Chapter 8: A Real Piece of Work
Goku and Piccolo struggled to lift their heads, staring at Aeris outside while she sat there eating popcorn. She even had the nerve to hum to herself between bites, deliberately teasing them while they suffered.
"My, you two look pathetic, Mr. Goku, Mr. Piccolo. Oh, right… there's only one dinner portion tonight. Whatever shall we do? Looks like one of you will be going hungry."
Watching the two of them strain just to look up at her gave Aeris an absurd amount of satisfaction.
So naturally, she kept piling it on.
"Oh, and I've been thinking… from now on, I'll only prepare one portion for every meal. After all, only the winner deserves to eat. Which means every single meal, only one of you gets food. So… do your best, alright?"
The blank look on their faces made her start laughing. It was just too entertaining. Still, if they wasted too much time talking, neither of them would end up eating, so Aeris decided to show a tiny bit of mercy and lower the difficulty.
"Well… since this is your first day experiencing this place, I'll generously make it easier. First one to touch that machine in front of you wins."
After saying that, she went right back to eating popcorn and watching them crawl forward inch by miserable inch. She even cheered them on while watching, and when she got tired of that, she pulled out a drink from who-knew-where and started chugging it right in front of them.
Piccolo gritted his teeth. This damn woman…
Goku also saw everything Aeris was doing and strongly disapproved, but he didn't say anything. Talking right now took too much effort, and more importantly, Piccolo was already half a body ahead of him.
After what felt like forever of slow, humiliating crawling, Piccolo reached the finish first. Then he turned and shot Goku a smug, provocative look.
Goku let out a tired breath. "Ah… I actually lost…"
The moment a winner was decided, Aeris shut off the gravity device and let them come out.
"Oh dear… my apologies, Mr. Goku. Looks like you'll be going hungry tonight. And just so you know, you can't get out of here without my permission, so your little dream of sneaking out to find food is dead too."
Aeris knew exactly what Goku had been thinking, so she cut off his escape route immediately. If they were allowed to come and go freely, this whole thing would be way less fun.
Some people might wonder why Aeris's personality seemed to change so much. The answer was simple. This was her real personality. Everything before had just been an act, nothing more.
And honestly, compared to the brutal nature Saiyans were known for, this was already pretty mild.
"So then, congratulations to Mr. Piccolo for winning today's prize. Please enjoy the fruits of your victory."
As she spoke, Aeris picked up a food container from a nearby shelf and handed it to Piccolo.
"Don't be fooled by how little it looks. That's enough food to get you through the next round of training. Alright then, that's all for now. I should go prepare food for the next few days. And don't think about sneaking out. The moment you put those clothes on, they became impossible to remove."
With that, Aeris left.
Piccolo looked at the food, then at Goku. For some reason, he smirked and said, "If you beg me, then maybe I'll…"
Before he could even finish, Goku shamelessly crawled over at top speed.
"Piccolo, give me some. Next time I'll share mine too, I promise. Come on, please…"
Piccolo actually choked on that level of shamelessness. Goku like this was just… way too embarrassing to look at.
Still, Piccolo didn't say anything. For one thing, they were going to be training together for a long time. And more importantly, after coming out of that chamber, he realized something. Just half a day in there had been equal to half a month of his usual training. If he stayed with someone like Aeris for a while longer… maybe he really could become much stronger.
With that in mind, Piccolo split the food in half and gave one portion to Goku. No matter how he looked at it, he was only here training because of that idiot in the first place.
But then…
The moment Piccolo saw Goku start eating without the slightest bit of restraint, he panicked.
"You idiot! Don't grab that, that one's mine!"
Outside, Aeris watched the way they interacted and left in a very satisfied mood.
After they finished eating, the two of them started looking around at the things inside. A lot of the equipment was completely unfamiliar to them. Some of it they couldn't even lift, and some required both of them working together just to move.
That was when they also realized that the food container from earlier had been surprisingly heavy.
At first, they thought it only felt heavy because they were exhausted, but even after resting and trying again, it still felt like it weighed at least a hundred pounds. Still, neither of them thought too much about it. After all, didn't they regularly wear gear that weighed more than two hundred pounds anyway?
The next time they saw Aeris was the following day. Today, unlike yesterday, she was dressed in a black training outfit. Her tail was no longer decorated or hidden like before. Instead, it was openly wrapped around her waist.
Bulma had been shocked the first time she saw Aeris had a tail. Granted, Bulma had seen it before, but back then Aeris hadn't wanted unnecessary trouble. At the time, she didn't even know whether Earth had enemies of the Saiyans lurking around.
But now Aeris couldn't be bothered to keep pretending. It was too much of a hassle.
"Alright, handsome boys, today we're doing something different."
"Different?" both of them asked.
"You see that mountain over there? Today, your goal is to carry me to the top. Simple, right?" Aeris said with a bright smile.
Piccolo immediately felt that something was off. The simpler a task sounded, the more suspicious it usually was. And judging by the way this woman was dressed today, she definitely didn't look like she was planning to sit back and enjoy herself.
Aeris sat down in a sedan chair, and the meaning was obvious. They were going to carry her.
"Your food for today is waiting at the top."
Piccolo's face practically said, I knew it. And when he saw the chair sink slightly the moment Aeris sat down, his bad feeling only got worse. Just how heavy was she?
Goku, on the other hand, confidently declared that he could carry Aeris up by himself.
Unfortunately, after straining with everything he had, he only managed to move the chair a single meter.
Piccolo was stunned. No matter how heavy she was, there was no way Goku should have stalled out after just one meter.
Unless…
Aeris glanced at Piccolo.
"Yes, exactly what you're thinking. Right now, aside from your raw physical strength, none of your other abilities work. See this iron ring on my tail? It weighs two tons."
"I did the math. Based on the gravity yesterday, this is about the maximum weight you should still barely be able to move while remaining physically active."
Both Piccolo and Goku were shocked. Even without their powers being sealed, lifting two tons would still be extremely difficult for them. And yet Aeris was casually wearing that much weight on her tail like it was no heavier than a leaf.
"What's wrong, Mr. Goku? Mr. Piccolo? Is this already too much?" Aeris looked at the two of them with a playful, mocking smile. "Or are you two… already too weak to keep going?"
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