Ch. 157: Hercule and Videl Satan
"Watch this! I've finally figured it out! GRRREAT SATAN WAVE!" Why I was awake and in my front yard at 6 o'clock in the morning watching Mr. Satan show me his new energy wave, I couldn't figure out, but I knew one thing about this situation for sure.
"Pffft." Mr. Satan was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a prodigy when it came to the art of ki manipulation. I could practically hear the fart noise as his energy wave fizzled out before it even made it two feet. It was a sad display, especially since I'd woken up so early to watch it.
I honestly found it strange, and a bit impressive, how terribly garbage he was at it. I understood that humans weren't anywhere near as naturally strong as Namekians and Saiyans, but even by those terms, Mr. Satan was terribly bad at using his ki.
From what I knew, Krillin had a natural talent that was around one-in-ten million. Tien and Pigero were roughly one in a million talents, while Yamcha and Yajirobe were one in five hundred thousand or so, so even Yajirobe's natural skills couldn't be compared to Mr. Satan's, who, like Chiaotzu, had a different scale of talent for certain types of energy control.
But while Chiaotzu had a one in five million talent for energy manipulation, and a one in one hundred thousand talent for the physical arts, Mr. Satan's talent was geared towards the physical. He could fly... so-so, mainly over short distances, but that was after seven months of hardcore training. He literally had less talent than the average person on the street when it came to ki manipulation, but his talent with physical-based martial arts were around one in five hundred thousand or so. Right now, if he were to fight Yajirobe, who'd barely touched his sword since the whole Vegeta fight, it was entirely possible that the lazy former Z-fighter would lose. Maybe... It was sad.
And I wasn't the only person who thought so. "Daad, that's kinda pathetic."
"Du-oh!" Videl's words hit Mr. Satan like a stray bullet right through the chest, and he couldn't help but make a comical expression as he jumped back and froze in shock. But Videl wasn't done yet.
"Energy waves aren't that hard, dad. It's just this, watch." Raising her hand, Videl positioned herself in front of a tree before gathering energy between her palms "Masenko Haa!" Her energy wave blasted right through the trunk of the tree before leaving a black mark on the bark of the one behind it.
"You taught her the Masenko?" I couldn't help but ask my brother beside me. He shrugged noncommittedly in response, causing me to smirk at him. I'd been rather worried about Gohan and Videl's relationship being so much different than it was in the canon, with her father being the weakest active Legacy out there, but as it turned out, the two had begun to spend quite a bit of time together lately, with Gohan and I being the only two active legacies around the same age as her, and me being so busy.
I think a big part of why she was so close to the (currently) one year younger than her Gohan was also because of her insane talent when compared to the other Legacy trainees. If I had to peg it, she was just as naturally talented as Pigero and Tien, while the other trainees were only slightly above average at best. Despite being only eight years old, Videl was already likely on par with Yamcha in terms of pure skill and power, so she'd been exempted from a lot of the energy control classes that the others trainees were in, but she wasn't a full, normal Legacy like her dad because he didn't want her to be promoted just yet. As a result, she was spending as much time learning from the Captains and Pseudo Captains as she possibly could. Apparently, that meant spending time learning the Masenko from Gohan.
"See, dad? It's not hard, you just kinda gather the energy like that, then let it loose. Ha, see?" To prove her point, Videl loosed a smaller energy beam from her palm, as casually as breathing. I couldn't help but bite back a laugh as I watched Mr. Satan stand there with an open mouth, trying desperately not to cry.
"Aww, Videl, you're so strong..." Hercule couldn't bring himself to say anything more, the tears barely stopped. Unlike the Videl from canon, this Videl had been around Legacy more than long enough to realize that, although her dad had managed to win the World Martial Arts tournament, he was far from the strongest person on the planet. In fact, he was a weakling, as far as Legacy goes. She knew that she was stronger than him, and that her strength was clearly getting to him right now, but she didn't really know how to address that fact without making him cry. It was a sticky situation for the two of us.
One that Gohan didn't seem to notice at all. "Mr. Satan, you're really strong, but I don't think energy waves are your thing... You're an incredible front man, though... Legacy honestly couldn't survive without-" Gohan tried to make Mr. Satan feel better, but...
"You stay out of this! And stay away from my daughter, too!" Hercule snapped at Gohan. I'd half expected that, but to Gohan, Mr. Satan's rage at him seemed to be a shot completely out of left field. I just giggled as I watched Videl's face get redder than a tomato as she processed what her dad had just said. Then, I stopped her just before she started to pound her father with her fists in embarrassment, scared that she'd literally pound him into the ground with her superior strength.
"I'll only allow my little girl to date boys that I approve of! And definitely not this soon, you're waay too-"
"DAAD!" Hercule Satan... RIP. I couldn't save him in time.