"Mom, you can't teach me anymore! Let me train with Dad instead!"Son Gohan handed Chi-Chi his finished worksheets, a faintly disdainful expression on his face.
"Gohan! What kind of attitude is that? Don't think that just because you've mastered that terrifying multiplication table, you can get all cocky!" Chi-Chi snapped.
"Terrifying? I don't think so…" Gohan muttered helplessly.
"Fine! Tomorrow, I'll handle your school enrollment. You're going to class!" Chi-Chi slammed her palm on the table.
"Mom… have you ever seen a child under one year old go to school?" Gohan asked, exasperated. Then, with mock curiosity, "Would that be kindergarten or elementary?"
Chi-Chi was speechless.
"Please, Mom, just let me train with Dad. I promise, when I turn three, I'll start primary school. And I'll keep up with my studies while I'm training, I swear!" Gohan pleaded.
"…Alright. But you have to promise me you're not allowed to come back covered in bruises!" Chi-Chi relented, laying down the condition.
"Got it, Mom! Don't worry! I'm off, going to help Dad chop wood!"
A crackle of lightning seemed to spark at his feet. Before Chi-Chi could say another word, he was gone.
"That brat… exactly like Goku. The moment you mention training, he goes crazy! Ugh, I have no idea why those two are such monsters… and now with Gohan, the amount of food I cook in a day could feed another family for a month!" Chi-Chi muttered, heading toward the kitchen.
Since marrying Son Goku, her daily life had been a repeating loop: cook, wash dishes, clean.
"My one year is just one day, repeated three hundred sixty-four times…" she sang to herself while working.
"Dad!!" Gohan dashed toward Goku, yelling at the top of his lungs.
"Eh? Gohan, no studying today?" Goku turned at the sound and appeared at Gohan's side in a blur of high-speed movement.
"Nope! Mom agreed. Until I turn three, I can train with you!" Gohan said excitedly.
"Good! I've always known you were gifted. Starting today, I'll train you seriously. The future of Earth will be in your hands!" Goku grinned, equally delighted.
From little details in daily life, he had already sensed Gohan's extraordinary potential:He had seen Gohan crush a steel pen in his hand when Chi-Chi forced him to study.He had witnessed Gohan eat the same massive portions he did.He had watched his son squat-lift a dinosaur.And he had felt that brief, overwhelming surge of ki when Gohan got angry.
"Dad, where do we start? Are we going to spar?" The boy's small frame shifted into a fighting stance.
"Haha! Gohan, you're not ready to fight me yet. First, you need to learn to control your strength, to control your own ki!" Goku ruffled his son's hair.
"Control my ki? Right… I don't even know what ki is! Teach me, Dad!" Gohan's eyes sparkled with curiosity.
"Sit cross-legged. Focus your mind. Feel that warm current in your belly. Control it… concentrate."Goku demonstrated, sitting cross-legged with both hands over his lower abdomen. A faint light began to glow between them.
Gohan imitated him exactly.
The belly… that's the same spot as the dantian in those old myths from my previous life, he thought, closing his eyes and focusing.
In less than a minute, he sensed it that subtle flow of energy.
A faint glow appeared between his small, clenched hands.
"Huh? You already found it? Amazing, Gohan!" Goku's eyes widened in shock.
When he was a child, he hadn't even known what ki was. He had strengthened his body step by step, guided over the years by Master Roshi, Korin, Kami, and Mr. Popo, before he truly mastered it.
Yet Gohan had done it in under a minute.
"Dad, so this is ki? This is incredible!" Gohan jumped to his feet, gathering the energy in his palms.
The glow brightened until it formed a yellow orb the size of a child's fist.
"Gohan, see that big tree about ten meters ahead? Throw it at that!" Goku said, even more impressed now.
"Whoosh… bang… BOOM… CRACK!"The towering tree collapsed instantly, black smoke curling from the charred break.
"Gohan, how do you feel?" Goku asked seriously.
"Nothing much… If I have to say, maybe just a tiny bit tired," Gohan replied after thinking for a moment.
"Haha! You're incredible! That energy blast was way stronger than anything I could do at your age!" Goku's excitement was palpable, the light in his eyes blazing.
Ever since defeating Piccolo Jr. at the World Martial Arts Tournament, his fighting spirit had gone dormant.Every opponent he had beaten Yamcha, Tien, Piccolo had been unable to surpass him again, unable to rekindle that fire.
But now, it stirred once more.
"Dad, what's next?" Gohan didn't notice Goku's battle lust. After all, in his past life, he had just been an ordinary man.
"Next, you'll learn to control your power, strengthen your body, push your potential to the limit, and make that ki in your belly grow stronger and stronger. Gohan, I can't wait for the day we fight each other!"
"Yes, Dad! I won't let you down!" Gohan's eyes burned with resolve.
"Alright, go pick up that tree you just knocked down, and run a lap around Mount Paozu. Can you do it?"
"Two laps!"
He sprinted to the fallen tree, fingers tensing like steel rods. "Yah… ha!"All ten fingers pierced into the wood. His small body couldn't wrap around the trunk, so this was the only way to lift it.
He braced himself. "Ha!" And hoisted the massive tree up.
But then he stopped, frowning.
"Dad… with my height, I can't get out of the forest carrying something this long."
"Figure it out. As long as the weight stays the same, it's fine," Goku said, folding his arms.
"Same weight? Got it, Dad! Thanks!"
Gohan set the tree down, walked to the middle, and wrapped his palm in a thin layer of ki.Forming a knife-hand, he chopped straight through the trunk, splitting it in two.
He thought for a moment, then decided even two big logs were awkward to carry.
Soon, he found two half-meter-thick straight trees, chopped them down, and shaved the ends of the large logs flat. He stacked them, then drove the half-meter logs down through them like giant pegs, locking the pieces together.
In moments, the weight was secured.
Lifting his makeshift load, he began his run toward the mountain's edge.
Each step left a deep crater in the earth.
Genius or not, with his potential still untapped, carrying such a burden took every ounce of his strength.
Goku simply watched in silence, making no move to help.And Gohan didn't even think to ask.