After flying for a while, Piccolo spotted Aeris leaning against a tree trunk. He could tell she had been waiting for him.
No, not could tell.
She was definitely waiting for him.
"You came."
"You knew I would?" Piccolo asked, looking at her.
Aeris nodded. "Yeah. I could feel the anxiety in you. Especially after the fight. It got a lot stronger."
After hearing that, Piccolo fell silent for a moment.
Was I really that obvious?
"Alright, come with me. Think of it as a reward for showing me something interesting during the fight."
With that, Aeris turned and walked deeper into the forest.
Piccolo followed without hesitation. He didn't even ask where she was taking him. At this point, he figured following her was the right move.
Honestly, he was still grateful to Goku.
If he hadn't gotten curious back then, he never would've met Aeris.
After walking for a while, Piccolo saw a massive spaceship.
That thing was definitely not made on Earth.
If he had to compare it, Earth's technology was like a toddler who had just learned how to walk, while this ship was a full-grown adult already sprinting ahead.
Still, Piccolo didn't ask any questions.
These were Aeris's secrets.
Digging into someone else's business was a bad habit in general.
Digging into the secrets of someone overwhelmingly stronger than you was just asking to die.
Aeris led him to a strange tank.
"What is this?"
"A cultivation pod," she said. "You're going to spend some time in there. Absorb what's inside. Your body feels incomplete to me, like one whole person was forcibly split into two. Your genes are defective."
Piccolo's eyes widened.
"What does that mean?"
"It means exactly what I said. The liquid inside came from something a Namekian left behind. Once you absorb it, it should make up for part of what you're missing."
Before Piccolo could react, Aeris casually tossed him into the pod and activated the machine.
Just like that, he was inside.
Then he watched as Aeris started the device, and a bunch of tubes immediately latched onto different parts of his body.
Aeris stood there watching as the tubes connected to him. Green and purple fluids slowly began flowing through them, gradually entering Piccolo's body.
"I'm really curious what you'll become once part of those defects are filled in…"
She sounded genuinely interested.
Then she turned around and started her own training.
Aeris set the gravity chamber to its maximum.
Five thousand times gravity.
The moment it activated, she dropped flat to the floor.
Still, unlike the first time she had trained under extreme gravity, she wasn't completely unable to move. This time, she could at least force herself up little by little.
"Huff… huff… still a bit too much, huh? But… I can endure it…"
And just like that, several days passed.
When Piccolo finished absorbing everything, the cultivation pod opened and he stepped out.
"I feel… way better than before…"
Then he remembered what Aeris had said.
This had only made up for part of what he was missing.
If all of it were restored, then wouldn't he…
His thoughts stopped there.
Because he suddenly realized Aeris wasn't around.
Piccolo looked around the ship, then started walking in one direction.
That direction happened to be exactly where Aeris was.
But when he reached the gravity chamber door, he saw her through the window inside.
He was just about to open the door and go in when Aeris stopped him.
If Piccolo entered right now, he'd probably be reduced to a puddle of meat.
The gravity in there was something she had only managed to withstand after ten years of grinding, adapting, and forcing herself through it.
With Piccolo's current body, which couldn't even handle five times gravity properly, he had no business going in there.
A while later, Aeris finally came out.
"The only reason I didn't let you in was because I was saving your life. If you'd gone in just now, there wouldn't have been enough left of you to scrape off the floor."
Piccolo still looked confused, so she gave him the explanation with some resignation.
Aeris walked past him, grabbed a towel, and started wiping off her sweat.
"Well? How do you feel?"
Piccolo answered honestly.
"I feel more than twice as strong as before."
"Good. If you want to keep training, go back there and continue. There's nothing here that suits you."
Aeris spoke while toweling herself off, then picked up a cup filled with some blue liquid and drank it.
"What about you?" Piccolo asked.
"I'll head over in a couple more days."
That was basically the end of the conversation.
Piccolo said his goodbyes and flew back to the training grounds.
A few days later…
Aeris returned and immediately saw a house with black smoke rising from it.
She stopped.
Then looked at the two idiots in front of her.
"Would one of you like to explain what happened?"
Goku scratched his head awkwardly.
"Well… when Piccolo and I were sparring, one of our attacks kinda… accidentally… hit over here…"
"So that's why it looks like this now."
Aeris stared at him.
Then smiled.
A very dangerous smile.
"Oh, you're good. Real good. I leave for a few days and you two start tearing the place apart, huh? Wonderful. Just wonderful."
She pulled out a new set of training outfits and threw them at them.
"Today, you're wearing these and frog-jumping up and down the mountain. And you do not stop without my permission."
Piccolo guiltily turned his face away.
This was too embarrassing.
Who could've guessed that the mighty Demon King Piccolo would one day get lectured because of this idiot?
Still, he didn't argue. He picked up the training outfit.
The moment it landed in his hand, though, he noticed something.
It wasn't the same as the previous one.
This one felt lighter, about the same weight as his usual training clothes.
But once he put it on, the difference became obvious.
It still restricted his power, but at the same time his body suddenly felt as weak as an ordinary human's. Weak. Heavy. Sluggish.
Hell, this wasn't a training outfit.
This was a debuff in clothing form.
Goku felt it too.
The two of them immediately turned to Aeris, waiting for an explanation.
"It works exactly how you think it does," she said. "I found this material in the universe. It came from a strange race that used it for prison uniforms. The material seals power and weakens the nerves all over the body. I thought it was interesting, so I turned it into training gear."
She gave them a brief explanation, then noticed the weird look both of them were giving her.
"What are you staring at? Go train already."
Goku, of course, wasn't done.
"Did you ever wear this kind of training outfit?"
Aeris answered, surprisingly patient.
"I wore it for a while in the past. Later I found out that once someone's power reaches a certain level, this material stops being effective. Why are you asking?"
But looking at Goku's expression, it was clear he planned to keep digging until he reached the center of the earth.
That annoyed Aeris enough that she pulled out a whip and started chasing both of them with it.
Right now, the training suits had sealed away all their methods, so all they could do was run while yelping as she whipped them.
Time flew.
And in the blink of an eye, two years had passed…
"AAAAAHHH! Aeris, I was wrong! Stop chasing me! Ahhh—Piccolo, say something! Piccolo!"
Piccolo: "…"
Piccolo declined the call and blocked the user.
He was getting chased and whipped too.
And it was all because Goku had eaten Aeris's vanilla pudding and dragged him into the disaster.
A true victim.
"PICCOLO! SON GOKU! DON'T YOU RUN FROM ME! IF I DON'T BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF YOU TWO TODAY, I'LL TAKE YOUR LAST NAME!"
"AAAAAHHH! I'm sorry, Aeris!"
Goku looked at Aeris—who now seemed less like a person and more like a demon that had crawled out of hell—and ran even faster in terror.
Piccolo saw Goku pulling ahead, cursed under his breath, and sped up too, overtaking him once again.
There was a saying for moments like this.
As long as I run faster than you, I'm safe.
Then he heard Goku getting whipped behind him and screaming bloody murder, and cold sweat immediately ran down his back.
Why didn't they just fly away, you ask?
Don't be stupid.
The restrictions from those cursed outfits were no joke. There was a reason that material had been used for prison uniforms in the first place.
It really did seal away all of their power.
The only reason they could run this fast now was because over the last two years, Goku had pissed Aeris off so often that both of them had basically trained for this exact situation.
And why did Goku keep pissing Aeris off?
Because the idiot was greedy when it came to food.
That was it.
That was the whole damn reason.
Piccolo was so pissed he could explode.
...
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