>>5953491“I saw your fight.” you tell him, looking down to see your son's expression. He looks like he's barely holding back tears, eyes watery before looking away. “You almost had him.”
“Almost isn't GOOD ENOUGH!” he shouts, stepping out of your grip and turning to face you, the tears flowing freely now. “I-! I wasn't good enough...”
“That's not true. You COULD have won that fight.” you say to your son as he hangs his head in shame. Which causes his gaze to snap back up to yours. “I was watching the entire thing. You nearly had him.”
“He got out of my final attack!” Maza shouts, clenching his fists in frustration as his aura flares back up around him. Lightning crackles around him as he glares.
“Yes, he managed to escape that one. But you still had more power left than he did.” you tell him, Maza's eyes widening in shock. “You had the advantage. But because that attack you'd bet so much on, that you were so certain would beat him failed, you just... Gave up. Why?”
“What?” he asks, sounding completely stunned. “What did you say?”
“You had him backed into a corner. But because he escaped what you thought he couldn't, you just quit. Why?” you ask him again. Maza looks from you down to his fist, opening his hand as he stares at it in silence. “What happened? What was going through your head?”
“I-I don...” he starts, going quiet. You can see it on his face as he looks back, looking over what happened more critically. You sit down, patting the side of the cliff beside you carefully. Maza looks up, then seeing you invitation sits down beside you, hanging your feet off the edge of the cliffs over the water far below. “Why? I... I had him. If I'd just given a little more, then... Just maybe...”
He doesn't say anything for a while after this, looking up from his hands and out over the sea, the sound of waves crashing against the rocks below and the wind over the rocks the only sounds. Then, after a minute or two he suddenly stands up, you turning to see a new fire burning in his eyes.
“Dammit. How could I have been so blind?” he asks himself, clenching his fists and powering back up. He lost surprisingly little of his power from that fight with Vegeta, his power rising back up to near one hundred percent. “Alright, King Vegeta. Round two asshole!”
And before you can react he kicks off the ground, blasting into the air back towards the king. Well, shit.
-Saiyan Conqueror Quest 214 paused-
