Kürbis for all intents and purposes, was the interim warden. A job he got only because he spent time in a galactic jail. One of the few saiyans to ever spend any time behind bars and the King felt it wasn't ironic to position him as a leader of one.
The man formerly in charge of the prison is six feet tall. Looks the equivalent of a dwarf three times the average height of a normal one. His head was covered in thick dark hair, sporting a beard and mustache combination. His skin was toned a dark brown like he lived by baking in the sun.
The man had an imposing stature and despite that his voice shook once or twice while demanding anything of the actual warden.
"So the new guy keeps escaping" Negi, the actual warden, scoffs with an amused smile crossing her lips. "You know his actual name?"
"Toge..warden, but we're strictly supposed to strip all the prisoners of things like names and other things."
"Other things?" Negi raises an eyebrow.
"Just their games at individual whatevers"
"Individuality" negi corrects the man. Clearly she understands the purpose of it all. Regardless it was just easier to refer to the prisoners by the assigned number.
"Yes that, so we should just crush his desire to be referred to as anything else." Kürbis says more to follow a rule than to enact upon his beliefs.
"So just following orders? Ok alright, no wonder it's been barren and bland around here."
"Well they're not really worth our time, I'm not wasting my time on them. I barely understand why I'm even posted here"
"You and me both" she mutters to herself.
"Hmm?"
"Nothing, I'll go bring him back. Has he escaped yet again?"
"Yes, but there isn't anywhere for him to go or hide for that matter" Kürbis informs Negi of how easily it would be to find the escaped prisoner.
Though he didn't stop her as she flew off without a scouter.
***
Toge had been relentless in his escape attempts. Back to back daily attempts. From multiple different sides, but it did not matter. Each time he was carried off back. Only the first time, as each subsequent attempt was met with punishing force.
The only enthusiasm left in him was the sharp single line of tall hair across the middle of his head. A spikey mohawk that makes him stand out from the rest. The unique hairstyle wasn't the reason he kept getting caught, no, it was due to the energy detection technology that the saiyans use all the time.
If a dozen Saiyans were roaming the wasteland not a soul would be lost; for the most part that is. Toge, now renamed the number 336, is no exception to the rule.
Today's attempt at escaping was going oddly well. It unnerved him as he skulked across the harsh rocky terrain.
Kusatta city was looming closer in the distance. Once he made it there he could at least pretend to blend in.
"So close.. Kürbis had to have given up. That a*shole, to think i respected him for getting out of his own jail cell" Toge had learned way back when like the rest of the locked up saiyan kürbis. A man who served time and broke out of a real prison.
"I assume your plan was to get to the City, steal a pod, and run to whatever backwater planet would accept you" an icy amused voice shot right up the escapee's spine.
Toge stopped right in his tracks, wholly unfamiliar with the voice that robbed him of his momentum.
"Kürbis..you sound a lot more feminine than i remember" he tries to play off his anger and unease with a quip. Negi sees right through it.
The warden was floating there in the sky with her arms crossed. She slowly descended to the ground in front of him. Toge turned around and was taking a step back. Noting the lack of a scouter on her face.
"You.. wouldn't happen to be Negi would you?" He gulps, recognizing the woman just barely. Her smile, the twisted smirk that many aspiring warriors have heard about.
"Bingo! That's me" she chirps a cold vibrating tone that solidifies the lump forming in Toge's throat. "And you're 336"
"My name is Toge!" He demanded while stamping his foot forward. Pride still gripped his soul more than the urge to run.
"Wow wow wow, aren't you running? Watch where you plant your feet or I'll get the wrong idea about you. You rejected trash" Negi mocks mercilessly.
This was the crazed woman's game and Toge should have known that. Instead he took another indignant step forward towards his obstacle rather than away from it.
"Oh ho ho, you're approaching me?" Negi mocks, only pretending to be surprised.
"Can't escape without beating you up" he responds with sweat beading down his forehead, the sun raising their body temperatures as the moment lingers.
"Alright that's what I'm talking about!" Negi gets riled up.
For once she's unable to contain her hunger for battle, a wild smirk appears on her face that almost immediately makes Toge forget why he chose to go against her. The way her lips curl and the sharpness of her teeth as she smiles widely is nothing short of a monster.
He steps forward and then she does. But her feet barely make a second stride. Negi was already touching down right in front of him. Toge's brain seemed unable to keep up as a fist struck his gut.
Cough!
He gasps as the pain surges through him. The pain isn't as bad as expected, the sheer speed not matching up with the power of the strike.
"Come on, I know you're awake. You aren't sleeping on my fist now" she mocks while letting him react. Negi's fist pushes up like a spike that lifts him off the ground.
Toge feels like he wants to hurl whatever remaining morsel was in his stomach, but he grips her wrist with both hands. Trying to break it only to realize that isn't possible. Quickly pivoting to push off to the side. From his desperate position he slams his right foot into her face by twisting his core.
He doesn't register that his foot hit a steel wall, just that it landed. Falling to the ground and pushing himself to the side reflexively.
Negi remains silent at first, but a low rumble escapes her throat.
Toge whips his leg into hers with an attack that does more damage to himself. Pulling the leg that struck her shin and clutching it. The pained expression on his face was peered from above with a descending frown of disappointment and condescension.
"You belong with those pathetic whelps in the prison" Negi says with the words dripping out of her mouth like acid that splatters against his face, causing rage that boils over as he prepares a guttural roar.
"336 get up on taking you back home" she spits, further angering the Saiyan turned prisoner.
"I AM A SAIYAN WARRIOR!" He yells at the top of his lungs. A guttural cry of pride that is followed by him pushing off the ground with three of his limbs. With all the first he could muster crushing whatever pebbles were beneath him with an audible..
Crunch! Wham!
His fist flew straight up into the jaw of the warden. The sound of skin and bone creaking reverberated up Toge's arm. Negi didn't move an inch and once again it felt like slamming into a steel wall.
"Yaaah" Negi's jaw pushed his fist down as she reflexively yawned.
The low-class failure didn't even register that it didn't work. He just pulled back his fist and began wailing on her upper body.
Wham! Creak!
Wham! Creak!
Wham! Creak!
Finally the man had to pull back his fists. Clenching them tighter he winced, looking down at bloodied and crushed fingers. Now that he saw it, the shaking couldn't be stopped as it rose up his arms and down his legs.
"You done?"
"Ah..ahhhhh" he screams and lifts his leg up to smash his foot in her face.
Woosh!
It missed as Negi stepped back. Letting out chuckle as she watches him crash to the ground. The laughter angered him as he notes that she dodged, the lack of reverberation in his bones is unsatisfying now. He needed to take out his frustrations on her.
Pushing off the ground with his hack toward her the sharp end of his elbow was aimed in her general direction. It landed against the metal wall of her body.
Toge didn't stop as he thrust his opposite hand into her face again. Blood splattered across it as she had caught his wrist. Negi closed her eyes as the iron tasting red liquid dots her face.
"Huh…hrrrrg" he growled while trying to pull his arm back.
Negi's grin returns, back from the bored frown she had been wearing. His next fist was caught by her as well, and then her leg blocked his lazy attempt to lash out. Soon she was lifting him up and over her head. Tossing him far behind her in the direction of the prison.
Toge hits the ground hard, but his moment causes him to tumble just a bit further. As he rose up after that his chest was met with a kick sending him careening further back.
When he stopped tumbling he found himself sprawled on the ground with his limbs sprawled in four different directions, thankful they were natural positions for his arms and legs.
His eyes met Negi's as she looked over him.
"Get going" she demanded him as if his body wasn't screaming for him to stay put.
His chest was heaving and sweat dripped down his face as he perspirated profusely.
***
Negi had beaten the new prisoner all the way back to the prison. Unlike kürbis who knocked him out, she made him walk back in the most brutal methodical fashion. By the time they were at the perimeter fence his body was covered in bruises and welts. His fists are coated in their own blood, fingers crushed, with one or two bending the wrong way. His face was beaten in and his nose had to be crooked.
"Sheesh.. Warden, did you kill him?" Kürbis landed beside her. Wincing at the prisoner with an almost sympathetic glance of the eye.
"No he's still kicking.. speaking of which" she reels her foot back and digs it into his gut. "Wake up, you're back home"
Pffft!
He spits up blood while struggling to speak. What comes out is a horrible wet groan of pain. Somehow he starts to crawl towards the fence like it was his only sanctuary.
Even Kürbis was unnerved by the sight of the battered Saiyan using the remaining energy in his body to run–crawl away from their warden.
There were several dozen prisoners around to witness Toge crawling over the barbed fence. The sight was rough to see, but he was focused on the fear gripping him from behind.
Clink! Crunch!
He falls off the fence tipped in bard wire and crashes on the hard gravelly surface. Passing out after just finishing crossing what felt like a finish line of an intense race across the wasteland.
"Tell me if he runs away again, I doubt he will" Negi cackles before flying off in the direction of Vegeta city.