3.

Kami gazed at the two warriors in front of him with wide eyes, wondering if they had lost their minds.

"You want me to let you bring a child here to train? Do any of you realize how dangerous it would be for him? The intensity of the training is too much for any boy of his age!"

"Well, normally I would have to agree with you." Krillin said uncertainly. "But this is Goku's son."

Kami shook his head. "Asking Gohan to do the things Goku did would not only be foolish, it would also be potentially harmful. While the boy may have potential, asking him to do the amazing amounts of training Goku did would most likely only discourage him, and he could hurt himself physically if he tries."

"But Kami…" Krillin tried desperately to think of how to effectively convey what he could tell about Gohan. "If anyone can fill Goku's shoes, he can. I don't know how to tell you what it is about him, but there's something in Gohan… I mean, he never had any teachers but himself, and he can already almost pull off a kamehameha!"

The old guardian puzzled over this, wondering. To believe that anyone, even Goku's own son, could do the things that Goku could do, would be completely illogical. But just maybe he could give the boy a small test. Something that would take a little while, and not only prove whether or not he could handle training, but to sharpen him, and toughen him.

Because if Gohan was to fill Goku's shoes, he would have to be extraordinary in everything he did, as far as training went. Because Goku had been extraordinary.

"Perhaps we can give him a try. But not here, not right away." Kami said slowly. "I'll have to think of something, but in the mean time, he can start where everyone starts. He needs to climb the tower, and then come here on his own."

"But he's already at Korin's." Choutzu said. "And we have to keep him there so he doesn't try to leave on his own."

"He climbs the tower or he doesn't train." Kami said. "Period."

+

One hour later…

The village at the bottom of Korin's tower was in a part of the world where it was always either around eighty degrees, or it was snowing and freezing. They seemed to have winter and summer, but nothing of the pleasant in between of fall and spring.

Right now, it was cold.

Gohan shivered under the cloak that Tien had given him as the big tri-clops, holding him, descended rapidly down, the magic that kept the temperature on the tower at a comfortable degree fading into a cold chill that seemed to seep into his bones. He wasn't sure why Krillin and Tien were taking him down to the earth.

He was wrapped in a white cape, wonderfully thick, but not really good enough to keep out the wind at this high speed. He curled a little tighter into Tenshinhan's side, hoping that he wouldn't mind. Tien didn't even react, so he assumed the answer was that he didn't.

He could see Krillin's face if he opened his eyes, eve though the wind hurt them. The usually cheerful monk looked unusually grave, not even looking at Gohan, but straight down to the ground as they flew.

It amazed the young demi-saiyajin how huge the tower was, as they finally arrived at the bottom and he jumped down to stand on his own feet. Krillin and Tien flew fast, but even then it had taken close to five minutes for the trip down the tower. He couldn't see the top, no matter how hard he stared up into the swirling snow that had chased the villagers into their houses.

"Gohan," Krillin began, sounding as grave as he looked. "When you said you wanted to be trained and be a hero like your dad, did you really mean it?"

Gohan nodded fiercely, wondering why Krillin would bother to ask a question he knew the answer to. "I have to try, at least, so I can get the people who killed my mom."

Krillin looked at him a moment longer, taking in the boy's face, as if measuring how serious he was. Then he spoke.

"The first thing you have to do, to prove that you're tough enough to take the training, and that you have the determination and will, is to climb this tower."

At first Gohan didn't seem to hear, or think Krillin was joking. "What? Climb the tower?"

Krillin nodded. "All the way to the top. That's how Goku started."

The demi-saiyajin's eyes went wide. "But… that's got to be miles tall!!"

"Miles and miles." Krillin agreed. "But if you can't do this, you can't take Korin's training, let alone Kami's. good luck, Gohan. I'll see you at the top." Krillin made a slight smile at the end, then leapt up into the air, aura blazing as he shot up to the top of the tower again.

Gohan stared after him for a minute before he realized that Tien was still there, regarding him mildly.

"You have it tougher than Goku did." Tien said after a second. "It was at least warm when he did it. But I bet you can pull it off anyway."

Gohan raised his eyebrows. "You really think so?"

Tien nodded slowly. "Yeah. I do." He said thoughtfully. "Just remember not to look down, or think about the long distance ahead of you. Only think about the next step, or the next handhold, and you'll be at the top before you know it."

He took off now, as well, leaving Gohan to look at the tower.

He wondered how he was supposed to climb this thing. There weren't any steps, or a ladder.

But… the whole pillar had been carved into geometric designs quite deeply. Maybe…

He grabbed one diamond, about eye level, and dug his fingers into the cracks, then stepped only a little ledge that was really only a raised triangle that circled the tower.

It held.

Gohan started climbing to the top.

+

Piccolo sat in the air, legs crossed, eyes closed. He was meditating, as anyone could tell. But most people didn't know the real meaning of the word, or even have the foggiest grasp of what it really was.

To meditate, you had to get your mind to a state called the Void. Mind of no mind. You had to think nothing, only feel. It sounded easy, but easy was the furthest thing from how it was. To sit in complete silence, and think of nothing at all, was maddening. That was why Piccolo always did it near a waterfall; the rumbling of the water helped him to drift.

After reaching the particular state of the Void, you had to be able to let your mind tune in. and those two hard steps were all it took. Once you were tuned in, you knew exactly what was happening around you, and in some cases far away. Your mind could drift, or you could even, if you were skilled enough, send your spirit out of your body for a while to travel the miles, if you wanted.

This was where Piccolo was now, though he was only outside of his body and next to it, living for a moment in this strange soundless world, where there was no physical sensation. In this way he was an observer, and could only affect the physical world through the minds of others.

He was tuned in completely; Piccolo stared across the landscape toward Korin's tower miles away; he could actually see it, even though it was far out of sight in his body. He was watching Gohan. As he did, he began to move closer.

The boy was about a mile in the air, less than a fifth of the way up the tower. Yet with the blowing wind and cold snow, his entire body was numb, and the namek was sure that he would never make it to the top. Gohan would never give up, but his body could quit on him even so.

Now he was so near he could see how the boy's fingers were turning blue at the ends. Gohan's eyes were half shut as he slowly found each handhold, and to Piccolo they looked dim, as f Gohan had shut out the world of sensation so that he could continue up the tower.

The namek was stunned by the boy's determination, though he had no idea why Gohan was climbing the tower in the first place, he had sensed ChiChi die the day before, but he didn't connect that event with Gohan's climbing.

Then, quite suddenly, Gohan's head turned, and eyed Piccolo with a dim awareness. An awareness that, despite Gohan's nearly passing out condition, left no room for misunderstanding.

Piccolo jumped when he realized Gohan could see him.

+

The explanation is actually easy.

Tien had given Gohan the piece of advice not to look down, and not to think about how far he had to go, or how far he had come. Only think of the next handhold. Gohan had taken this advice to heart, and that combined with the cold of the increasing storm had made him reach almost the same state of no mind required for intense meditation. Completely accidental, yet it probably saved his life.

Because when he looked over at Piccolo's spirit, the semi-transparent image of the namek startled him, and snapped him back to reality just enough so that he could feel the cold. It had been hours since he started climbing, forced by the snow that had kicked up into a blizzard to go slowly, and he just couldn't hold on.

His hand slipped. That was all it took, and Gohan fell off the tower and began to plummet downward.

+

Piccolo reacted instinctively. He wasn't really on anyone's side yet, but he knew that he couldn't let Gohan fall to the ground and die. Not only was the kid abnormally strong, a fact that Piccolo had noted when he first saw the boy, but he was Goku's son, and Piccolo had gained at least enough respect for the saiyajin to make sure his son wasn't killed.

So he shot his spirit back toward and into his body, moving almost instantly into the physical world with it's feelings and sounds. The second he was in his body, he flared ki around him, throwing off the weighted cape and turban as he launched into the air.

Gohan was miles up, but he was falling fast, and Piccolo was far further from the tower than Gohan was from the ground. In truth, he didn't know if he could make it. But that didn't slow him down. If anything, he moved faster than he ever could have normally, knowing a life was at stake.

He could see the tower, was coming up to it now. And he could see a small figure plummeting down through the snow, at speeds sure to crush him when he hit the ground, which was now not far at all. He strained for more ki, the split second seeming to stretch into an hour as he tried to get to Gohan before the frozen ground did.

It came to the balance of a hair, and if he hadn't had the ability to extend his limbs, Piccolo never would have made it. He shot them out as he dove, and caught Gohan under the arms with both hands only a foot from the snow.

He drew the kid back, pulling him close to his chest on instinct to keep him warm. Gohan, who was shivering like a leaf in a gale, opened his eyes slightly and looked up into the stern face above him.

"Piccolo-san…"

Then he closed his eyes, and didn't open them for twelve hours.

Author's Note: I wanted t write a scene of Gohan climbing the tower and showing the snow getting worse and finally going into a full fledged gale, but after numerous attempts that all went to the recycle bin, I decided that it would be better to just leave that out and imply that the weather had gotten worse. Hey, maybe not quite as good as a well written scene, but it works. Ciao.