To Perfection (Open)

Thread PL: 36,000 | Items: N/A

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A tiny drip of water falls from a tree and lands directly onto Derry's face. The unconscious man flinches at the sensation, and begins to slowly open his eyes. He touched the ground beneath him and noted that this wasn't the pavement of Central City, but rather grass. Derry slowly lifted himself off of the ground and analyzed his surroundings. There was a single tree hanging over him, teemed with water droplets. For as far as Derry could see, grass and large hills dominated the landscape. What was he doing here?

As far as Derry could remember, he was flying away from West City and trying to make his way back to Central City and to the Dirty Snakes HQ. Although, he could recall that he was getting a little tired while flying around. If Derry was going to figure out where he was, perhaps he'll fly upwards in order to get a better view. After grabbing his sunglasses off of the ground and placing them back on his face, Derry jumps up into the air and begins to slowly float over the tree that he was under. There wasn't a single building in sight, and all Derry could see was more grass, more hills, and... an ogre?
"Well," Derry says to himself, "It's something, I suppose."

Derry soared directly towards the ogre and notices some rather familiar trademarks regarding the individual, particularly the silver-gray hair. It was that same ogre back in North City, where he also met the Green Stargoon and almost had a building collapse on him. It's pretty much his best chance of knowing where exactly he was.

Derry landed on the ground several feet away from Yanwang. As he approaches the clearly agitated ogre, Derry piped up from behind him, asking, "Hey, you're Yanwang, right? From back in North City?"

Derry sighed to himself as the ogre talked about not knowing Derry's name. Well, at least he recognized who Derry was. If he didn't, this probably would've taken longer than it needs to be. "Yea, back in North City. You never said your name either, I just heard from some... other sources, let's say. 'Course, I never revealed my name, either. The name's Derrick Ottoy. My buddies call me Derry, for short." After officially introducing himself to the ogre, Derry looked around the general vicinity. What else did Derry expect to see except for more grass and hills. There was still an occasional tree, and he could've sworn he saw something moving in the tall grass, but still, nothing else was really out of the ordinary. He turns his attention back towards Yanwang, who was still in a meditative position, at least, that's what it looked like to Derry. "So, weird question, but where exactly are we? Let's just say I blacked out and ended up here." Of course, Derry hoped that the red ogre also didn't just wake up in the middle of this place either. "Also, what's with the position right there? You meditating or somethin'? Did I interrupt it?"

'Of course he would call me Derry,' Derry thought to himself. However, the important question that needed to be answered was where exactly he was located. Unfortunately, Yanwang avoided answering the question, instead talking about what exactly he's doing out here in the middle of nowhere. Derry assumed they'll get to it later, so he'll humor the ogre for a bit. Yanwang talked about the ability to sense another living being's ki energy. He's heard about it before, but it's never really been in great detail, since it was usually mentioned once and then the topic moved on from there. According to Yanwang, the ability to sense another's energy can help gauge how strong an opponent is, but also gauge how strong the user is as well. After mentioning this, Derry rubbed his chin and pondered for a bit. This ability to sense ki could actually prove to be useful. He could see just how powerful he is, and how strong enemies are, both of which would be very useful to Derry as well. 

"Well to me, it just doesn't seem like the type of ability that one can acquire in an instant. My guess would be to first look into yourself. Of course, you're having some trouble focusing, though. What exactly is bothering you?" In order to tackle the problem head on, Derry needed to know exactly what was going wrong with what the ogre was doing. Just as he was about to listen, a sudden thought came to him. "Hey, wait, isn't that what those fancy schmancy scouters are for? If you really need the ability that badly, it may not be such a bad idea to have one around, at least temporarily." Now that he was thinking about it, perhaps he should pick up one as well. The solution seemed so obvious to him, almost too obvious.

While not entirely specific, Yanwang referred to something that may be lurking deep within him that's troubling him and preventing him from focusing. Of course, he'll have to ask some more questions in order to get down to the potential specifics of Yanwang's circumstances. "You think it could have something to do with some past regrets? Anything from your past that bothers you?" If that was the case, then there was no way in hell Derry would ever learn Ki sensing himself. His life has been full of regret, and attempting to get rid of all of that weight on his own chest would take more than a single lifetime to fully dump off. As for the scouters, it appears as if Yanwang was almost against the idea of using them, saying that only bad guys used that kind of stuff, although he does bring up a fair point that if a scouter is destroyed, then the user can't sense ki unless they have that innate ability to begin with. Of course, for Derry, he already thought of the reason why the scouter would be his only option for ki sensing, but that was beside the point. "Okay, so maybe for you a scouter isn't exactly that appealing. In that case, you'll just have to keep on working towards that ki sense."

Now that Derry was thinking about it, maybe perhaps Epsilon back at base could help him out with a little side project regarding a potential bootleg scouter. She probably has a manual lying around in her backpack somewhere, and how hard could putting one together be? Derry then realizes that he's gotten a bit off track and looks back towards Yanwang. He admits that he may have some inner demons to tackle, but he doubts Derry's abilities to help him out. "Well, a bit of practice wouldn't hurt," Derry replied back after briefly taking his sunglasses off. As he was using his shirt to rub off a little bit of the dirt, he continues, "You were doin' some sort of meditating before I arrived here. Maybe I could be a sort of test dummy. You could close your eyes and, er, look deep into yourself, and I can just plant myself somewhere at random. Ya get where I'm goin' with this?" Derry's plan was to see if Yanwang could detect him by planting himself behind Yanwang, then have him pinpoint his exact location.

Then Yanwang asked how Derry would confront his demons, as if he were the ogre. He paused for a moment and rubbed the side of his neck. "Well, we could always start by venting out your frustrations. Old fashioned therapy. Hell, just someone standing around to vent to could always do the trick. I'm available right here, but it's usually more successful with those you trust. There was also the practice I mentioned earlier, but if those two don't really work, then I've still got a plan: Just punch some stuff." Whenever Derry felt frustrated about anything regarding his past or the future of the Snakes, it was usually venting to Lucas or burning some abandoned buildings down and crack some wooden planks with his fists that did the trick, at least partially. He placed his sunglasses back onto his face and says, "I ain't exactly a wise guy, but I'd like to think I know at least a couple of things from my time."

Derry began scratching the back of his neck while Yanwang complained about training for 6 hours already. "Personally, this sounds like some sort of super special technique, if you know what I mean. Maybe it can't be achieved in a single day. Who knows how long it takes one to learn such an ability? I sure don't." It probably takes even longer depending on your state of mind. For Derry, it could take months before he could even begin to achieve such a technique. After talking about how the meditation trick could work out, Yanwang closed his eyes and assumed a meditative stance once again. As quietly as he possibly could, Derry tip toed his way back about 9 paces backwards and then changes his course, moving 4 paces to Yanwang's left, right next to a small bundle of dandelions. After choosing his spot, Derry kneeled on his right knee and waited for something to happen. After waiting around for a couple of seconds, Derry noticed that not only was there a small ball of ki floating around the ogre, but that the bag that Yanwang was carrying around began to faintly glow, it's white sheen being barely visible at first from where he was at, at least at first. It was a good thing that Derry had his sunglasses on at the time, since the bag continued to grow brighter and brighter as he waited at his little spot. Several questions came to Derry's mind, like what's with the light, what's so special about that bag, and should he be worried about that light? Derry thought he should at least say something to Yanwang in order to grab his attention, but another side of him wanted to see where exactly this was going.

The light emanating from Yanwang's bag finally began to die out, but something else was very, very off about Yanwang himself. Derry was only looking away for a couple of seconds, but during that time, the red ogre's size was almost a foot taller now, albeit still much shorter than Derry. Being 4 ft. high was nothing in comparison to being 5 ft. 10 in., but Derry was rather intrigued by the ogre's transformation. He had seen something like this before with the ogres he met at Oodon's Udon, but to see it up close and personal was something else. Yanwang turned back towards Derry and explained that he was a sort of different personality residing within the ogre. It was easy for Derry to tell since Yanwang was now acting a bit more aggressive than he was before. Derry knows that he should be a bit more on edge, but he just couldn't pass up an opportunity like this. "Alright, good to meet you, other Yanwang," Derry says towards the now aggressive Yanwang, "Maybe we should opt out of the whole kicking puppies thing, but we can certainly break some stuff. Now, for what we can actually break here..." Derry began rubbing his chin and surveyed the surrounding area in an attempt to find as many destructible objects as possible. There were still a handful of trees in the immediate area, but there were plenty of large rocks just lying in the dirt. He points his thumb towards a pile of them and suggests, "Perhaps those will do. You can punch 'em, slam 'em straight into the dirt, or I could launch them up in the sky while you try to shoot 'em down, get ya some target practice and whatnot. What do you think?"