Chapter 4: Hopes For Tomorrow

Piccolo was training in the early morning as he usually did, with the sun barely up in the sky. For the past two months or so he had resolved to train as hard and as long as he possibly could in order to reach a level he thought was enough to be able to subdue Gohan's hidden power, however he hadn't found any evidence that he truly was getting anywhere near that kind of strength yet. His training usually consisted of meditation for most of the night, and then he would physically train himself during most of the daylight hours, with the exception of checking on Gohan to make sure the brat was still alive. Piccolo found that the boy had also made great progress in his power, and had pushed himself to a limit that the boy would never have tried for if Piccolo hadn't implanted the idea of Goku being an uncaring selfish bastard in him. Gohan now had something to live for, something to get stronger for, and something to keep his fears at bay, and it all was about showing his father what he was made of. 'Heh, I really out did myself this time' Piccolo congratulated himself while fighting a split copy he had made of his body for training purposes.

The two clashed in the sky, their fist slamming into each others, creating a small shockwave that shook the ground below briefly. After the stalemate had occurred, the original Piccolo started to throw punches at his copied self, who dodged and blocked as many blows as he could until the original blasted the copy in the face with a right hook. The copied Piccolo flew back but regained his position and blasted the original Piccolo with as much Ki as he could possibly throw out. The original flew back and forth, trying to dodge, but one got him finally and sent him flying up into the air. Quickly taking advantage of this opportunity, the copy zoomed in and attempted to slam his elbow into the originals stomach, but the original had other plans. As the copy attacked, the original seemed to vanish in a split second, repapering behind his twin and slamming his two clamped fists down on him, sending the copy down crashing to the ground.

After that, Piccolo decided that he should take a break from fight to see if Gohan was ready to be trained by Piccolo himself. He nodded to his counterpart who immediately nodded back, and the two fused together back into one. Even though he had thought that the boy should be ready by now, he still had some thoughts in the back of his head. 'Maybe I should give the kid more time, my training techniques could kill him if he's not prepared.' However, Piccolo shrugged this off and smiled with a single phrase; "No pain no gain." The green one chuckled softly and blasted off in search of the kid.

Meanwhile, Gohan was in the middle of his daily training. For the past two months, he was putting everything on the line to become stronger. For what? He had only a few ideas, but for some reason he couldn't stop thinking about training. Gohan had changed very little since he started training, the only thing that was different was that he now had something driving him forward, something to keep him from being afraid. He was going to show his father what he was made of when he returned to Earth and finally get an explanation out of him. "I've got to keep going, I have to show Mr. Piccolo that I can be strong like him." Gohan told himself as he blasted a few ki at a nearby rock, turning it into rubble. 'If I can make him proud, maybe he can be my new daddy.' Gohan smiled and laughed a bit at the thought of Piccolo, Gohan and Chi-Chi all sitting at the dinner table, sharing a nice warm meal. The thought of his mother had upset him a bit, however, as he wished to see her and tell her that he was ok on his own, and that he didn't need Goku anymore.

Another unique trait that Gohan had picked up was that he no longer referred to Goku as his father, but now called him by his first name. He had resolved to do this one night after a session of deep thinking where he had figured out that he no longer thought of Goku mainly as his father, but as an enemy or a rival that Gohan would one day defeat. "I'm gonna show you Goku, I'm gonna show you that I can be a great warrior!" Gohan smiled brightly and started to practice his kicks and punches. 'Once I make Piccolo proud we can go and live together and I'll have a daddy again!' At the sheer thought of this, Gohan felt happiness in which he hadn't felt for months, since his father had "abandoned him." He continued his training until he saw something coming in the sky, it was green and wearing a turban, Gohan shouted up to the green man with much enthusiasm; "Hey Piccolo! I'm down here! I'm ready to start the training now!" Piccolo saw the boy on the ground shouting his name, and promptly landed near him.

"Come on kid, it's time I started to teach you how to become a real warrior." Piccolo told the boy, who prevented himself from smiling in order to look more serious like his mentor. Gohan nodded and walked over to Piccolo, who was currently thinking about the boy's future training as he approached the green man. 'Yeah kid, that's right, the time is here, and when I'm through with you you're going to wish you had never been born.' Gohan had reached the man who stared down at the boy with a serious look on his face, one which Gohan could not shake, and he knew that now was the time when things would start to get serious.

"I'm ready Piccolo." Gohan said, still looking at Piccolo's cold stare. The green one nodded and picked him up to take him to his usual training spot. On the way there, Gohan couldn't help but ask something that was on his mind.

"Um… Piccolo?" Gohan quietly tried to get his attention, Piccolo gave a swift glance over to Gohan that meant he was listening. "Can I see my mom sometime?" As soon as Gohan finished his sentence, Piccolo stopped mid flight and looked at the child with a deathly gaze. Gohan kept looking up at Piccolo, hoping to get a response that sounded like; 'sure Gohan, and then we can all eat dinner together and be a family.' But what came out was;

"You can see your mom when you've managed to beat me in a fight." Piccolo stared at the boy for a moment, but then started to blast off once more. Gohan wasn't exactly happy with the answer he had gotten, but he was glad that he had a chance, even if it was a small one. The rest of the way there was mostly quiet, except when Piccolo told Gohan that he would teach him to fly and use ki attacks, to which Gohan replied;

"But I already know how to use those ki things." This surprised Piccolo, as he had never seen Gohan do this before.

"When was that kid?" He asked, thinking that maybe he just used it when he wasn't around.

"Well I started using them a month ago when I remembered something that Goku was telling me when I was a baby." Gohan explained further. "He was talking about ki with me, and how it worked. I was only two so I didn't know what they were talking about, but I…" Piccolo cut him off in annoyance.

"Kid, if I want to hear your life story I'll ask. For now I don't really care." Gohan looked at the ground for a while, not knowing what to think about Piccolo for the moment, but eventually he began to make excuses as to why Piccolo was being so mean. 'Maybe he's lonely?' Gohan thought to himself. 'I should let him have his space.' They flew the rest of the way in silence, until finally Piccolo spotted his encampment not too far away.

"There it is kid; I won't start training you until tomorrow, which gives you one day to get prepared. Got it?" Gohan nodded as the two touched down on land. Piccolo released the kid who walked over to a nearby rock and sat down. 'What the hell is he doing?' Piccolo thought, looking at Gohan. 'I give him a day to prepare for my training and he uses it to slack off?' Piccolo decided to leave the child be and head out to train himself even more.

"Piccolo, I'm only resting for a little bit, I'll be up soon to prepare." Gohan yelled over to his master, who stopped mid stride.

"I would cherish every second that you're not training with me kid, because every moment of it will be a living hell." With that, Piccolo walked off, leaving Gohan in an intense amount of fear. 'I can't quit now… I've come too far!' Thought Gohan, as he got up and started to find something to eat.

Piccolo stood still in the same spot for a while, thinking about the return of Goku. Was it truly necessary at all? Surly in the time that they had to train, Gohan and Piccolo could take on just about anything that came their way. 'How strong are these two really? Can they truly be so much of a challenge that we have to bring Goku back?' Piccolo didn't think so, but something else was nagging on his mind.

His pupil, Gohan, needed his father to come back. It was one thing that the child truly looked forward to, being able to see Goku, and defeating him in battle. 'Ha, the kid won't even finish him off when the time comes.' Piccolo kept his cool and calculated expression on his face as he thought on. 'When when that time comes, I'll just have to kill Goku myself…' Piccolo smiled to himself. 'Again' He laughed, and decided that to bring Goku back was not only a smart idea, but Piccolo saw it as another opportunity to strengthen the bond of evil within himself, which had almost slipped away until he had experienced the rush of killing both Goku and Raditz at the same time.

'It's a good thing that the Saiyan showed up or I might have become one of those idiots.' Piccolo cringed at the thought of becoming one of those people that constantly had hung around Goku. Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, they were all fools that deserved to die, and Piccolo intended to give them what they deserved when the time came. 'Morons, the only person you should look out for is yourself.' Piccolo sat in silence for many hours, and thought about the coming months ahead.

Will Piccolo's training push Gohan too far? And what will Gohan do if he ever sees his father again? Find out next time on Piccolo's Choice!

Written By: Saucemonkey