Chapter 14 - Mercenary Tao

Korin finally peeled the relentless Goku off his back. He shook his body a few times to get rid of all the spots where Goku smoothed all of his frizzly hair.

"You little rascal! Doing that to me, Korin, what do you take me for?"

Korin then read Goku's heart once more and notice that Goku already knew that he was the esteemed Korin despite being a cat.

"I got to hand it to you little one, you already knew I was Korin. How can that be?"

Realizing who he was talking too, Goku raised his mental guard as best as he can. He was on edge because the being in front of him might be able to discern his true nature.

When Korin peered into his heart, all he could see is his thoughts and nature. Everything that was related to Goku's previous life and the future was covered by a green haze.

'Interesting, I will talk to Kami about this situation.'

"I came here for the Sacred Water that supposedly increases my strength." Goku slightly bowed to Korin showing some respect to the person who literally grows life or death on trees.

"I see, you are seeking greater strength for future opponents that might threaten the lively hood of your friends."

Although he saw this coming, he could not help but feel as if he is naked in front of this cat. The personal mind is the only safe space that should be available to an individual. It being invaded, although at a surface level, feels extremely uncomfortable and makes one shrink in fear.

"Don't worry, I do not abuse my power or look at more personal things. They are of no use to me. The water is right there. Take it and drink it."

Not worrying about Korin anymore, his eyes darted toward the exquisite jar on top of the fountain. Climbing up, he was able to reach the jar before the scripted attack occurred.

Korin was studying Goku's face as he was already in an aggressive stance.

"You don't seem too surprised."

"If it was that easy, everyone would be able to become strong."

Sometimes, a half-truth is the best answer and it did indeed fool Korin.

Staring at each other like a Mexican standoff, they both sprinted at the same time to the water.

Korin was able to launch a preemptive strike through his staff making Goku retreat with a flip. Just as Korin was going to acquire the water, Goku ran up behind him and launched a strike. Korin was barely able to dodge while making the jar sway intensely. Not giving him any time to re-stabilize himself, Goku continued to chase him making him more and more unbalanced as time went.

When Korin first clashed with Goku, he was able to sense that Goku had an unnatural decrease in speed. With further bouts, he was finally able to notice that he was wearing weighted clothing.

Even though he didn't know how much weight he was carrying, just any decent weight makes him even more of a monster.

'Who is this kid?!"

As Korin was thinking this, Goku was really feeling the weight now more than ever. He knows that he would have been able to catch Korin already if he just took off his clothes but that wouldn't be challenging would it?

There are two ways to beat a mind-reading cat. The first is to punch and kick without thinking so that he wouldn't be able to see through the next move. The second is to go so fast that even if he knows the next move, he won't be able to stop it. Goku was trying to achieve both requirements. The first was extremely, hard because, in a fighting environment, action and reaction play an important role in what you do.

Slowly but surely, the incredible pursuit was able to bring the sacred water to the edge of the staff.

To ensure that he achieves one of his objectives today, he purposely scratched himself on the fountain. Korin just thought that he just made a mistake during his chase as he was putting his entire focus on shaking the ravaging monkey of his tail.

After one full hour of Korin being stressed beyond belief, Goku launched a kick to the base of the staff making the jar pop out of the staff. Goku and Korin did a leap to with their arms outstretched like it was a baby falling.

Korin thought he was being sneaky and maneuvered his tail to wrap around Goku's torso. Goku however countered with his tail and wrapped it around Korin's tail. He then used all his strength that he was been cultivating with his tail and threw Korin into the fountain.

Korin was barely recovering from his daze when he saw that Goku had the jar raised in his hand like it was a holy relic. He stood up to congratulate the monster that has been spawned on Earth.

"Good work, you can drink it now."

Goku took off the lid and started chugging the water down. He closed his eyes and bared through the metallic taste.

"That water tasted horrible!"

"Of course, the supreme water really was just tap water from the beginning, the adventure up here and me dodging you were the real test."

"Yeah, but could you have like gotten filtered water? Smart water at least? I tried so hard for this awful tasting water."

"You little brat who do you think I am? Kami? Just be grateful that I went down to the mortals and grabbed water for you to drink!"

Goku walked up to the angry Korin and poked his cheek.

"Someones a grumpy kitty."

Korin could not take it anymore and screech. He proceeded to scratch the hell out of Goku's 'innocent' face.

---

"Anyways, that was a great workout. You can stay here for the night. Have this Senzu bean, it will be able to fill you up for 10 days."

Korin threw the poor scratched filled Goku a single green bean. Looking at it up close, Goku really could not tell the difference between this mystical all-powerful bean and a normal one. Popping it in his mouth, Goku felt like something was expanding inside of him filling his stomach and energy incredibly quickly.

Touching his face and the place that he scratched himself, he felt that wounds close up as like nothing had happened.

"Wow, you didn't tell me these Senzu beans were able to heal me up!"

"What do you mean heal you up?"

Korin was looking away when Goku ate the bean, so when he turned back, he was surprised, to say the least, that all of his hard work venting his frustration was gone.

"W-What! I've had these for millennia and didn't know that they had this effect!"

"The more you know! These are incredibly valuable then!"

"Y-Yeah. You should go and sleep."

As they both got ready for bed, Korin could not help but feel some regret.

'I should not have thrown away all those beans years ago. Oh well, it's not like anyone I know will be in so many life-threatening situations that would warrant that many beans. I will just save them from now on.'

With that thought trying to remove his guilt, Korin dozes off having a nightmare of a giant Senzu bean eating him.

---

Waking up early in the morning, Goku immediately said goodbye to Korin to head down to the base before Tao showed up.

"How are you going to go down?"

Looking back at the expressionless cat, he then did a backward trust fall to the ground.

"..."

"Well, I won't miss him."

Goku felt the wind on his face as he dived headfirst towards the ground enjoying the pressure.

Before he hit the ground and splat like a mosquito, he called for Kintoun to save his life.

Kintoun matched his pace and slammed into him to catch him. Goku felt like he sunk into a fluffy marshmallow negating any pain.

Goku came in at the perfect time because one could see a pillar flying in from a distance with a human on top.

The pillar almost landed on Bora and Upa before Goku pushed them out of the way.

"You've saved me once again. Thank you, Goku."

Bora had to thank Goku once more before addressing the strange man's locomotion.

"Who are you? You nearly killed us with your uh... pillar."

"I am Tao Pai Pai, the greatness assassin in the world! I am contracted by the Red Ribbon Army to take the Dragon Balls that are in your possession!"

"Preposterous! Goku was right! You will never leave us alone as long as we have the Dragon Balls. I have to take him on Goku, it is my duty to protect the sacred land of Korin!"

"No, you don't Bora. Nothing is worth more than your life, not even your pride! You couldn't defeat the last person so what makes you think you can beat him?"

"Guk!"

Goku had no choice but to be harsh and stern in this regard. Otherwise, he will insist and rush to his death to no avail. Bora's pride took a direct hit because he knew that everything Goku was saying was correct.

"If you don't back down now, I will force you to."

Seeing that Goku was serious, Bora couldn't even be mad as he knew Goku was doing it for his own good. Finally complying, Bora took Upa and backed down to watch the fight from afar.

"Hmph, sending a kid to fight me? This is a stain on my reputation! I will finish you off in one second with my tounge to redeem this humiliation."

Tao launched toward Goku to kill him with his tounge like it was his fetish or something.

Disgusted, Goku used his right hand to slap him away. A little dazed and full of confusion form the young man's strength, Tao still had his tounge sticking out. Goku jumped up and hammered both of his hands straight down on Tao making him cleanly slice his tounge out.

Copious amounts of blood spurted out from Tao's tounge as he crawled into a fetal position while holding his mouth. Everyone around had the shivers in their spines at what kind of pain Tao was feeling at the moment.

"G-Goku, I think that was a little too harsh! He basically ate his own tounge..."

Upa was looking at Goku with a hint of disgust.

"T-Think about it, he boasted about killing me with his tongue. That tongue probably saw more of peoples' brains than anything else. In a way, it avenged all those who have been tongued by him."

"I-I see." Upa really started to question his morals as Bora just facepalmed at the whole situation.

Seeing that Tao started to shed tears from the pain, Goku decided to put him out of his misery with a Kamehameha.

Seeing the Kamehameha coming, he half-heartedly put up a defense against it. Originally, he thought that Goku was weaker than him and only hit him because he underestimated him. He was too busy grieving his own tongue because he wouldn't be able to boast to people about killing others with his tongue anymore.

Only when he felt the heat of the Kamehameha up close did he realize his mistake. However, it was already too late as the Kamehameha disintegrated Tao before he could do anything. Before he died, however, his entire life flashed before his eyes. All the people he had killed with his tongue and the enjoyment he had from it.

"UGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Well... that was an experience..."