Chapter 1:

"Duck, Mika, duck!"

"What?" Mika barely had time to dodge before her unofficial mentor, Piccolo thrust yet another fist at her. Her brother Gohan (only two years her senior), stood by watching. He had completed his training for the day, and even though Mika was only three, she was going through her own harsh regimen.

She wasn't surprised, though. Being the only girl Piccolo had ever trained didn't stop him from bashing her like his own personal drum set. She was a half-Saiyan, after all, and that gave Piccolo the perfect excuse to dig his foot right into her gut.

She gasped for breath, the white aura that had surrounded her momentarily disappearing. This was her punishment for not paying attention. She hopped back quickly, though, and countered with a severe punch to Piccolo's solar plexus.

Yes, being trained before she could even walk was certainly paying off, and Piccolo could definitely see this.

"Mika," he said. "Why don't we call it a day?" He powered down, huffing a bit, his face coming the closest to a smile Mika had ever seen.

"Okay," she said, powering down as well. She wiped her forehead, which was sticky with sweat. But she wasn't a crybaby. Even though she was a three-year-old, she was an all-out feminist, and she refused to cry even under the most dire situations. Even Gohan had to admire that.

"Will the Saiyans be coming soon?" she inquired her brother. At the age of three, she had mastered perfect grammar and polite speech, to which Gohan would sometimes roll his eyes in disgust and say, "Girls!"

"I don't know," Gohan said, a fierceness in his eyes that Mika had seen only once before.

She'd seen that fierceness when they had sparred together only the day before yesterday. She remembered him saying something about a "male ego" or whatever. Despite the fact that she was three and that she was a girl, she was just as strong as Gohan, which could annoy him at times, but being the good big brother he was, he rejoiced with her about it.

"Do you think they'll be strong? Really really strong?" Mika asked.

"Definitely," Piccolo said, landing in front of them. "And that's why you two need to be trained. You both have made good progress in training. But it's still not even close to how powerful the Saiyans are." He eyed Mika in the still-much-too-big training gi she was wearing. She had inherited it from her brother, but still being so small it didn't quite fit her yet. He saw hidden reserves of strength in her, so huge they could be even stronger than her very own father.

Son Goku.

Piccolo could see his fallen comrade in this girl-she had his persistence; she was never willing to give up. Her black hair, though cropped to her ears, was spiky and wild, giving her the appearance of a boy if not for the feminine face she had inherited from Chi-Chi. But in her eyes you could see Goku. There was his laugh, his excitement for battle, and she had inherited his appetite as well.

Gohan shared a close bond with his sister. He loved her and was very protective of her; if anyone dared lay a finger on her (besides Piccolo), they would have to answer to him.

"Okay, runts," Piccolo said. "This is the final part of your training: survival."

"What does that mean?" asked Gohan.

"It means you have to live on the sky above you, the trees around you, the ground below you, and the occasional hungry beast."

Mika shrank back a little. She could handle any beast, but how was she to get food? Water?

Oh, well, she decided, I can learn.

"Follow me," Piccolo ordered. Gohan and Mika both rose into the air, following Piccolo's lead into a deep forest filled with so many trees Mika couldn't see the ground. Once they got to a certain spot, Piccolo dropped abruptly, and Gohan and Mika did the same.

"I wonder what he's doing?" Mika whispered to her brother.

Gohan shrugged. When they reached the ground, Piccolo loomed ominously above them. "Here are the rules," he said in a baritone voice. "No flying. If you try to get out of the forest, either you will get lost or you will have to answer to me. You will rely on the swords I have given you. If you need a device for anything, you make it yourself with anything you can find. Got it?"

Mika and Gohan meekly nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Good," said Piccolo, obviously satisfied. he flew off, leaving the children alone.

"Let's go find something to eat," Mika said to Gohan.

"But, Mika, it hasn't even been an hour since we last ate," Gohan protested.

"Yeah? So?" Mika said.

Gohan smiled affectionately as he followed her. She was her father alive again...

"GOHAN!" he suddenly heard a shrill cry. Mika!

"Oh, Kami," Gohan muttered to himself. "I'm coming, Mika!" he followed to path of her chi and when he saw her, he saw that she was in no danger at all. In fact, she was grinning broadly at him.

"Look up," she said. Gohan looked up.

"What am I supposed to be looking at?"

Mika whacked him lightly on the head, and Gohan rubbed his head, surprised to find that it hurt. "Look up at the tree, dummy."

Gohan looked, and saw branches of leaves... and apples! Lots of them.

"How are we supposed to get them?"

"Like this." Mika punched the tree, and it began to topple over. She held it up. "Help me out, Gohan," she said.

Gohan took part of the tree and held it as she began whacking it against the ground. And this tree wasn't exactly a small tree, mind you. It was HUGE.

When Mika was finished she set the tree down out of the way and she and Gohan stared at all the apples scattered across the ground.

"Last one to the apples gets the ones with worms in 'em," Gohan said, making a rush for them.

"Eew," Mika complained, grabbing the apples as fast as she could.

Mika finished her last apple and threw the core. It was getting late and through the thick trees she could see the sun setting.

"I'll make the fire," she said to Gohan. "I've been practicing controlling my chi."

"It's all yours," Gohan said nonchalantly.

Channeling a small bit of chi to her index finger, she zapped it onto the wood Gohan had gathered. A small flame appeared, then got bigger.

"How was that, Gohan?"

"That was awesome, Mika."

Mika beamed. She and Gohan sat together, making small talk.

Then she abruptly asked, "Gohan, what was Papa like?"

Gohan thought for a moment. "He was a very strong man. and he acted a lot like you," he said.

"Really?" Mika asked. "How?"

"He had a bottomless pit for a stomach."

"Oh, stop it, Gohan."

And thus ended the Goku conversation. Up in Otherworld, on King Kai's planet, Goku watched this scene using King Kai's telepathic powers. "So that's what my daughter's like, huh?" He said it more to himself than to the Kai, but he heard anyway.

"Yep," he said. "She's very strong., isn't she?"

"She's like Chi-Chi and me mixed together," Goku stated with a chuckle. "So independent."

"Maybe someday she could become as powerful as you, Son Goku," said King Kai, half joking, half predicting.

"I think she might already be..." Goku muttered.

"Huh?"

"Nothing."