The morning sunlight poured into the secluded mountain valley as Rutaba stood in the middle of his training ground. Broken rocks, damaged trees, and several deep craters from yesterday’s training surrounded him. The eight-year-old Saiyan wiped sweat from his forehead and looked over the mess with a proud grin. His hair wasn’t black anymore. It was bright golden and stuck straight up, surrounded by a flickering golden aura. He’d transformed into a Super Saiyan before the sun even came up, and he was dead set on keeping it going the whole day.
His clothes were already covered in dirt, but that didn’t bother him one bit. If anything, he looked more excited than ever. The golden aura around him pulsed unevenly — sometimes flaring bright, sometimes shrinking close to his skin. Keeping the form active was already hard, but Rutaba refused to let it drop.
“Okay!” he shouted, planting his feet. “Today I’m doing something different! No fighting giant animals, no punching mountains all day, and definitely no running away from explosions!” He paused and thought about that last part. “…Well, maybe a few explosions.” He raised both hands in front of himself and focused. A faint blue aura started flickering inside his golden Super Saiyan energy. “Today I’m gonna practice my elemental ki!”
He took a slow breath and felt the transformation pulling at his stamina. His golden aura surged, and he quickly forced it back under control before it could fade. “Stay on,” he muttered. “I’m keeping Super Saiyan all day. I can do this.”
Rutaba had only recently noticed something weird about his ki. Normally it was bright blue, but every now and then another kind of energy showed up inside it. He’d already seen little flashes of orange-red fire, and he was pretty sure there was a lot more hiding under the surface. The problem was his ki control was still rough. At only ten percent, just keeping his energy steady was tough enough without trying to mess with different elements at the same time. Maintaining Super Saiyan made everything even harder. The form made him stronger, but it also made every mistake hit harder.
He started with Fire Ki.
Rutaba slowly brought his hands together and gathered a small sphere of blue energy between his palms. He concentrated, trying to remember that strange flame he’d made last time. “Come on,” he muttered. “I know you’re in there.” The blue ki trembled, then an orange-red spark appeared right in the middle. His eyes went wide. “There!” The spark grew into a little flame twisting around the blue energy. His golden aura flared in response and he quickly forced it back down. “Fire!”
The flame suddenly got bigger.
“Uh-oh.”
BOOOOM!
The explosion knocked him backward and sent him rolling across the grass. His golden aura flickered like crazy while he tumbled, but somehow he managed to keep Super Saiyan going. He finally stopped, sat up, and stared at the smoke coming off his hands. His golden hair was a little singed. He blinked a few times, then grinned.
“Okay… so I can make fire.” He looked at his hands again. “I just gotta make sure the fire doesn’t make ME explode.”
He stood up and checked his aura. It was still there, but weaker. He clenched his fists and focused until the golden energy steadied again. “I’m not turning back,” he said firmly. “Not today.”
Instead of quitting, he decided to make the technique smaller. He gathered ki around his right fist and slowly mixed in the Fire Ki. Orange-red flames wrapped around his knuckles without immediately blowing up. His grin got even bigger. “Firecracker Fist!” He rushed a big training boulder and punched it. The rock cracked and a burst of flames spread across the surface. He landed and checked his fist. “That’s better!”
He practiced a bunch more times, slowly figuring out that Fire Ki worked better when he kept it compressed instead of letting it spread everywhere. His punches got more controlled, with the flames only showing up right when he hit something. Every few attacks his golden aura would flicker, forcing him to stop and steady the transformation before he kept going. Eventually he tried it with his legs, surrounding one foot with Fire Ki and launching a spinning kick into another boulder. The burst of flame sent pieces of rock flying.
“Blazing Kick!” he shouted, laughing as he landed. “I’m getting it!”
Next was Lightning Ki.
Rutaba stood still and held out one hand. “Okay… lightning.” Nothing happened. He frowned. “Lightning.” A tiny spark appeared between his fingers. “YES!” Another spark jumped across his hand, then a few more. He watched, fascinated, as the electricity crawled up his arm. “Whoa…” The current suddenly surged.
“OW!”
He shook his hand hard. “Okay! Lightning hurts!”
His golden aura flared again from the sudden energy. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to calm down. “Easy… Super Saiyan stays on. Don’t let the lightning mess it up.”
He thought for a second, remembering how Zip Zap let him push ki through his body to move faster. Instead of trying to shoot lightning from his hands, he concentrated the electrical energy through his legs. Blue-white sparks started dancing around his feet. “Maybe I can use it to move faster.”
He crouched.
“Zip Zap!”
His body shot forward in a flash, but this time it was way faster than normal. He streaked across the valley and barely stopped himself before smacking into a cliff. He skidded across the ground and stared at how far he’d gone. His golden aura trailed behind him like a comet.
“I got faster!”
He immediately tried again, changing direction halfway through the dash. Lightning crackled behind him as he zipped from one side of the valley to the other. His movements were still messy, but he was starting to get how Lightning Ki worked with his Saiyan speed. Super Saiyan made the technique even faster, but it also made stopping a lot harder.
Rutaba laughed. “I’m calling this Lightning Zip Zap!”
After Lightning came Wind Ki.
He turned toward the trees and watched the leaves moving in the breeze. He stretched out his hand and concentrated. Wind Ki didn’t feel hot or explosive like the others. It felt light and fluid, almost like part of his own movement. A small current formed around his fingers.
“Gale Rush!”
He pushed Wind Ki through his legs.
WHOOSH!
He accelerated so fast his feet left the ground for a second. He flew past the training boulders and crashed into a pile of grass. Slowly he lifted his head. His golden aura was almost gone under all the dust.
“…Okay.”
He pulled himself up and immediately focused on the transformation. The golden aura came back around him, weaker than before but still there.
“That’s REALLY fast.”
This time he used less energy. The result was smoother. Wind wrapped around his body as he moved through the valley, letting him change direction without losing as much speed. He started mixing it into his melee attacks, creating a compressed burst of wind around his fist before punching toward a distant rock. He never actually touched the stone, but the compressed air hit it hard enough to crack the surface.
He stared at the result.
“Gale Fist…”
He smiled.
“That’s cool.”
He followed it with a spinning kick, sending a small vortex across the ground before it faded. “Cyclone Kick!” he shouted. “I can use Wind Ki for attacks AND movement!”
Then he headed toward the waterfall.
Water Ki was next.
He stood under the falling water and closed his eyes, focusing on the feeling of it moving around him. His ki slowly changed, becoming smoother and more fluid. When he opened his hands, a small sphere of blue Water Ki formed between them.
“This feels different.”
He compressed it into a little projectile.
“Water Bullet!”
The sphere shot forward and hit a rock, bursting against it with a strong splash of energy. He nodded. “Not bad.”
He tried a stronger version, pulling more Water Ki into his hands. “Tidal Wave!”
A surge of energy formed in front of him, taking the shape of a rushing wave. His eyes went wide as it grew bigger than he expected. The wave immediately collapsed and soaked him from head to toe.
Rutaba stood there dripping, golden hair hanging wet while his Super Saiyan aura hissed around him.
He stared forward.
Then he laughed.
“Okay! Water needs work!”
Finally he turned to Earth Ki.
He put his hand against a big boulder and concentrated. Earth felt totally different from the other elements. It was heavy, dense, and stable. Instead of flowing around him, it felt like the energy was connecting him straight to the ground under his feet. That steady feeling actually helped keep his transformation stable, and he noticed his golden aura got calmer while he focused on it.
He pulled his fist back.
“Stone Fist!”
He punched.
The boulder cracked straight down the middle.
He stared at it.
“Whoa.”
He tried again, putting even more Earth Ki into his arm. The energy around his fist got dense and heavy.
“Earthbreaker Strike!”
His fist slammed into the rock and shattered it apart.
He looked at the pieces scattered around him.
“I REALLY like Earth.”
By now he’d spent most of the morning practicing each element one at a time. But he wasn’t done. He wanted to see what happened when he mixed them with his martial arts. He also wanted to see if he could keep Super Saiyan going while switching between different kinds of ki.
He went back to the center of the valley and took a fighting stance. His golden aura flickered around him and he steadied it with a slow breath.
“Okay… elemental melee training!”
He surrounded his right fist with Fire Ki and his left with Lightning Ki. Fire and electricity flickered side by side as he rushed forward. He opened with a Firecracker Fist, followed right away by a Lightning-enhanced punch. He spun into a Wind-assisted kick, then reinforced his elbow with Earth Ki. Finally he used Water Ki to redirect his momentum, sliding around his imaginary opponent to attack from a different angle.
He stopped and looked at his hands.
“That was awesome!”
Then the different energies started messing with each other.
The Fire Ki spread too far.
The Lightning surged through it.
Wind disrupted the flames.
Water messed up the Lightning.
His eyes went wide.
“Wait—”
BOOOOOOM!
The combined energy exploded outward.
Rutaba flew backward and landed in a bush. His golden aura flickered hard, and for one scary second his hair started to darken. He immediately clenched his fists and shouted, forcing the transformation back into place.
“No! Stay Super Saiyan!”
The golden aura burst out again and he slowly pulled himself free, hair still smoking a little.
“…Okay.”
He brushed leaves off his shoulders.
“Five elemental energies at once is probably too much.”
He wasn’t disappointed, though. He’d learned something important. Elemental Ki wasn’t just about having different powers. He had to figure out how each energy behaved before he could safely mix them. The same went for Super Saiyan. He couldn’t just rely on the form’s power. He had to learn how to keep it steady while using everything else.
That realization only made him more excited.
“Let’s try two.”
He raised his right hand.
“Fire.”
Flames formed around his fingers.
He raised his left.
“Lightning.”
Electricity crackled around his palm.
He slowly brought the two energies together. His golden aura trembled as the two elements pushed against each other.
For a moment they refused to mix.
Then—
They fused.
The resulting energy burned orange and blue while lightning danced across the surface. The golden glow of Super Saiyan wrapped around it, making it shine even brighter.
His eyes got huge.
“Thunderfire…” He grinned.
“Thunderfire!”
He thrust both hands forward.
The projectile shot across the valley and slammed into a distant rock formation.
KRA-BOOOOOOM!
Fire and lightning erupted at the same time, sending a shockwave through the whole valley. He jumped into the air, golden aura flaring.
“I DID IT!”
He landed and immediately wanted to try something bigger.
“Wind!”
Wind Ki spiraled around him.
“Water!”
Fluid energy joined the current.
“Lightning!”
Electricity started racing through the vortex.
His aura flickered as he struggled to hold everything together. The golden energy around him started shrinking and his breathing got heavier.
“Stay on,” he whispered. “I’m not done yet.”
He forced Super Saiyan to stay active and pushed the combined energy forward.
“Storm Bomba!”
He released the attack.
A swirling projectile of wind, water, and lightning tore through the valley and slammed into the mountainside. The explosion sent debris cascading down the rock face.
He stood there with his mouth open.
“…Okay.”
His grin slowly came back.
“That one is definitely staying.”
But the excitement was catching up to him.
His breathing got heavier.
His arms were shaking.
The elemental energy around his body flickered all over the place.
His golden aura started weakening too, shrinking close to his skin.
He looked down at himself.
“I’m getting tired.”
He knew he’d pushed too far, but there was one more technique he wanted to try. If he could use it while keeping Super Saiyan, he’d know exactly how much further he still had to go.
He spread his arms.
“Elemental Ki Burst!”
He released everything at once.
Fire, Lightning, Wind, Water, and Earth Ki erupted from his body in a huge shockwave. Flames raced across the ground, electricity cracked through the air, compressed wind blasted through the trees, and chunks of stone lifted off the ground before getting thrown outward. His golden aura expanded with the attack, but it immediately started breaking apart at the edges.
He shouted through the strain.
“Stay transformed!”
The explosion finally faded.
Rutaba stood in the middle of the wrecked training area. His golden hair was still sticking up and a faint golden aura still flickered around him, but he was barely holding the form together.
His chest rose and fell fast.
His legs trembled.
Then he collapsed onto his back.
For a few seconds he just stared at the sky.
“…I’m exhausted.”
His golden aura weakened again.
He quickly raised one hand and focused on keeping it going. The aura steadied, though it stayed thin and unstable.
A smile appeared.
“But I learned a bunch of new attacks.”
He raised one fist toward the clouds.
“I’ll get better.”
His eyes sparkled with determination.
“I’ll control all five elements!”
He imagined what it would be like someday to mix his Saiyan power with everything he’d learned — faster movement, stronger punches, huge elemental attacks, and transformations he could keep going without wiping himself out. He knew Super Saiyan was still new. He could transform, but he couldn’t hold it comfortably yet. That’s why he’d decided to keep it active all day. If he could learn to stay transformed while training, eating, sleeping, and fighting, then one day it would feel as natural as breathing.
His grin got wider.
“I’m gonna get so strong…”
He clenched his fist.
“I’m gonna become the strongest Saiyan child EVER!”
His stomach suddenly growled.
He froze.
“…And then I’m gonna eat.”
He jumped to his feet even though he was exhausted and started running toward his shelter. His golden aura wavered as he moved, but he kept it going through pure stubbornness.
“FOOOOOOOD!”
His voice echoed between the mountains.
Behind him the valley was covered in scars from hours of training.
Rutaba hadn’t mastered his elemental ki.
He hadn’t even come close.
He also hadn’t mastered Super Saiyan. His control was still messy, his combinations were unstable, and keeping the form going for a whole day was already draining him dry. He had a long way to go before he could safely use his stronger techniques while staying transformed.
But that didn’t matter.
For Rutaba, every mistake was another lesson.
Every explosion was another experiment.
Every failure was another reason to train harder.
And somewhere inside that chaotic golden aura was the start of something much bigger — a Saiyan learning that his power wasn’t limited to raw strength, and that even a transformation as strong as Super Saiyan had to be trained and controlled.
He had elements to master.
Techniques to develop.
A transformation to keep going.
And a whole future waiting for him.
He looked back at the mountains with a mischievous grin. His golden aura flickered, but he quickly steadied it again.
“Tomorrow…”
He raised his fist.
“I’m gonna make an even bigger explosion!”
Then he turned toward his shelter, still transformed, still exhausted, and still determined to keep Super Saiyan active until the day was over.