it would just be more oppression, and she didn't want that.
A coward. Vegeta decided to ignore this girl and focus on the princess with an attitude and temperament worthy of the title she carried, hoping to hear a proper answer.
"As you may know, I'm the heiress to the Schnee family and basically carry the sins committed by my father's... administration." Weiss looked at her clearly despondent faunus teammate, remembering various frictions they had had in the past and their motives. "I want to make amends for those mistakes, to clear the name of the company and my family while making up for the damage done to countless lives around the world." This time, she was looking directly at the prince, staring at him with undeniable resolution. "So I need to be strong and have the power to support me along this path of redemption."
Truly worthy of a princess, perhaps even a Saiyan. His people and Vegeta himself had so much blood on their hands that there were few entities capable of rivaling him, and each one was more heinous than the other. Redemption was an arduous and long, almost endless path, and Vegeta was sure he hadn't done enough for the universe or galaxy he had helped turn into a blood-soaked hell.
He still believed that he would go to hell, but he was aware that he had at least tried.
"All right, I'm willing to tutor the princess and the little girl." It definitely wasn't in the plans, but Vegeta needed to make that sacrifice.
Different reactions, ranging from excitement to disappointment, and of course, indignation.
"Wait a minute!" Yang narrowed her eyes, blinking red, not liking what she heard, "Why did you leave Blake and me out?"
"For the same reason that you are overreacting now." Vegeta expected something like that and took his time to explain. "You are too emotional, and that makes you unpredictable and destructive." Before the girl could prove him right with the small flames of fire emerging from her hair, he made use of the damage done to the table. "At the slightest provocation, you got carried away and ignored everything else around you, which included your friends and sister." He would know because he tended to be like that in the past. So much so that he tried to blow up the Earth just because Kakarot made him bleed and almost destroyed the universe not long ago when he had suicidal thoughts. "In short, you are a walking bomb, and I would be a fool to increase the damage you can cause when you finally explode."
Yang's teeth were as clenched as her fists, with every fiber of her body wanting to snap at this guy and make him swallow his words and... prove him correct.
"Yang, calm down. Nothing good will come if you attack him," Blake tried to calm her partner, imagining the worst outcome should she... well, explode. Soon, however, that serious look was locked on her, and she felt like running away.
"As for you," Vegeta regained the girl's attention, one with an energy similar to the humanoid inhabitants with animalistic characteristics. "You are almost the opposite of her; a shadow. I feel no real will coming from you. Your unresponsiveness and indecision make you someone susceptible to giving up; lacking the courage to even try."
If words could hurt, Blake would be bleeding. Her pride, however, certainly took the blow from how accurate the judgment had been so far.
The others on the team were silent until that moment. Weiss was considering what was said, and that ability to analyze with so little, and Ruby was showing rare signs of anger.
"Princes shouldn't be this mean!" All the movies, animations, and books always talked about the honorable qualities of these amazing people, so why was the first prince Ruby met like this?!
"I should lie, then?" Vegeta showed a small smile at the girl's whining and added a touch of sarcasm, "Wouldn't that make me an even worse prince?"
"That's not the point!" Ruby snorted. This Terminator was really mean! "There are things that shouldn't be said!"
"If they aren't, how can they work to overcome those flaws?" Weiss entered the conversation after much consideration and came to agree with some of the judgments made. "That's why you brought them up, right?"
"Hmph." Vegeta refused to agree, turning his face away.
That was more than enough to confirm Weiss's claim. This guy wasn't just hitting them where it hurt; he was giving them a chance to recognize their weaknesses and work on them.
"I can't tell if you're a jerk or just pretending to be one," Yang relaxed a bit, using words that brought a frown to that closed face and almost a smile to her own.
"Buuu, if you don't train Yang and Blake, I won't accept you as a teacher!" Ruby didn't want to have half her team left out.
They promised to do everything together!
"Little girl, it was you who asked me to train you, not the other way around." Vegeta didn't care. Although he found it a pity that he couldn't measure the potential of this race, he could find another alternative to unlock his Aura. I could simply pay someone. That would certainly be more practical and faster.
"Urgh..." Ruby felt that one as she was hit with the facts, and it hurt. Still, she could counterattack! "You... you should be grateful to have the chance to train someone as cute as me!"
Weiss rolled her eyes, and the other two team members smiled. More surprising, however, was the small giggle that escaped those royal lips.
Vegeta had just laughed for the first time in months.
"You overestimate yourself, little girl," he said, still amused by the audacity and confidence in uttering such nonsense before him. "You are the one who should be grateful for the opportunity to learn under the prince of the most powerful warrior race."
Ruby was about to rebut Vegeta, saying that her cuteness was worth more than the title of prince, when his whole statement hit her.
"Most powerful warrior race?" she repeated and hated how cool that sounded.
"So you're not human?" Blake recovered with what that possibly meant, building interest again. He looked completely human... well, except for the hair. Even so, she wasn't seeing any animal characteristics whatsoever. "What kind of faunus are you?"
"Forget about it," Vegeta made a mistake and didn't want to delve into the details about his nearly extinct alien race, knowing that reactions could vary and result in trouble. "Just make up your minds about what you're going to do.
Clearly, the subject of this supposed warrior race was sensitive, and he didn't want to talk about it.
"Can you give us some time to think it over?" Weiss meant convincing her partner to agree and consoling the rejected team members.
"You have until sundown." Vegeta could wait some time, considering he still had other things to do, and so he showed his Scroll to them. "That's my home address, show up within the estimated time or forget about my existence."
With that, he got up before anything could be said and went to pay the bill.
The girls didn't know what to say for sure, only that they really needed to make a decision, because Vegeta wasn't kidding.
He must want to test our sense of responsibility. Weiss would also not want to train someone who was indecisive and unable to meet deadlines.
Outside, while they were stuck in their respective thoughts, Vegeta came out wearing his jacket and looked at them one last time.
"Think carefully about what you've been offered, because believe me when I say it's a unique opportunity that will change your lives and this world forever," he said in a half-smile and released his Ki, sending small waves of wind that forced most of the civilians to cover their eyes and made the girls in front of him choke on the whitish flames that covered him. "Don't make me wait."
That being said, Vegeta performed another inhuman insanity and shot into the sky, soon disappearing among the clouds above.
"Wh-what the hell was that?!" Yang was either dreaming or having hallucinations, surely that attendant was angry about the broken table and baptized her ice cream with some licor!
"H-He flew off?" Blake stared at the parted clouds, basically the only evidence of what had just happened.
"Oh my God!" Ruby was having an overdose of excitement, with a thousand and one questions to ask! Can I learn to do that?!
"Prince Vegeta, who in the world are you?" Weiss didn't know the answer and doubted there was anyone who did. There is no way someone like that could exist and not be revered or feared.
Either way, each of them couldn't wait to find out more about that man... or Terminator.