Gine's boots shushed softly against the leaf litter of the forest floor, Little Gohan clambering more noisily behind her. He struggled over a fallen tree, fell, and ran to catch up, clutching for her hand and then settling for the hem of her dress when she did not lower it for him. Gine had told Chi Chi they were going for a walk, but what the girl didn't know couldn't hurt her.

It was time for Gohan's first hunt. A pure-blooded Saiyan child his age would have already been playing pounce games with his parents' tails for years and probably have managed to catch a few lizards, but despite the tail waving behind him, Gohan didn't seem to have an ounce of killer instinct in his body.

"Wow, Grandma, look!" Gohan exclaimed, tugging at her dress and pointing. "A metasequoia glyptostroboides. They're rare in this area. And there's a Chrysolophus pictus roosting in it! Oh, look, a Physignathus cocincinus! It just went behind that bush! Did you see it?"

Put simply, Gine thought, as she stared at the bird in a tree and listened to the lizard scuttling into cover, the boy was an incorrigible egghead. He was strong and growing stronger every day, he knew every kata of both the Turtle School and the Crane School by heart, had learned how to fly in a day and was able to meditate like someone three times his age, but if Bardock had been ashamed of Raditz for being wily, she didn't know what he'd make of his grandson.

"Gohan," she said, kneeling down to look him in the eye. "Do you know why we're out here?"

Gohan blinked. "A nature walk?" he ventured. Gine shook her head.

"We're here to hunt," she told him. His sweet little face went serious as he thought about this.

"You mean me, don't you?" he said, tucking his chin onto his chest. At least those brains worked both ways. Bulma was smart too, but she could be oblivious when it came to matters of common sense. Gine nodded.

"I'll show you the basics, but then it'll be up to you. You ready?"

She stood, but Gohan tugged at her dress again.

"Not an endangered species," he said firmly, and she smiled.

After a few brief lessons in stalking, wind direction, and camouflage, Gine dropped behind Gohan and let him lead the way. She could already tell there was a herd of deer up the mountain to the east, but if Gohan couldn't even find his prey then there was no point in teaching him how to kill it. Sure enough, he walked in the opposite direction of the deer, and Gine reminded herself that failure was as good a teacher as success.

To her surprise, though, in just a few minutes they were crouched at the edge of a slight clearing where an enormous tree had spread its branches, a flock of small birds roosting in its roots.

"Arborophila rufogularis," Gohan whispered. Gine nodded. The clearing would make it difficult to get very close, but these birds tended to run rather than fly. All in all, not bad for a first attempt. She watched as Gohan closed his eyes, and felt as he settled his energy to be as inconspicuous as possible. Probably not necessary with fowl, but it couldn't hurt. Opening his eyes, he crept around the edge of the clearing until he was hidden in a vast fern. From her vantage point, Gine could barely see him, and the birds remained unconcerned.

Without warning, a rock sailed out of the fern into the middle of the flock, its angle making it seem to the birds as though it had come from another direction, and they ran from it—straight into Gohan's hiding place. After a confusion of feathers and squawking, Gohan leaped out of the fern with a triumphant yell, the neck of a struggling bird held tightly in his hand.

"I got one, Grandma! I got one!"

She stood slowly in amazement. Gohan ran to her, grinning, and thrust the bird forward to show her.

"Did you see? I caught it! Did you see me?"

"That was incredible, Gohan," Gine said, beginning to grin herself. Even Kakarot hadn't gotten a kill on his first try. Brains guiding brawn was a force to be reckoned with indeed. Maybe she'd been worried over nothing.

"Here," Gohan said, holding the bird out for her to take, and Gine's smile slid off her face. She did not move. Gohan held it out a few inches farther. "For you," he said.

"What am I supposed to do with it?" she said, and the smile slid off his face as well. He looked at the still struggling bird, and then back at her, holding it out again.

"I got it," he said. "I did it."

"You're not finished."

The boy gaped at her, his mind refusing to comprehend what she wanted.

"But… You mean… I should carry it home?" He looked up at her hopefully, and she shook her head.

"Not like that you shouldn't."

Gohan looked down at the bird once more, then up at her, and Gine made two fists in the air, twisting them sharply in opposite directions. Instantly Gohan's face went white, and he must have loosened his grip, because the bird gave a loud whistle and flapped its wings until it was free, running away as fast as its little legs could carry it. Neither Gohan nor Gine watched it go. Gohan was staring at his grandmother, lower lip trembling.

"I… I don't wanna," he hiccupped, and Gine looked at his sweet, miserable little face and wondered what else she had been expecting.

"Okay," she said simply, and turned around, heading back down the mountain toward camp. Gohan clambered after her, and this time, when he reached for her hand, she let him take it.

For the rest of the day Gine thought long and hard about Kakarot's early hunting experiences (games he delighted to master), and her own (matters of survival), but found nothing to guide her on how to help her grandson overcome this hurdle— or even if she should.

But that evening she caught Gohan looking thoughtfully at the roast duck Yamcha had bagged by accident while practicing his Spirit Ball technique. She watched him look from Yamcha, who was joking with Krillin, to Chi Chi, who had plucked and dressed it, and then down at his plate more than once before the meal was through, and she thought maybe she could let him decide.

Early the next day Gohan grabbed Gine's hand and led her into the forest, not letting go until they'd been walking for nearly half an hour. He dropped into a crouch and in a few seconds was out of sight. Gine was pretty sure he was stalking a rabbit, much quicker and more alert prey than roosting birds, so she was unsurprised when he reemerged a few minutes later frustrated and empty-handed. He led her through the forest for a few more minutes before spotting something else, only to return with nothing to show for it once more.

After a few rounds of this he finally bagged another bird, a large flightless thing he didn't tell her the scientific name of. It struggled and squawked, but he gripped it tightly, asking her a question with his eyes.

"Hold it here and here," she told him, and he did. "Twist like this as hard as you can, as fast as you can. You don't want it to suffer."

He nodded, took a few quick breaths, then squeezed his eyes shut and wrung his hands. There was a snap, and the bird fell limp.

"Very good," Gine murmured, and Gohan opened his eyes, looking down at the bird in his hands like he expected it to scold him. When it did nothing but hang there, he blinked a few times, and then looked up at Gine. He seemed almost surprised. The important thing, to Gine at least, was that he did not cry. "A good kill," she said. "Your mother will make it into a tasty dish."

"Yeah," Gohan agreed thoughtfully, and together they descended the mountain. When they were nearly in sight of the camp, Gohan turned to her and held out the dead bird. "You take it," he said. "I don't think mom would like it if she knew I killed it."

Gine hesitated. The boy was probably right. Chi Chi would faint dead away if she knew her baby had been out wringing the necks of the local wildlife.

It was just, she thought, taking the bird, that a Saiyan's first kill ought to be celebrated. It was the first tangible sign that you were worth something, that you weren't just an empty mouth but a member of society. A person. It was an occasion for boasting, for dancing, and teasing from adults who, just the day before, had treated you as though you didn't exist. A Saiyan's first kill was a good thing.

This was all true, and so Gine did not know, as she watched Gohan go up to his mother and hug her, why she felt like crying.