Forgotten Innocence

Forgotten Innocence

Chapter 03

Morning came much too soon for Vegeta and he found himself
dragging Kakarrot to where the ship was waiting for them. The sooner they left the
planet, the sooner he could start on the path of becoming a Super Saiya-jin.

“So, which planet are we heading for?” Kakarrot asked him.

“Whichever has a decent gravitation field and a challenge
for the both of us,” Vegeta replied coolly.

“Sounds good,” Kakarrot grinned. Vegeta had to fight back
the urge to punch the fool. Though he had forgotten his memories, he still
seemed to act like the third-class idiot he had been. He would have to make him
realize he was supposed to be a fighter, not a child.

-

The ship stood ready despite a few patches near the engine
area. Vegeta mentally concluded that the engines had taken a blow due to the
electrical storm and noticed that the rest of the ship had been buffered, yet
seemed to be still in one piece.

“It’s all ready Vegeta,” one of the assistants replied. “We
restocked it as you requested with food, water and the other things you
requested.”

“It’s about time,” Vegeta started walking onto the ship.
“Come Kakarrot, our time on this planet is over.”

“Wait, Vegeta,” a voice called out. The Saiya-jin prince
stopped and turned around to see the doctor that had treated Kakarrot yesterday
approach with a strange device. “You should take this as well.”

“I don’t need that scouter,” Vegeta huffed. “I will be fine
without it…”

“At least for security reasons, we…” The doctor was silenced
when the device itself was shattered with a blast. Kakarrot followed Vegeta
without saying a word; knowing that the prince’s word was final and he
shouldn’t dawdle around.

The hatch of the ship closed with a hiss and Vegeta sat down
in the seat punching in coordinates into the computer. Kakarrot sat beside him
rather confused about what happened outside, but decided against saying
anything to infuriate the other Saiya-jin’s temper any further than it already
has.

-

Outside of the ship however, the doctor had slowly recovered
from the shock and growled.

“You did put a tracking device on the ship, didn’t you
Reiux?” the doctor asked.

“Of course,” Reiux smirked. “They wouldn’t know what’s wrong
with the ship until it’s too late.”

“Excellent… we are going to get the best of everything soon
enough.”

“Indeed we will… if Frieza’s still alive out there, we will
use their combined power before disposing of them.”

-

Days slowly passed before they reached the destination that
Vegeta had in mind. Before long after the ship landed, Vegeta had already
brought Kakarrot out in order to start his retraining. At first, Kakarrot’s
moves were atrocious; worst than his half-Saiya-jin cub’s fighting style when
he first fought against the brat years earlier.

Very soon however, Kakarrot began showing improvement
despite the forgotten learning style he had adapted to in his years on Earth.
It was a sloppy version of his prince’s fighting style, but it was an
improvement over not knowing what the hell he was doing.

“Hey Vegeta, can we take a break?” Kakarrot asked after a
few hours. Though the elder warrior would normally not allow it, he figured
that he was pushing the former Earth-raised Saiya-jin rather hard.

“Fine, but afterwards, we are to continue our training.”
Vegeta snorted. Kakarrot flew up in the air, taking in a relieving breath of
air before flying off into the forest. ‘At
least he isn’t acting like a gullible fool…’

-

‘Ever since I woke up,
I feel like I’m missing something,’ Kakarrot thought quietly to himself
while looking around for food. The alien landscape did nothing to help him find
what he was looking for. ‘Is Vegeta
hiding something from me that I should know?’

A rustle from the unnatural purple bushes caught the
Earth-raised Saiya-jin’s attention as he turned. A black, fur-covered short
creature emerged from the bushes, a hiss escaping its mouth. At first, it
almost seemed that Kakarrot had interrupted something; however, more of the
creatures emerged from the surrounding bushes. They lunged almost as one at the
physically taller Saiya-jin that seemed to have invaded their territory. Unsure
of the numbers, Kakarrot began to run away with the furry creatures following.

Before he knew it, he reached the edge of a cliff
overlooking the sea of purple leaved trees that stood hundreds of feet below.
Skidding to a halt, the creatures continued their snarling and hissing sounds
at Kakarrot. Outnumbered, Kakarrot slid into a fighting stance before the
creatures lunged. Not one managed to get on him when a blast suddenly cleaved
at all of them from the side; almost though the amnesiac Saiya-jin was there to
lure them out.

“Great job Kakarrot. It seems you found dinner,” Vegeta
smirked. Kakarrot saw the burnt carcasses of the creatures that had given chase
to him minutes earlier.

“Why did you kill them?” Kakarrot glared at Vegeta. Despite his
memory loss, his emotions were still a strong trigger deep within his psyche as
the power began to rise within him. Before he could go further, Vegeta decked
Kakarrot across the face; almost though daring him to disobey his orders again.

“Kakarrot, it’s kill or be killed,” Vegeta warned. “Remember
that. We have no one to rely on besides ourselves.”

“R-right…” Vegeta saw the pain in Kakarrot’s eyes, the pain
of not knowing who he was and figured despite the memory loss, he still had the
deeply rooted emotions that he had been given throughout his first couple of
decades engraved in his personality.

“We cannot be permitted to lower our guard. To do so is
disgracing to our race and our pride. I will not tolerate your weaknesses. If
you fail to fight back at any time when you’re outnumbered or outmatched, I
will see to it personally that your life is mine.”

“If that is your will, Vegeta,” Kakarrot agreed to the terms
painfully. It felt like he was being forced to drink poison to destroy what
weaknesses he was allowing himself to be exposed to.

-

The burning coals of a dying fire ebbed outside of the ship
that night. Kakarrot looked up at the moonless sky at the sea of stars that
seemed to beckon him to travel the ghostly path towards a nameless destination.
A sudden flash of images came to his mind.

…a young child
laughing while running towards him, arms outstretched…

…a mysterious female
angrily looking like she was scolding him over something…

…faces of people he
had not seen anywhere in his travels in space thus far…

…an orange,
four-starred ball that seemed to hold a significant value…

Those fleeting images came and went before he shook his
head.

‘Wh-what was that?’
Kakarrot had no idea that what images he had seen were his forgotten memories
of Earth. He would have bothered Vegeta about what he had seen; however, after
the earlier lecture, he decided instead to keep it to himself.

‘It is probably part
of that weakness he told me about…’ He added mentally. His eyes slowly
closed, sleep’s siren call seeming to become stronger. For now, he seemed more
lost than he ever was and that was something he could not fight against.

Not far away, a pair of eyes watched his slumbering form
from a distance before fading back into the darkness. If the former Earth-raised
Saiya-jin had still been able to fully access his abilities, he probably
wouldn’t have let the mysterious stranger go without a tussle.

To Be Continued…