A Sudden Realization; What it Means to Be Human

As the sun begins to rise over the eastern horizon, it touches the buildings of the cities of the planet Earth, bathing them in a glow of pale blue and orange. The citizens of East City begin their usual routines, some going to work, others coming home from work, but it is all the same for them. But on the outskirts of the city, an outlaw has been on the run, gripping onto a satchel of money he stole from a bank. Evading gunfire from the police he runs towards a cave that has hidden itself from the glow of the morning sun. Running into the cave, the police run past it, leaving him behind. With a sigh of relief, he looks at the cave he's entered, noting its mysterious layout. He walks deeper into the cave, shining a flashlight against the walls, revealing ancient textures written in a seemingly undechiperable language. As he walks towards the end of the cave, a mysterious jewel sits on a pedestal. As he walks closer to the jewel, it appears to glow. The glow becomes ever brighter as he approaches closer to the gem. Grasping the gem, it releases a massive burst of light that not only escapes the cave, but seems to eclipse the sun itself in brightness. As the glow faded away, the thief ran out of the cave, shocked and horrified by the things he saw. Far in the distance, on a fortress of stone and other ancient materials, the God of Destruction Beerus rests. Among the inhabitants of the fortress, a Saiyan woman named Namuca begins to wake up. Stretching out, she steps out of bed, feeling somewhat heavy and sluggish. As she tries to take a step, she stumbles over, unable to keep herself balanced. With a look of concern and confusion on her face, she struggles to pull herself up, as if a weight rested upon her shoulders.

"Why can't I move? It feels like my entire body is being crushed by something, keeping me from getting up." Namuca says to herself, still trying to pull herself back up. As Beerus's attendant, Whis, notices Namuca uncapable of getting up, he taps her back with the head of his staff. Feeling lighter, she pulls herself back up.

"That should do it. I haven't seen you that weakened since you spent a week traversing around the fortress with a Katchin block. Quite an oddity." Whis speaks up, looking towards Namuca, who still shows concern on her face.

"I can't explain it, Whis. It feels like my entire body is under a massive weight, and I don't know what's wrong with me." Namuca speaks up, a tone of deep concern flecking into her voice. "I can't have the girls worry about me in this state."

"Hmm. It would appear your body is incapable of manipulating ki. Whatever has caused this interesting development is restricting your ability to manipulate ki. Because your body is tuned to being strengthened by that ki, you're not able to move because you don't know how to move without using ki to dictate your movements." Whis replies. Looking down at her hands, she lets out a sigh, wondering how she's supposed to keep going on if she can't even move.

"What am I supposed to do? Like you said, I've lived just about all my life using ki to dictate how I move. How am I supposed to move without being able to manipulate ki?" Namuca asks, her eyes turning from concern to worry, wondering how her daughters would react knowing they couldn't move, either.

"Humans do it all the time. To them, walking is as natural as breathing. Since most humans cannot manipulate ki like you and the rest of the defenders of Earth can, they just move naturally without the use of ki. You must learn how to do this." Whis replies. Tapping his staff against her legs, a glow releases from the staff. Feeling her legs tense up for a second, they begin to relax. "Take each step slowly. Grab hold of something for balance of you have to. Your mind will grow accustomed to this eventually. You must learn what it's like to be human." Looking at Whis, she nods her head, her eyes filled with determination. Carefully putting one foot on front of the other, she nearly loses her balance, until Whis taps her with his staff, keeping her from falling forward. Taking a slow breath, Namuca resumes walking, keeping herself straight with each step. When she'd feel herself lose balance, she'd shift her hips to straighten herself out.

"*You can do this, Namuca. You've faced gods, you've destroyed demons. You should be able to walk with ease. You can do it.*" Namuca thinks to herself. With a glare of determination, she takes each step more confidently than the last. But as she grew too confident, she lost her footing and fell flat on her face. Getting a slight chuckle out of this, Whis once again helps her back to her feet.

"Don't be discouraged. You're not going to master walking on your first day if it's your first time trying to walk naturally without the aid of ki. It's something that takes time and practice to perfect. But once you do, you'll find yourself walking as naturally as breathing." Whis explains. As she once again nods her head, she braces herself next to the wall for support, walking slowly and carefully around the fortress as she learns to regain her footing. As the day passed on, Namuca began helping Elery and Namuca, her daughters, on how to walk naturally as well, with the aid of Whis. Having some of the basic movement down, they all headed to bed to rest for the night. As the moon began to fall and the sun takes its place, the three are awakened by a sudden explosion. It wasn't within the fortress, but rather it was from Whis's visual precognitions being sent through their minds, Whis giving them a warning of an impending threat. As the three wake up, they run towards the fortress's war room, where Whis and Beerus stood within, watching the destruction taking place.

"There is someone attacking Nikki Town and your help is needed. I know your ki isn't going to be of use in this fight, but you'll have to do something. I can teleport you to the area of destruction, but it's up to you to figure out what needs to be done." As Whis finishes explaining the situation, he taps his staff, teleporting the three to the main square of Nikki Town, where the destruction was most active. As people began running from the devastation that took place, Namuca saw a single figure in the air, firing ki blasts that ravage the city's infrastructure, downing buildings, destroying vehicles and anything else in the blast radius. For a moment, the figure stops firing at the city to observe the three who have come to stop her. Landing down at the ground, she looks towards Namuca, Elery and Mizuna with a gaze of pure malice. As she lands down to the ground, she walks towards the trio, every step taken with dark intentions.

"You three are Saiyans. I can feel your energy. But all the same, I can't sense your ki. Given how long it has taken you to get here, I'm assuming you don't have any left. So why are you here if you don't even possess the power to stop me?" No matter how they try to come up with an answer, Namuca, Elery and Mizuna have realized she's right. They've got nothing to stop her with. Clinching her fists, Namuca runs towards the individual, her arm cocked back as she tries to throw a punch. As the individual catches Namuca's punch, she begins squeezing her fist, forcing it open. "I'm going to enjoy this." As she lets go of Namuca's hand, she holds the back of Namuca's head with her hands. Pulling her head down, she delivers a swift knee against Namuca's chin, sending her mid air. As she intercepts Namuca's path, the figure delivers a crushing hammer blow against her head, her unconscious body slamming into the ground. Elery and Mizuna, paralyzed in fear, find themselves unable to move as the individual begins to approach them. "You three should have just stayed home. It would have saved you so much humiliation." Before she could get closer, Whis intercepts her and teleports the three back to the fortress. Giving Namuca a Senzu, her wounds reheal themselves as she regains consciousness and catches her breath.

"We can't beat her. She's too powerful." Namuca speaks up, a tone of failure and weakness in her voice. She can't help but know that Nikki Town was going to be destroyed because she was powerless to stop the individual from destroying the town. Slamming her fist against a wall, She grits her teeth. "Why did we have to lose our powers now? When the world needs us most? We can't fight like this. It's hopeless." With a sigh of intense dissatisfaction, she looks down at her fist, her knuckles bloodied from punching the wall.

"This was meant to be a lesson for you. That there will always be someone stronger than you, no matter the situation. Right now, we must hold back and determine what's caused everyone to lose their ki except this individual." Whis explains. Tapping his staff, he tries to determine what the cause of everyone's loss of ki was. Looking back to a few days ago, he sees a bright light coming from a cave, before an individual runs off with a gem in his hands. "Something tells me this individual was the cause of your power loss. The gem he's holding must have been what caused everyone to lose their ki. But what is it, exactly? This is going to require some studying on. In the meantime, you all rest. This has been a very trying day for you three." As Whis leaves the room, Namuca sits down on her bed, her legs held close by her arms as she wonders what she's going to do to protect her daughters.