22 Chapter 22: The Blame Game

Yamcha launched his full-powered assault at me in his Kaio-Ken form, aiming to slice my neck open with a swift slash of his elongated Ki claws which moved tenfold faster than the speed of light.

The ferocity he held within him… The festering rage that he had been bottling up for the past year… I could sense it all. This sparring match wasn't practice for him… He intended on murdering me right here and now. One could tell this by simply looking at his eyes.

He didn't care about my training or my well-being… Plain and simply, all he wanted to do was remove my head from my shoulders. But that was something I would never allow to happen, no matter how sorry I felt for him.

*swoosh-swoosh-swoosh-swoosh*

He repeatedly aimed all of his strikes at my neck. Using my Turtle school water movements, I read each of his movements, dodging each of his bladed finger tips, further frustrating him. After his failed attempt at laceration, unexpectedly, he attempted to knee me in the sternum.

*Boom*

But I caught his knee with my palm, looking him directly in his eyes, confirming his true intentions.

Upon stopping his attack, my palm stung as if I got struck by 50 wasps simultaneously. His base power was already enough to give Frieza a run for his money, but with his multiplier, he was even more deadly. From my analysis, I inferred that he currently had the capability of shattering planets with one of his punches. The thing was… I wasn't a planet, nor was I Frieza.

"*tsk*"

"I see… You're not completely useless. I guess you must've trained under the Master Roshi of your time… But I hope that you don't think that because you caught my leg that this is over."

Yamcha spat arrogantly.

Shifting his weight to his other leg, Yamcha attempted to kick my left temple. But to his attack, I reinforced my arm and head with Ki, nullifying the majority of the force that his kick exerted. Unfortunately, he still had the claws on his feet and punctured my other arm, almost reaching bone.

"*slick*"

"How does that feel, you little fucker? That's payback for all of the damage you caused." He snared.

"Ya know… I can only let you take my kindness for weakness for so long, right?" I retorted, which made the man scrunch up his face in frustration.

"Ha."

Flipping backward, Yamcha deactivated Kaio-Ken and crossed his arms with a smirk on his face.

"You haven't even been able to land a hit on me. Weakness is the only thing I see."

Shaking my head at the man, I resisted the urge to say the first venomous thing that popped into my mind.

"Yamcha… Do you really think that I'm trying right now? Cause I'm not."

"Not trying my ass. You're still gonna pretend like you have a chance? You think that because I can't sense your Ki, I don't have a gauge of what you're capable of?"

"*sigh*"

I shook my head, beginning to get irritated by the man.

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

"Lies upon lies upon more lies. Do you even know how to tell the truth? If you're so strong, then why are you the only one injured here? If you were fast enough, you wouldn't have let me slice you with your arms twice."

"... Because while you were busy trying to kill me, I was busy learning."

"Learning to what? Get beaten?" He vindictively chuckled.

I tried… I tried so diligently to hold my tongue, but he just kept pushing.

"Oh my god. No, you fucking victim! I was learning your shitty skill." For a moment, everyone was taken aback by my outburst.

"What did you just call me?!"

Not even acknowledging the latter half of my statement, Yamcha emotionally responded to the insult instead of what was important. Since he was petty, I decided to lower myself to his level.

"I called you a fucking victim, 'cause that's what you are. I only met you twice, and I can tell that all you do is whine, bitch, and moan all day. You're a fuckin victim and blame other people for your downfalls while people like Goku save the day."

Gritting his teeth, he mumbled.

"You better be real careful with the next words that come out of your mouth. Your life depends on it." He said, reactivating Kaio-Ken, balling both of his fists tightly.

"No… It… Doesn't. No one here has the capability of killing me. Not you, not your savior Goku, not even all of you combined. You know why?! Because you're all fuckin weak. Especially you. And that's why you got your balls taken from you." I aggressively pointed.

"..."

Effectively, I changed the entire atmosphere with my words. Everyone felt slightly offended, but I didn't care right now.

"You-you-" Flustered and enraged, Yamcha stumbled over his words.

"I what? Lost control over my power and got the majority of Earth's population killed? I blew up King Kai's planet, and because of it, the earth is in jeopardy yet again? I know. We all fuckin know. And I take full responsibility for my actions. But are you gonna sit here and lie to yourself thinking that I did that intentionally? Cause I didn't. I wanted to save Earth but made a miscalculation. I fuckin get it already. I screwed up."

"..."

"But you see, the difference between me and you is I'm taking accountability for what I did, whereas you pin your death on me when in reality, if you weren't so pathetic, you could have dedicated your life to training. Maybe if you spent your time on earth improving yourself instead of being a playboy panty-chasing baseball player, you would have been strong enough to kill Bojack on your own. Then, maybe my mother wouldn't have left you, you fucking loser."

Yamcha did not like what I said, not one bit… But I just couldn't allow him to continuously disrespect me. Whether he liked it or not, I was right… But he wasn't ready to accept that.

"I'll kill you, you Saiyan Fuck! Kaio-Ken Times 60!"

A gigantic red aura consumed his entire body and illuminated the entire battlefield with a similar intensity as the sun. And like the sun, everything it touched began to melt.

Yamacha's muscles began to expand so extremely that he was almost unrecognizable. His eyes went completely white while his hair spiked up like a Super Saiyan's.

The amount of power he exerted… If he was in a living body, he would have exploded with his blood and organs painting the battlefield. But that was just it. Although he had a physical form, he wasn't in a living body.

"*Boom*"

The explosion from his energy was so intense that not only the Z-fighters were pushed back, but me as well even though I was certain that I was grounding myself firmly.

The moment I blinked, Yamcha had disappeared from my scope of vision and reappeared in front of me with his fist coiled, prepared to rip a hole through my chest.

'Shit.'

Left with no other choice, I coated my body with as much Ki as I could, which wasn't even close to enough to remain unscathed. He was moving hundreds of times faster than he was before.

Forming my arms in an X-shape, I prepared for what was to come.

"*Booom!*"

"*Crack*"

With a single punch, he sent me flying, fracturing my forearms.

As my back was about to hit the walls of the arena, I sensed Yamcha's energy from behind me. Again, he had disappeared in the blink of an eye.

"*Booom!*"

His fist had hit the center of my spine, knocking the air out of my lungs while fracturing more bones.

I was sent forward so fast that I had managed to cover half of the distance of the arena.

At the halfway mark, I began to tumble, scraping my arms and face on the ground receiving the worst case of road burn known to man.

Face down on the ground, I struggled to lift my head up. Once I did, I saw Yamach from across the battlefield breathing heavily, as if he was about to fall over.

Powering up to Super Saiyan, Goku hurriedly rushed in front of Yamcha, blocking his path.

"Yamcha! Stop it! This is getting out of hand! You're gonna kill him!"

"Move it Goku, or you're next."

He mumbled while gritting his teeth.

"No! You're in the wrong! All Trunks stated was the truth, and here you are trying to kill him. He's not who you should be mad at! You should save all that anger for the guy who killed you, not the one who is our only chance at coming back to life!" Goku shouted.

"I said move it!"

Without warning, Yamcha struck Goku in the chest, sending him all the way to me like a game of catch, only, I wasn't in a position to catch, instead, in this game of Goku ball, Goku's crashed into me sending us back further.

"Yamcha!"

Krillin and Tein jump into action, struggling to hold down both of his arms while attempting to talk sense into him.

"Get out of my way, you two! Right now! I'm gonna kill that bastard!" He roared.

While they did that… I only looked on in anger.

'Alright… He wants to play the transformation game? We can play the Transformation game."

Warm energy began to flow through my body as my rage began to fuel me. I rapidly felt the strength that was temporarily lost begin to return to me.

Yellow and purple electricity started to pulsate off of my body while my muscles began to forcibly mend my bones back together like glue.

My fingers… My arms… My legs…My torso… My skull… All of it began to expand in size. Even my hair grew in length as purple and yellow locks had started to drape over my shoulders.

Pushing myself off the ground, I saw that the world had gotten smaller. I could feel so much power coursing through my veins that I felt as if just taking a single step would destroy the arena.

My perception of time became much slower, a sign that I succeeded in actualizing my primal form.

"*pop*"

In an instant, a familiar energy popped up below me.

"Trunks! What the fuck are you doing transforming! I told you not to! You can't control that form yet!" Exclaimed a tiny blue man in a panic.

Looking down at King Kai, I replied.

"I had to. He tried to kill me." I let out in a deep baritone voice that was still unrecognizable to me.

I then pointed to Yamcha in the distance.

"I can't leave you guys alone for one second! He multiplied his power by at least 50-fold! He's about to singe his soul permanently at this point!"

"Ugh." Fighting to get up, Goku finally spoke up.

"Haha… Well, you're almost right… But he actually went all the way to his max."

At Goku's voice, King Kai looked at the battered Saiyan.

"60!?? Why?! Why is he so mad?!"

Thoughtlessly, Goku glanced at me. Catching on to his body language, King Kai took a long and deep breath.

"You mentioned Bojack, didn't you…"

He said, pinching the bridge to his nose.

"..."

I nervously shifted my eyes away from him, accidentally telling on myself.

"Trunks... You know that Bojack is one of his only two emotional triggers, Right?"

"Well, now I do… But still, in my defense, he was a dick to me." I retorted.

Shaking his head, King Kai rolled his eyes.

"It's alright… As long as you didn't mention his ex, we should be able to calm him down before he kills himself."

"You mean Bulma, right? It's a little too late for that " Goku uttered, holding his still-aching body parts.

"..."

Even though I wasn't looking at him, I could feel King Kai's stare burning through my forehead.

"You fuckin rat," I mumbled.

"What did I do? I only told the Truth." Goku surprisingly snapped back.

"Trunks…I'm staying out of this. Knock him out before he dies. Then send him back to me so I can fix that Idiot's cracked soul."

"*pop*"

Without any further explanation, King Kai disappeared as quickly as he came.

Standing up, Goku pat my back a few times.

"You heard him, big guy. You can handle whatever you two have later."

"*sigh*"

With that, I launched myself forward like a nuclear warhead. It was payback time.

Seeing me coming, Krillin and Tein's eyes bulged out of their head's in shock. Yamcha, taking notice of what happened launches the two away, confidently and bravely reading himself.

The thing was, his confidence was false. I was in the same form I used to take down Hirudegarn, a monster beyond his comprehension. He was no Hirudegarn.

Coiling my leg while flying through the air, I launched a powerful kick at his shoulder.

Arrogantly underestimating me, Yamcha stood in place, taking a guarding stance. As my toe touched his shoulder, he realized that my new appearance wasn't for show. Unfortunately for him, he realized moments too late that my transformation was more than what met his eye.

"*BOOOOM*"

With a kick that only held about 65% of my power, Yamcha was sent rocketing toward the arena walls like a human pinball.

"*Boom*"

Then, he was bounced off another wall.

"*Boom*"

Then another.

"*Boom*"

Then another.

Finally losing momentum, he lay face down on the ground, unconscious while all of us surrounded him.

Out of my Primal form, I stood above his unconscious body.

"Uh… Sc-…. I mean, Trunks?" Krillin beckoned nervously. He wasn't the only one looking distraught. Pretty much everyone but Goku was curious as to what just happened.

"Yeah?"

"What was that form? Were you in Super Saiyan? It looked way different from anything I've ever seen before, but you did have some golden parts in your hair, so now I'm confused."

Looking around, it appeared as if he wasn't the only one curious, but Tien and Chiaotzu remained silent.

"Well… Kinda. It's the form I got after I made my wish to the Namekian Dragon."

"T-that was from the Dragon?" Tein stuttered.

"And I thought Yamcha and Goku were strong," Chiaotzu uttered.

"No kidding," Krillin mumbled.

"So are the Namekian that unrestricted? Last time I checked, the dragon balls couldn't grant that level of power." Tein pondered.

"Well, no. The Namekian Dragon Balls are still Dragon Balls. I didn't wish for power. I wished to have my potential unlocked."

"Well… that's bogus. I got my potential unlocked, and all I got was a slight power boost." Krillin chuckled self-deprecatingly.

"Anyway… I'm really sorry about Yamcha. I know it probably doesn't seem like it, but he's a good guy deep down. He's just been through hell and back. It made him a little…"

"Unhinged?" I uttered.

"Well, that's also a word to describe him… But I was gonna say harder." He said, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.

Noticing Goku wasn't talking much, I realized that he was distracted by my waving tale. He then looked at his back, then gained a slightly saddened expression.

"Goku? You alright?"

"Huh? Oh. Yeah. I just got distracted. But anyway, Yamcha's a good guy. We all pretty much grew up with him." He said all while his eyes drifted back to my tail.

'Oh boy… He misses the tail… I guess if I'm gonna stay in this timeline, I could find a way to get him one for his birthday or something… I mean, he did try to stand up for me a little while ago.' As my thought concluded, King Kai popped up next to us again, causing most of us to jump up at his arrival.

"*Pop*"

"Alright… Let's see what type of self-inflicted damage this jackass caused." He said, sounding rather exhausted with the situation.

Not acknowledging the rest of us, he approached Yamcha's body and placed his glowing hand over his chest.

After a few seconds, he had a grim expression on his face.

"*sigh*"

"What is it, King Kai? Will he be alright?" Goku asked with concern.

"Yeah… He'll be fine…eventually. It's just, it's gonna take him a real long time to get there though." He said, teleporting Yamcha's body away.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked.

"Well… He roughly only has a fraction of his soul remaining in his vessel."

"What!?" Exclaimed the group simultaneously.

"Can…can he be healed?" asked Krillin.

"Duh. Didn't you just hear me cueball? I said that it will just take some time. And by time, I mean 4 years, minimum."

"So… Does that mean that when Trunks wishes us back, Yamcha will have to stay here?" Tein asked with nervous trepidation.

"Pretty much, yeah. Or at least until he's fully healed."

"But-but Aren't you a god, King Kai? Can't you do something to bring him back quicker? Or, couldn't we use the Dragon Balls to fix him?" Goku stressed.

Shaking his head, King Kai replied.

"Unfortunately, no. This jackass almost deleted himself from existence when he overused my technique. If you wished him back with the Dragon Balls, all you'll get in turn is a lifeless husk. He wouldn't be Yamcha. He wouldn't be anyone, for that matter."

"..."

Everyone, including myself, remained silent at the bad news. It wasn't like I cared all that much for the guy, I just knew how much it sucked waking up to a world that had moved on while you remained stationary. I more or less felt pity.

"I have to painstakingly reconstruct his soul which is more difficult than actually creating one from scratch… It's gonna take a while, but like I said, to repair the damage that was done, all I need is time.

"Then… What do we do until then?" I asked.

"That's obvious… Don't you have a planet to save? You'll go back to your training. But this time, don't demoralize your fellow students by calling them weak, monkey boy. It's rude. Everyone has to start somewhere." He replied.

"Wait… You heard me? But then why did you act like you were surprised by what was happening up here?" I said, embarrassed at how cocky I probably sounded.

"Because It was funny watching you break character in that buff prime form of yours thinking you were about to get scolded or something." He smirked.

"...Dick."

"Your father." He replied.

"That's valid," I mumbled under my breath.

"Anyway…" He trailed off, glancing at Goku and me.

"Hmm." Noticing something was off, King Kai placed his hands on My and Goku's chests, healing our injuries almost instantly.

"There. You two should be good now."

"Wow, King Kai. Thanks!" Goku said, feeling vigor flowing throughout his body.

"Thanks," I commented.

"You're welcome. Now I'm gonna go watch my soaps. There better not be any more incidents like what just happened."

"There won't."

"Good." He smiled.

"*pop*"

"..."

With his disappearance, we were all left to look at each other in awkward silence.

"Well… I guess we should get started then." Tein stated.

"I guess so," I replied.

With that, all of them started attacking without hesitation.

[ 1 month later ]

I sat crossed-legged a few feet across from King Kai while the others trained in the battle arena above. Over the past months, he had watched us battle on the regular until he deemed that I was able to focus my mind on multiple things at once which was the purpose of said segment of training. Yesterday was my final day of sparring.

Throughout the time that had passed, Yamcha still hadn't woken up… And I still kinda disliked him. But his saving grace was that everyone else did. They made it seem as if his emotional breakdown was a one-time thing. But still, if we were gonna have any form of a relationship when he woke up, he and I were due a long talk.

For now, I was focused

"Now… Trunks, now that you understand how to rid yourself of emotions while in a hostile situation and now know how to effectively multitask, now, it's time to learn how to silence your intrusive thoughts."

"Intrusive thoughts, Huh? What do you mean about that?"

"Well, intrusive thoughts are a huge concern when learning the Kai-Kai. As I informed you earlier, the teleportation ability allows one to appear anywhere in the universe with a single thought. The troublesome part of ability arrives when a person can't control their thoughts. For instance, if I taught you the technique right now, what do you think would happen if a stray thought in your head wondered what it was like to live in the sun?"

At his words, I widened my eyes in surprise at the implications of his statements.

"I'd teleport inside of a sun, I'm guessing."

"Bingo." He nodded.

At his confirmation, a chill was sent down my spine… But then, another thought occurred to me. What if I accidentally teleported right in front of Broly because I was thinking about the ways that I could further utilize my transformation?

I mean, it wasn't like we weren't similar. He and I both had a roided-up form and got extremely powerful the longer we were in combat… Or from what I could tell, anyway from personal experience.

There was still a lot that I knew, but there was just too much in the world that I had yet to understand. If I ran into a godlike entity like him before I was ready, then there was a chance that my journey would end before it began.

And so, that made me ponder even more on powerful beings… What if I teleported to Beerus by accident because I thought about the Battle of Gods movie?

What if, when I did, he decided to erase me from existence because I woke him up from a nap?

Luckily for me, he was most likely sleeping right now… But what if I ran into an angel, like Whis? He certainly had capabilities incomprehensible to the me of right now.

I didn't have a single belief in my mind that made me think that I could take on Beerus or Whis. I would have just been another brain-dead function MC if I thought that way. I would have ended up just as battered, beaten, and dead as Slug if I had that mentality.

Suddenly, teleporting anywhere in the universe at the speed of thought sounded like an awful ability to have.

'Wait… I don't think I ever actually killed him. What the hell happened to Slug?'

It was like he had just… Vanished. No one, not even King Kai had mentioned him after I woke up. Did someone seal him or something?

Realizing that I hadn't been talking for a while, King Kai stared blankly at me like a teacher who caught their student talking in class.

"My bad… I spaced out for a second."

"Which is exactly why those intrusive thoughts are so dangerous."

"Right…how will we get rid of em? That sounds a lot easier said than done."

"It is hard… But there's a few ways to get rid of em. But the easiest and most risky is by flooding your mind with so much noise that you learn to innately focus on the present moment."

"That….Sounds a lot easier said than done. How do we even start on that?" I asked, slightly excited.

"Well, first." Getting up, King Kai approached until he was arm's distance away.

"I have to place an internal sound amplification spell on you. And a consciousness duplication spell on you. A little warning beforehand…you may go insane, so I'll throw these on you as well." Then, King Kai pulled strange black shackles from behind his back and snapped them around my arms.

Once they touched my skin, I felt as if my Ki had become sealed, making me feel so weak that I was barely able to lift my arms.

"These feel weird… Hey, what did you mean by " I might go insane?" I asked, nervous, feeling completely drained of energy.

"You'll find out soon enough." He replied, shrugging his shoulders.

He then reached out his hand and placed his glowing index finger on my head.

Once he made contact with my skin, I felt a slight electrical sensation in my head.

'That feels weird.'

'It's echoing!'

'It's getting louder!"

My internal dialogue… It had turned against me. With every thought that I had, it was redirected at me an infinite number of times, doubling in decibels, then vanishing, getting replaced by a new thought.

King Kai then tilted his head and clicked his tongue.

"You probably can't hear me right now, but this is the worst part. Once you learn how to clear your mind, I promise you that'll pay off… If you can keep your sanity, that is. But hey, if you end up going crazy, I have a spell for that too. Might erase a couple of years of your memories, so I'll only use it as a last result."

Although he was moving his lips, I couldn't hear a word of it. I was too busy flinching at the voices in my head.

'IT'S TOO LOUD!'

'I CAN'T STOP THINKING!'

'RELAX TRUNK! YOU'RE ALREADY LOSING IT!'

'STAY STRONG AND BREATHE!'

'SHHHHHHHH! QUIET!'

'JUST HOLD ON!'

A few days had passed. I wasn't able to sleep. The voices… They were just too loud. They were horrifying. There hadn't been many times in my life where I was genuinely terrified, but this was one of them.

I wanted to get up and run away, but with the shackles around my wrist, even King Kai was enough to physically overpower me. To escape the torture, I even attempted to transform, but failed multiple times.

2 weeks had gone by… And I felt like I was truly slipping away with every internal repetition. I began screaming randomly throughout the days, occasionally waking everyone up in the middle of the night. But finally getting tired of my screaming, King Kai started putting me under sleep spells. Oce everyone had gotten fed up with my screaming throughout the day, Kai's hand was forced into placing a mute spell on me.

4 weeks after the training had started, King Kai had to force feed me food. In an attempt to help me maintain my senses, Occasionally, the Z-Fighters would check up on me, affirming to me that I was in a safe place surrounded by friends… but even then, I felt like I was only falling deeper into the insanity pit.

After 2 months, the voices… they were less prevalent, to the point that I was able to externalize verbally rather I was hungry or thirsty to King Kai and the others who often monitored me.

In my third month, the voices were finally gone. My mind was empty. I had to do everything on instinct alone. If I was reckless for even a second, another thought would worm its way into my head. If I wanted to walk… I walked. If I wanted to eat, I ate. If I wanted to sleep, I slept.

It was funny. I was in a situation in which I couldn't use the most fundamental human mechanic…critical thinking. My mind was effectively a thought prison. Through my training, I learned to evade this prison and felt more in control over my being than I ever did before. Today, I wanted to tell King Kai about my progression. If I was lucky, I'd actually be learning KaiKai today and get the shackles removed.

"*Knock-Knock*"

After waiting a few seconds, no one came. Then, I heard a loud yell coming from inside.

"Bubbles! Get the door!"

King Kai shouted.

"*creak*"

Opening the door, the monkey looked up at me with an angered expression, then slammed the door in my face.

"*Boom*"

"Bubbles! Let him in or no more internet for a month!"

I heard the monkey taking a deep sigh from the other side of the door. Slowly, the door opened once more revealing the pouting Bubbles.

Raising my cuffed hand to wave, Bubbles only replied with an eye roll and walked away on all fours to his bedroom.

Walking into the house making sure to shut the door behind me, I made my way to the room where I sensed King Kai and Yamcha's energy.

"*creak*"

When I walked in, I saw King Kai performing healing magic on the man.

Taking a break, King Kai turned around and looked at me, squinting his eyes as if checking for something.

"Ha… Is it really you in there? Or do I have to beat you up again for trying to kill me?"

To his question, I nodded my head, although I didn't recall trying to kill him… But then again, my head was in a different space not too long ago.

He then manifested a huge hammer in his hands and got up from his chair in an imposing manner.

"Yes to the beating, or yes to you being coherent?"

At his words, I frowned.

"I'm back to normal, you oversized blueberry."

I spat.

"Hmm… I don't know. I don't think the real Trunks would be so rude to his master like that." He said suspiciously, smacking the hammer on his hands a few times, but then smiled.

"I'm just messing with ya."

Ge then pointed at me, releasing me from my Ki bindings.

"Thanks."

I said, massaging my wrist.

"I also went ahead and dispelled the other spell too. Go ahead and give it a go."

Nodding, I did as he asked.

'Testing, testing.'

No longer was there an echo. I was now officially back to normal.

"Everything alright in there?" He asked, gesturing to his own head.

"Yeah. There's only one voice now."

"Good." King Kai nodded.

"I gotta say… I honestly didn't expect you to finish up so quickly… It kinda pisses me off." He mumbled.

"What do you mean? Isn't it a good thing that everything managed to work out?"

"For you, yeah… But now, there isn't much for you to do here. I was just starting to like you. It's gonna feel a little weird when you leave."

"Don't worry about that. I'll come back and visit." I smiled.

Nodding his head, King Kai continued.

"Good… I'll be outside in a minute. I gotta finish up with the rest of his reconstruction for the day. Shouldn't take longer than 30, max. Krillin just came down. Talk it up with him till I'm ready to hand down the KaiKai."

"Alright…"

With that, I headed back outside.

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