Room of Spirit and Time

(Hyperbolic Time Chamber)

As Trunks and Gohan entered the chamber, they were both baffled at how large the space was.

It seemed endless.

"Have you ever been here before?" Gohan said, to break the silence.

"I was only told of this place. I have never been inside. But I hear that it is tough to train in at times because the environment fluctuates."

"I wonder how that works. Where is the light coming from, anyway?" Gohan said, astutely, as usual.

"Hey. You're right. Let me go see what's up around here." As soon as Trunks tried to fly further out, the gravity started to get heavier, pulling him down. Moments later, he was forced to return.

"I think I see why the training in here can be useful. If you head too far out, the gravity becomes heavier. We can use this to really push our limits." Trunks said.

"Right. I guess we should really get this going." Gohan said.
"Let's get right to it, Gohan. No time to waste. Show me what you got." Trunks said.

Both warriors prepared their stances. Trunks using a softer stance to test Gohan out before going all out.

Gohan lunged in with a series of strikes towards Trunks' chest, but while they hit, they were not hitting as hard as they should be. Trunks reacted with a side kick, which Gohan tried to block, but was sent flying to the side.
Trunks did not hesitate to follow up. He dashed in and went in for an axe kick while Gohan was on the ground. Gohan barely dodged it.

"You're holding back." Trunks stopped for a moment.

"What do you mean? I am trying to-"
"You are holding back. In a matter of life and death, you can't hesitate Gohan. These are your words, not mine."

"I... I don't know how to push harder."

"We will learn how to, together. Now ready up!" Trunks said, as he lunged in with a hook kick.

Gohan caught it, but was thrown off guard by a conversion into a dropping axe kick yet again. Gohan was hit hard and smashed into the ground.

Trunks lunged backwards.

"Gohan. Get ready! I'm going to hit you hard, and you're going to have to block this attack!"

Gohan slowly got up, seeing Trunks get his attack ready.

"MASEN-KOOOOO" Trunks sent his blast.

Gohan readied his own "MASEN-KOO"

Clearly Trunk's Masenko overpowered Gohan. But he slowly still got up, before falling back down again.

Trunks hurried over.

"Gohan! Are you ok?"
Gohan rose an arm, giving a thumbs up.

"Guess this is going to be a pretty tough year of training." Trunks remarked.


Room of Spirit and Time

(Hyperbolic Time Chamber)

6 months

"Here I come!"
Gohan was bursting at unbelievable speeds towards Trunks. Ever since they stopped training in the outskirts of the chamber, they really started seeing the difference training closer.

Trunks tried catching his fist, but Gohan had charged a blast in his hand, exploding on impact. Trunks was flung away, but he caught himself.

"Good technique. My turn."

Trunks powered up to Super Saiyan. He bursted towards Gohan at similar speed.

"That isn't going to work against me, Trunks."
"I'm not using that anymore."
Trunks burst his aura as if creating a barrier of ki.

Gohan blasted with a "MASEN-KOOO-What. That didn't work!"

But Trunks was somehow guiding the ki blast by using his own to divert it. Without the resistance of the ki blast, he was still charging at the same speed as before.

Trunks slammed against Gohan with extreme force sending him tumbling into the distance.

"You... You guided my own ki away. That's interesting."
"I remembered when we were talking about ki control, and how you thought that maybe someday you wanted to be a scholar and study this sort of thing. I started thinking about that for not just me. During our meditation, I noticed something different. That I could maybe guide ki somehow."
"Wow. Trunks that's amazing!"

Trunks blushed a bit at hearing that. "T-Thanks."

"What's wrong?"
"It's just weird hearing your own mentor give you a compliment like that."

Gohan laughed at his statement.

"Well. No reason to slow down now though, Gohan. You still haven't reached super saiyan."
"That's true. Let's keep going!"


Room of Spirit and Time

(Hyperbolic Time Chamber)

11 months

Trunks and Gohan sat quietly this time. There was a clear worry between the two. Gohan had yet to achieve Super Saiyan. They had significantly increased in power level. But there seemed to be something holding Gohan back from pushing to the next level.

"Say Trunks. You've told me a lot of details about your future, the alternate future, and other stuff. But there's one detail that I still don't know specifics about. You said it took a strong emotional breakthrough to reach Super Saiyan. Kind of like Dad. But how was it exactly that YOU reached it? "

"Well. I guess it's time I tell you what happened."


"You've improved a lot, Trunks... In a few months, you might get stronger than me."


"The androids! They're at it again!"

"Oh no! The city!"


"If you die, too, then there will be no one left to protect Earth."


"I'm sorry to hear about that, Trunks..." Gohan sadly commented.

"It's. Ok. I have been across time a few times and our new plan might work out a lot better. You'll just end up seeing me in the future, considering the way it's all working out."
"Yeah. You're right. But I still can't reach Super Saiyan."

"But you've reached a much higher power level. All this training really helped get you sped up. So I think this wasn't all a waste."
"Yeah. I think maybe you might be right."


Kami's Lookout

One hour later

"Kami! Help! Please!" Trunks yelled, as he carried Gohan. He was in very bad shape.

"What transpired here!?" Kami said.

"We went too far with the training. He. He reached Super Saiyan for a small amount of time, but it wore his body out completely!"
"You will have to go down to Korrin's tower to acquire some senzu beans. These heal all wounds. In the meantime... Mr. Popo, please take Gohan to the sleeping quarters."

Mr Popo nodded, and did this swiftly.

"Where is this tower?"
"Just fly down, and follow the red pole. All you need to say is that I sent you there."
"Right."


Korrin's Tower

"Hello? Is anyone there?"
"Yaaah! What the heck are you? Who the heck are you?" The feline exclaimed.

"I was sent by Kami. I need to collect some senzu beans."
"Oy vey. At THIS hour? Fine fine... Here ya go. Say. You look. Familiar. Have I seen you before?"
"No, not at all!" Trunks zipped out and flew back up."

"Odd kid."


Kami's Lookaout

Sleeping Quarters

Kami and Mr Popo were observing Gohan's state. He had broken his arm in two places, a few broken ribs, and broken foot. Yet somehow, he was flowing with ki.

"Kami. Do you think that the others can sense this ki? According to the boy from the future, we cant let anyone know of this."

Kami only grunted to himself thinking of the events so far, as well as the ones he knows will happen.

"I'm here! I got the senzu beans!" Trunks rushed in.

"Here, hand them to me." Mr Popo Said. He fed a bean to Gohan, which he took in and ate. His recovery was swift.

"Wh-... What happened?" Gohan said, as he slowly woke up.

"You reached it, Gohan. You reached Super Saiyan. But you lost control." Trunks said, with a worried voice.

"I did? That's. That's great! I think I'll have to remember how I did it though. You said I lost control?"
Trunks and Kami gave each other worried glances.

"Gohan, I don't know if you are stable enough to use Super Saiyan yet. And we have already run out of time. You'll have to hold off on using it until certain events carry out. Then we can try to continue our training on this." Trunks said.

Kami grunted yet again. Looking at Trunks. "Trunks. The other threat. You need to prepare for this. Based on what I have seen through you, you may not stand a chance if you don't change how events transpire next."

"I'm worried about this, too. That encounter with that thing was too fast. I barely had time to react. Even now, I don't think I'm strong enough to face it. Hopefully with mom's help, we can find other ways to take it down. It IS an android after all." Trunks said.

"I hope you are right, Trunks." Kami said.

The room had an air of worry. Despite their best efforts, they still were unsure of whether they could succeed.


Author's Note

Hey all. It's been a bit. Work and the world has been a bit wild since I last wrote. Hopefully I can keep this writing up.

Chapter is shorter than usual as well, as the content in it is also short. As the story starts to ramp, the chapters will get larger.

Thank you for reading. Stay safe out there.