Dragon Ball: Enlisted

"I believe I know why you are struggling," Wraak said, his voice cutting through my inner grumbling.

I tilted my head up to look at him, still sprawled out on the ground. "Yeah? Lay it on me."

He crouched down slightly, his massive frame still towering over me. "Your issue lies in how you approach your ki. You treat it purely as a physical force—a tool to enhance your body or attack. But ki is not merely physical. It is mental as well."

That got me to sit up properly. "Mental? I thought ki was like, life force, or whatever. How is that mental?"

Wraak's brow furrowed slightly. "Truthfully, I have no idea how you've gotten this far with such a flawed understanding of your own power. If your energy is merely the life force within you, why don't you age slower with greater amounts of it?"

I stared, my expression going blank. 'I… never thought about that.'

And now that I was thinking about it, Wraak was right. Toriyama had once said ki was made of several parts, with two thirds of those parts being mental factors. It explained how characters like Vegeta could get a major boost in power just from being overwhelmed with rage.

But Toriyama had said those concepts—Genki, Shouki, and Yuuki—were only parts of ki. He'd never actually said that those were all that ki was.

My gaze refocused on Wraak, and I blinked, intrigued. "Okay, then what is it?"

He paused for a moment, his gaze steady as he seemed to weigh his words carefully. "That... I cannot fully explain. One's energy is many things yet unknown, but each one can be separated into two categories—mental and physical. What I do not understand is how you have managed to separate your physical and mental ki in the first place. It should not be possible."

"What do you mean I separated them?" This was news to me.

"Your energy flows erratically, as though it has been divided into two halves. The physical is dominant, wild, and unstable. But the mental... it is dormant, disconnected." He leaned forward slightly, his unblinking gaze fixed on me. "You lack balance, Jyn."

I frowned, mulling that over. "So... you're saying I've been using it wrong this whole time?"

"Not wrong," Wraak corrected. "Incomplete. It's actually quite scary that you're this powerful and yet you've only been using a fraction of your real power."

That… actually made sense too.

I'd thought it was odd that my Body stat was higher than my power level, but this sort of explained it. Since I wasn't using the power of my Mind stat to factor in my power level, I was far weaker than I should've been.

I ran a hand through my hair, trying to piece everything together. "Alright, so if my mental ki is 'dormant,' how do I wake it up?"

Wraak didn't answer immediately. Instead, he straightened, crossing his arms over his massive chest. "Before I answer, let me ask you this: what do you think it means to control your ki?"

I blinked. "Uh… well, control? Make it do what I want, like without wasting any energy?"

He tilted his head slightly, his crocodilian features unreadable. "That is control of your physical ki. You manipulate energy as though it is a weapon or tool—a thing separate from yourself. But mental ki is different."

"Different how?" I asked, already feeling another headache coming on.

Wraak extended a clawed hand and pointed at me. "Physical ki is an extension of the body. It strengthens muscles, enhances speed, and fuels your attacks. But mental ki is an extension of the spirit. It is intention, focus, and willpower given form. It is what allows one to shape the world through thought alone."

"Observe."

He extended one massive hand, his clawed fingers splayed. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, without warning, the rocks scattered across the ground began to lift into the air.

They floated upward, forming a swirling pattern as they orbited him like planets around a sun. Pebbles, blades of grass, and even grains of dirt spun in perfect synchronicity, their movements smooth and deliberate.

I stared, my jaw slack as the rocks continued to spin in perfect harmony.

From reading minds to lifting and blowing people up with their minds, I'd completely forgotten that Dragonball characters were just casually psychic.

'Which means my stats represent power, don't they?' I realized. 'My Body stat is the power of my body. My Spirit stat is the power of my spirit. That's the reason I don't have a Mind stat.'

Because my mind was just… my mind. I'd learned to use my spirit the first day I got here, but I'd never learned to use my mind as a power source.

If he was right—if ki was split into both physical and mental sides—then my ki control wasn't just bad.

It was actively hindering me.

'The base form of ki, the Spirit stat, enhances what is already there. But my ki control is so terrible it's actively making me weaker,' I realized. 'While my body was strong enough to function even with my ki restricting it, my psychic power wasn't. It was so weak that it's not even functioning anymore.'

The more I thought about it, the clearer it became.

'If I can enhance my ki control enough, I might be able to make the feeling of mental energy more obvious,' I thought, my pulse quickening. 'And if I can feel it, I can train it.'

A flicker of excitement surged through me, and for the first time in hours, I felt like I was actually getting somewhere.

'And once I finish training my Mind to a sufficient level, Image Training will be a piece of cake.'

"I've got it!" I said, sitting up straighter and meeting Wraak's gaze. "I think that if I—"

Wraak raised a hand, silencing me. His head turned sharply toward the treeline, his nostrils flaring slightly.

"What?" I asked, frowning.

He sniffed the air again, his eyes narrowing. "We are not alone."

I froze, glancing toward the trees. "What do you mean?"

He pointed a claw toward the dense foliage. "There. Behind the trees. Someone is watching us."

I blinked, staring in the direction he pointed. A faint rustle came from the bushes, followed by a muffled curse.

"Edith," Wraak said flatly. "I can sense your energy, and I know your scent. Come out."

A second later, Edith stepped out from the cover of the trees, her arms crossed and her expression defensive. "What? It's not like I was trying to spy or anything. I just... saw something and came to check it out."

I sighed, shifting into a cross-legged position on the ground. "I don't have time for… whatever this is."

Before Edith could respond, another sound came from the opposite side of the clearing—a loud snap, like a twig breaking underfoot.

Wraak's eyes flicked toward the noise, his expression darkening further. "And there's the other one."

I cracked an eye open. "The other one?"

One of the people always following Wraak around emerged sheepishly from the shadows on the far side, his hands raised in surrender. "Alright, you caught me. But c'mon Wraak, you—"

Both Edith and the guy froze as they noticed each other for the first time, their expressions shifting from embarrassment to irritation.

"What are you doing here, Zairen?" Edith asked, glaring at… apparently Zairen.

"I could ask you the same thing," Zairen shot back, smirking.

Wraak let out a deep sigh, pinching the bridge of his snout.

I ignored the growing commotion, forcing my eyes shut and taking a deep breath. "I'm going to start meditating now," I muttered, half to myself, half to them. "Do not interrupt me."

They responded, but I had already stopped listening, their voices blending into the background as I focused on my ki.

Maybe ignoring them was rude, but I didn't have it in me to care at the moment.