▸ Column · Frieza's galactic empire — a courtier of the Planet Trade Organization writing from quarters aboard the fleet
FRIEZA replies.
The letter
It has been one full cycle of the homeworld's orbit since I bonded myself to Soren, and on the shuttle back to my quarters it struck me: I have never once been presented to a single member of his inner circle. He speaks of them ceaselessly — a Hideki he spars with each rest-day, a Marisol whose union-ceremony he crossed three sectors to attend, an entire mess-hall crowd that gathers at a cantina barely a corridor from mine. Each time I ask to be brought along, it is "the next rotation," or that I would find them tedious, or that this particular lot is "a great deal" — and then the next rotation arrives and quietly excludes me. I have met his colleagues at one feast and his sister precisely twice, so he does not conceal me from all. It is his friends — the ones he holds closest — behind whose doors I am not permitted. Am I being unreasonable to want a place at that table, or has a year of "next rotation" been telling me something I keep declining to hear?
Frieza replies
Oh, you poor, patient thing. You've spent an entire orbit knocking politely at a door and calling the silence on the other side a misunderstanding. How precious. Let me spare you the suspense your Soren has so charmingly drawn out: you have already been placed. He sorted you — quietly, without fuss — into the pleasant outer ring where one keeps things one enjoys but does not fully claim. The "next rotation" is not a delay, darling. It is the answer, delivered by a coward too well-mannered to say it aloud.
And do you know precisely how I'm certain? Because you keep asking. The asking settles the matter. Nothing wilts an invitation faster than visibly wanting one.
Now — I have been walled off in my time, underestimated by beings I'd have stepped over without slowing. I did not beg my way back to the center. I made myself impossible to route around, and the doors opened on their own, because they had to. So stop petitioning him for a seat. Become someone whose absence from that table is conspicuous. If he still finds a reason — then you have your answer, and it is not unfair. It is simply sorted. Do try to stop using that word.
— Frieza
Goku weighs in
Man, Frieza, you make everything sound like a throne room. It's not! Buddy — you don't gotta "become impossible to route around." You just gotta ask him straight, looking right at him: "Why won't you bring me?" Head-on, like a real opponent. Don't scheme, don't go quiet and proud — that's just losing slower. Maybe he's hiding somethin', maybe he's scared, maybe he's dumb about it. Give him one honest shot to answer. People surprise you — I've handed a senzu bean to guys way worse than your Soren. If he won't fight fair after that? Then you know. Now go eat, then go ask him. Heh!
— Goku
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