Gohan asked about this "combat power 5" — what level was that exactly?
Bulma hesitated for a moment, then explained, "It's roughly equivalent to... the strength of an average adult man in his prime! Sir, do you usually keep your power restrained like this?"
She wasn't foolish — having spent a lot of time around Goku and the others, she had heard a thing or two about martial arts.
So even though she was surprised by how low Gohan's combat power reading was, she quickly adjusted.
Gohan smiled and nodded. The idea of "an adult man's strength equals 5" passed through his mind briefly before fading away.
As a martial arts master, Gohan was more accustomed to sensing opponents through ki.
Beep beep!
Bulma's combat power detector suddenly displayed a new reading. Surprised, she exclaimed, "112? That's pretty high — who is it?"
She tapped the device a couple more times and immediately realized the reading was coming from not far behind her.
Gohan signaled for Bulma to look back.
Turning around, Bulma saw two people approaching through the crowd—
A tall, striking woman with purple hair, dressed in black with a white shirt, white cropped pants, and black heels, wearing fashionable sunglasses. On her shoulder perched a small, red bird.
Next to her was a shorter person, dressed in loose casual clothes, hands in pockets, wearing a newsboy cap and also sunglasses.
"Grandma Hathaway!" Bulma immediately brightened and waved at them.
The woman smiled faintly, the lazy little red bird still on her shoulder, and walked over with the man beside her.
Gohan nodded and smiled at them. "Master's wife, where is Master?"
"He went to pick up Goku," Hathaway removed her sunglasses and leaned in to examine Bulma, teasing, "Long time no see. My little Bulma has gotten more beautiful. Goku will be surprised when he sees you."
"He understands nothing!" Bulma said dismissively, a little frustrated, then laughed and linked arms with Hathaway. "No way! Compared to Grandma Hathaway, I'm nowhere near! When you took off your sunglasses just now... I felt the whole scenery dimmed because of it!"
The phoenix flew from Hathaway's shoulder and landed on Gohan's head.
"You're such a smooth talker, little girl!" Hathaway chuckled.
"What's that thing on your face, Bulma?" the short man with the cap suddenly asked.
"Oh! If it weren't for this fake nose, I almost didn't recognize you!" Bulma looked down closely at the short man with the cap and sunglasses, laughing, "Krillin, so it was you with the 112! When did you get back?"
She pointed to the single-lens glasses on her face, showing a line of data.
"I just got back a little while ago, resting on the island. The tournament's about to start, so I followed Master's wife here," Krillin smiled, a bit puzzled. "112? What's that? The thing on your face?"
"It's a combat power detector — it roughly estimates a living being's strength," Hathaway explained. She had approved Bulma's access to the technical info needed to make the single-lens glasses.
"Oh? So that's what 112 means!" Krillin was interested. "Though I'm keeping my ki at a pretty low, natural level right now... is that number high or low?"
"Why are you like this too!" Bulma complained, then grinned and said, "112 is really high! Just now, Grandpa Gohan only had 5!"
"5?!" Krillin was shocked. He looked at Gohan and sighed, "Grandpa Gohan really is amazing. To keep such low ki in a natural state... no wonder, standing right here, I only feel an ordinary person in front of me. That's incredible!"
I still have a long way to go!
Thinking that, Krillin's little pride after enduring all his hardships immediately deflated.
Gohan just smiled quietly, saying nothing.
"You're all amazing, alright... what kind of combat power detector is this anyway? You martial artists are impossible!" Bulma grumbled, then pointed the single-lens glasses at Hathaway next to her and smiled, "Let me check Grandma's..."
"Huh?"
"What's wrong?" Krillin asked.
"Hehe..." Gohan smiled.
Beep beep. Bulma pressed a few more buttons, staring at a bunch of garbled characters on the single-lens glasses, confused. "What's going on here...?"
Hathaway said, "It's probably because the energy inside me is related to Taro, so it's a bit special. If your device doesn't have special adjustments, it's no surprise it can't analyze it properly."
Bulma thought it over and nodded — that made sense.
The four of them waited outside a while longer. The crowd outside the West City World Martial Arts Tournament arena was still thick and bustling.
Bulma muttered, "So slow, Goku!"
Seeing Hathaway glance at her with a smiling look, Bulma quickly rolled her eyes and changed the subject, laughing: "What about Tien? Weren't they sent to the underworld to train by Grandpa Taro? They should be back now, right? The sky darkened a bit this morning — did Grandma Hathaway use Dragon Balls to bring them back?"
"That's right," Hathaway nodded.
"They've already arrived..." Krillin smiled, looking east with determination, "But he went to another venue. We'll only meet him later at the grand finals in Sayuan City!"
The short guy with the cap and sunglasses looked north and said, "And then there's that Piccolo guy... he's gotten stronger too!"
"Speaking of which, we haven't seen Piccolo at all since the tournament ended five years ago..." Bulma mused thoughtfully, then a bit surprised, "By the way, Krillin, can you feel their strength from so far away? Also... Tien and Piccolo, they should have controlled their power just like you and Grandpa Gohan, right? So you can tell they've gotten stronger too?"
"Unlike mechanical detectors, martial artists sense opponents through spiritual ki — it's an unconscious intuition to detect strength," Gohan explained. "Of course, the more advanced the martial artist's skill, the keener this intuition is."
"Exactly, that's intuition!" Krillin nodded earnestly.
"Really, it's not scientific at all..." Bulma muttered. Suddenly, an idea popped into her mind — could she create a device that could accurately measure a martial artist's power no matter how much they try to hide it?
Because theoretically, a living being's energy can't just vanish. Even if martial artists use advanced techniques to conceal or suppress their ki, high energy still exists. It's impossible that when they hide their ki, it just dissipates or disappears or weakens... that would violate the law of conservation of energy.
The idea circled through Bulma's mind.
At that moment, Hathaway suddenly smiled and turned around, saying, "They're back."
The phoenix flew up from Gohan's head.
"They?" Bulma asked in surprise, then turned her head and saw two people had quietly appeared near the four of them.
One was a middle-aged man with gray-white hair, expression calm and unreadable.
The other was a young man with messy black hair, smiling brightly, giving off a cheerful, carefree vibe as if he had no worries at all.
"Master!"
"Goku!"