c1: Condensed Destruction
737 A.D.
Planet Vegeta
Lu Fan gazed up at the blood-red sky of Planet Vegeta, eyes fixed and thoughts distant, the crimson hue reflecting the brutal nature of the Saiyan homeworld.
"Hey, what are you staring at like that, Lu Fan?"
A youthful voice called out behind him brash and sharp like a budding warrior's.
"That's you, Vegeta," Lu Fan responded flatly, not bothering to turn. He had sensed the approach long before the words were spoken.
The child behind him was none other than Prince Vegeta, the son of King Vegeta, heir to the Saiyan throne, and one of the most iconic characters in the Dragon Ball universe. At this time, he was around 5 years old, just like Lu Fan.
Lu Fan was not originally of this world. A die-hard Dragon Ball fan from Earth, he had inexplicably found himself reincarnated as a Saiyan, dropped into this brutal universe where entire planets could be obliterated with a flick of the hand a world where Frieza's shadow loomed large, and survival was reserved for the powerful.
He was born into the lower ranks of Saiyan society, but his potential had startled everyone. By the time he was 4 years old, just one year ago, his combat power had already reached 10,000—a staggering figure considering that most adult Saiyan warriors barely surpassed 4,000, and even elite warriors rarely exceeded 8,000 at that age.
His rapid rise caused unease among the Saiyan elite. Even King Vegeta, who had a combat power of around 10,000 himself, grew cautious. But Prince Vegeta prodigy that he was—soon matched Lu Fan's pace, closing the gap with ferocious training. This assuaged King Vegeta's pride, allowing him to maintain his superiority complex and belief in his son's dominance.
Lu Fan's official role was clear: sparring partner to Prince Vegeta. This title, however, masked a deeper truth, he was effectively assigned as a subordinate, a kind of living benchmark for the prince's training.
But this year, something changed.
Lu Fan's once-unshakable power began to falter.
His combat ability plummeted. From 10,000, it fell to 5,000 within a month alarming but not catastrophic. Yet today, his scouter reading had dropped again.
Now, his power level was a mere 500.
For context, a power level of 500 was laughable—Raditz, a low-class Saiyan warrior and Goku's brother, had a power level of 1,500 when he arrived on Earth. Lu Fan's current strength wouldn't even qualify him for off-world missions.
For Prince Vegeta, whose pride was everything, this was unacceptable.
"Lu Fan, did you recognize me just now just by my voice?" Vegeta asked with a smirk.
"No. I sensed your ki signature. Even if you spoke in someone else's voice, I'd still know it was you," Lu Fan replied, finally turning around and flashing a calm smile.
Vegeta paused.
What?
What do you mean sensed my ki?
At this age, few Saiyans could sense energy without a scouter a technique more common among Earthlings and Namekians. Vegeta could hardly grasp the idea yet.
But that wasn't the issue at hand.
"Hey, Lu Fan what's going on with you?" Vegeta growled, fists clenched. "Your power level—it's vanishing. You were stronger than me once! How can I keep training with someone who barely has a power level of 500?"
The prince had scanned Lu Fan just three minutes earlier using his scouter—the green lens covering one eye blinked with numerical readouts. That reading had disturbed him.
And now
Beep.
The device gave another warning tone.
Vegeta scowled and looked again.
Combat Power: 200
His eyes twitched in disbelief.
Lu Fan's power had dropped again, from 500 to 200, in mere moments.
"How can someone lose that much power so quickly?" Vegeta spat. "My sparring partner is... useless now."
"Two hundred, huh?" Lu Fan echoed, his voice distant, contemplative.
"You're not even worried!" Vegeta shouted, stepping forward. "Why aren't you panicking?!"
Lu Fan's eyes narrowed as he rested his chin in one hand a gesture oddly mature for his age, like a strategist from a different world.
"Your Highness, I've just been pondering a question," he said quietly, eyes reflecting something beyond their five-year-old frames.
In that moment, even the battle-hardened Saiyan prince felt unsettled. There was something alien in Lu Fan's calm something un-Saiyan.
Something that didn't belong to this world.
"What's the problem? You'd better focus on your combat power," Vegeta scoffed, arms crossed, scouter still blinking lightly over his left eye. "How can you be my sparring partner with such a pathetic power level? You're weaker than some backwater farmer on a primitive planet!"
"Combat power is just surface noise to me," Lu Fan said calmly, shaking his head, his tone too measured for someone their age.
"What are you talking about? What kind of surface?" Vegeta blinked, genuinely confused, as if the concept itself was alien to a warrior raised to worship numbers.
"I've been experimenting with a new kind of energy." Lu Fan's expression shifted into a confident smile, faint but certain.
"What kind of energy?!" Vegeta's eyebrows furrowed. The idea of new techniques outside standard ki control didn't sit right with him.
"Destruction." Lu Fan's answer came like a whisper of thunder.
"Destruction? Tch. That's nonsense. What kind of gibberish is that?" Vegeta scowled. He had heard the term before, but not in any serious training context.
Though Vegeta had indeed once glimpsed Beerus, the God of Destruction, during a fleeting audience with his father, he was too young and uninformed to associate "destruction" with any divine force or technique. In his mind, destruction was what Saiyans did to planets not some specialized power.
"If you can empty your thoughts and focus only on the essence of destruction erase, collapse, reduce—it leads to something more profound than power levels." Lu Fan said this slowly, almost meditatively.
"Tch. You sound like an old Namekian monk. Stop messing around with that abstract garbage," Vegeta muttered, annoyed. "If you have that much time, use it to train. We're warriors, not mystics."
He snorted again. What kind of power was destruction supposed to be? Could it crush enemies? Could it overwhelm Frieza's men? If not, what was the point?
"One day," Lu Fan said, lifting his hand with care, "I will condense destruction to its purest form."
In his open palm, a faint light shimmered into existence a pinprick of purple-red energy, flickering like a dying star. The aura around it distorted slightly, like gravity bending light. It was Hakai energy, the embryonic form of the technique used by Gods of Destruction—though no one on Planet Vegeta would recognize it as such.
But it was minuscule. Only the size of a sesame seed. To the untrained eye, it looked like nothing more than oddly colored ki.
"Hmph. So your energy's changed color. Big deal." Vegeta huffed, unimpressed.
"Never mind. You're still young. It's natural you don't understand." Lu Fan gave a soft smile, a teacher addressing a curious student.
"...Who are you calling young?!" Vegeta growled inside, but didn't say anything aloud. They were the same age.
Still, he couldn't deny that Lu Fan's words always carried weight. Even his father, King Vegeta, had placed Lu Fan by his side not just as a sparring partner, but to be an anchor of wisdom and strategy, something the fiery prince often lacked.
"Do you want to become a Super Saiyan?" Lu Fan asked suddenly.
"...What?" Vegeta froze, eyes wide, voice stunned.
That was a hard pivot. They had been talking about energy, training, and combat efficiency. Now suddenly
Super Saiyan.
The mythical transformation. The golden warrior of legend. Even King Vegeta spoke of it only in hushed tones—a tale from ancient Saiyan history, believed by most to be mere folklore, a warrior so powerful he could defeat armies alone.
"What are you talking about? Super Saiyan? We're talking about your power level, and now you're spouting ancient nursery tales?"
But even as he said it, his heart skipped. He'd always secretly wanted the legend to be true.
"Hmph. Those are just old fables. Super Saiyan, Super Saiyan God none of that's real. Even King Vegeta says no Saiyan has achieved it in a thousand years." Vegeta turned his head, scoffing, trying to sound dismissive.
"But what if I told you," Lu Fan said, smiling again, "that I know how to become one?"
"Y-You're joking, right?" Vegeta stammered. Then his eyes narrowed. "Wait... Were you just zoning out earlier thinking about how to become a Super Saiyan?"
Lu Fan said nothing.
"Unbelievable. That's what you were doing while your combat power kept dropping?" Vegeta slapped his forehead.
"That's not the point," Lu Fan said. "Just answer me. Do you want it or not?"
Vegeta stared for a long second. Then his Saiyan pride surged.
"Hmph. If I can really become a Super Saiyan—of course I want it!" He nodded with a firm, burning resolve in his voice.
"Then let's go." Lu Fan's tone turned serious.
"Go? Go where?" Vegeta looked confused again, blinking rapidly. Lu Fan was hard to follow today.
"To a planet called Earth," Lu Fan said, almost as if he were reminiscing.
"Earth? Never heard of it." Vegeta tilted his head. "What kind of place is that?"
"I'll give you the coordinates. We leave immediately." Lu Fan's voice was calm, but decisive.
"That fast?" Vegeta blinked again, skeptical. "You really think you can make me a Super Saiyan?"
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