~Chapter 2: Muten Roshi's training~

I had very big plans when I left the temple, but I have to admit that they weren't that well thought out. I really had no idea where to go or what to do, so I hung out around town for a while. Eventually I learned of a rumor/legend of a great master of martial arts living out in the west. I also heard of a tournament to determine the world's strongest fighter, but figured that I did have to pace myself a little. I reckoned I'd need some serious training before entering a tournament like that.

Hence, I set off west to try and find this mysterious master, as much of a long shot as it seemed. The journey was long, tough, and kind of scary at times. I had to resort to methods like hitchhiking, and I got into a few real fights along the way. I found myself missing the temple badly. Every time I began to consider going back, though, all I had to do was remember the taunting and my rage kept me going. I would have sooner died than to have gone back to them with my tail between my legs, so I pressed on. I was heartened by the fact that the rumors about this great master seemed to get more specific and more widely known as I went on, which let me know that I was getting closer. I heard him called by a number of different names, but the one that was most common was "Muten Roshi" so I figured I'd go with that one but remember the others just in case. It was kind of discouraging, though, that he seemed almost to be a myth. Many didn't really believe that he existed, and those who did said that he'd been dead for many years.

My persistence finally paid off when I found someone who had actually recently known the guy. He was impressed by my determination and decided to tell me where I could reach Muten Roshi. I recall him warning me that the old guy probably wasn't quite what I was expecting. He was powerful, yes - amazingly so - but he was a bit odd as well. Once I got him going he could hardly stop reminiscing about Muten Roshi. At some point, he mentioned that he was the world record holder for owning the most dirty magazines, and he probably told me a bunch of other stuff that I can't remember. I was grateful for the help, but I really felt I had to move on, as I was on a mission and besides, his stories about the old master were starting to get too weird to handle.

Not long after that I set off for Kame Island, but I had to take care of a few things first. I remember wanting to make as good of a first impression upon the old master as possible so that he'd train me. From what I'd heard, he so rarely accepted students that I'd need all the edge I could get. I decided that I had to go in with a serious and determined attitude and the look of a real top-notch aspiring student so that he couldn't say no. I already had the attitude, but I looked like I had been run over by a capsule car. I needed new robes, a good bath and a good night's rest. What I really needed was money, and I had run out of that ages ago.

Fortunately, I came upon a miracle in the form of a contest. I saw a crowd gathered around a platform where a large, muscular man was standing and an announcer was proclaiming that anyone who could defeat him would recieve a prize of 5,000 zenii. That isn't a fortune or anything, but it was enough to get me to go up there. They laughed when they saw me... well, they weren't laughing for long. The match was really easy because he so heavily underestimated me. We had an argument afterward in which he didn't want to give me the money because I made him a laughing stock, but it worked out after I threatened to beat him up some more. I used the money to get a new robe made, and I checked into a hotel so I could rest and shave and polish my head to its best shine(stop laughing, back at the temple that was considered good grooming). While I was at it, I went ahead and obtained some dirty magazines as a gift to Muten Roshi. Dirty magazines were another one of the wonders I had discovered during those magical trips to the city(Sorry, but I'll be excluding that story from this volume for the sake of tact).

So, I finally went to Kame Island. I was kind of nervous - I had no idea what I'd do if the master refused to teach me - but I was determined to exude confidence. I planned out exactly what I'd do and say first when I got there. I didn't even allow myself to consider the possibility of failure. I planned to train with the invincible old master and become very strong, then head back to the Orinji temple and impress my peers, and then go on to make a name for myself. Yup, I had it all planned out.

I arrived at the island and made my grand entrance exactly as planned. I jumped in a high arc and executed a flip masterfully. It probably would have impressed Roshi if I hadn't landed head-first in the sand.

In retrospect, during those few seconds when I was imbedded in the turf, my legs flailing in the air, I probably should have realized that things weren't going to work out exactly as planned. Still, I was determined not to let it faze me.

When I was pulled out, I found myself face-to-face with a funny-looking old man and an even funnier looking little kid. The old master looked pretty much like I had expected, but the kid, who turned out to be Goku, caught me off-guard. I didn't think much of him just then. In fact, the sight of him pissed me off. After all I've gone through, it was a bit of a shock to my system to see that HE had managed to become a disciple of Muten Roshi.

I gave Muten Roshi my pitch, and he told me to have a nice trip home. After I gave him my gift, however, he quickly decided that he'd been a bit hasty. It was kinda creepy seeing him look at those magazines; I'd never seen such a pervert. He was the old master, however, so I tried not to let it bother me. When he gave us his first 'excercise', I did begin to worry a little that the Invincible Old Master might really be just an Incorrigible Old Lech. He told us to go find and bring back a "true hotty". Apparently Goku had no ability whatsoever to judge women, so I had to go and help him out. Goku seemed eager to go, and he excitedly hopped on his flying cloud and got ready to set out.

Wait a minute, flying cloud? This was only the first of countless things I'd see in the ensuing months that made me doubt my sanity. The Old Master explained the Kinto'un to me, and I gathered myself and hopped on. I fell straight through the cloud. When I stood up, they were both staring at me critically. Apparently the Kinto'un would not accept the impure of heart. I guess I was kind of a nasty little kid, but it kind of put a lump in my throat to be declared 'impure'. I ended up clinging to Goku for dear life as we soared through the sky in search of a girl for Roshi. He was even worse than I'd thought - apparently he couldn't even tell a male from a female without getting a good close look. It seemed obvious that the task would be up to me.

We hadn't been out long, however, when we heard gunshots and a girl's voice screaming for help. Goku decided to rescue her, and I ran for cover. Rescuing was a nice thought, but these guys had guns and I didn't want to be shot. I know, pretty lousy. Anyway, Goku beat them all up and we met a cute girl named Lunch who seemed nice and harmless. As a bonus, I could tell in one look that she was exactly the sort Roshi had in mind when he commanded us to bring back a "hotty". She rode Kinto'un on the way back, and I clung to her, which I frankly didn't mind at all.(Geez, 18's gonna kill me when she reads this. My memory is too good for my own good.)

The Old Master was very pleased with the job we had done to say the least. Actually, I felt kind of sorry for Lunch for a moment, handing her over to a guy like Roshi. She told me that the men pursuing her had been the police and that she had probably held up a bank. I didn't believe her - how could I? The girl looked like innocence personified. Then, suddenly, she sneezed, took out a gun, and shot all three of us. Fortunately, we were all varying degrees of bulletproof, but it was pretty shocking nonetheless.

We learned then that miss Lunch had a bit of an odd characteristic. Every time she sneezed, her personality and her hair color changed, and she had a tendency to produce a gun from Kami-knows-where and shoot whatever she was in range of. She turned back pretty soon, but we all kept a pretty respectful distance from Lunch after that. The next day we packed up the Kame House and moved to a bigger island to start our training.

We went through a few excercises before our training really got started. The first was a 100-meter dash. I was fast, Goku was really fast, and Roshi was a blur. We couldn't believe our eyes. That was when the old master introduced to us the concept that he called "The wall of humanity" or something like that. He said that neither of us had yet passed it, and that with more training we could both surpass human limits. Any doubts I had of the old guy vanished then and there. He was my new idol. We also did something involving finding a rock that the master had thrown, and it was then that I really got a glimpse of Goku's abilities for the first time. We fought at one point, and I never had a chance. I couldn't believe how strong he was.

Eventually, we finally got to the real training. The Old Master started our training off with a bit of wisdom that I came to live by. He made a little speech about the purpose of martial arts that just about drove all of my old motives out of my head. He told us that we train not to win a fight, but to better ourselves and our lives, however, if ever we should cross paths with one who seeks to terrorize decent people with undeserved power, we must use our strength to crush them with a mighty blow. That advice really awed me then, and I've taken it to heart ever since.

As for the actual training, it was INSANE. We delivered milk on foot all over the island(much harder than it sounds), did construction work, and plowed a huge field with our bare hands, and that was just for starters. Pretty soon I felt like I was going to die, and although he held out a little better, by the end of the first day I'm sure that Goku felt the same way. As if that weren't enough, we were told that we'd have to do that every day only wearing huge turtle shells on our backs, thus revealing why Muten Roshi was often called "The Turtle Master". We might have given up right then, but our master let it slip that we were training for the Tenka'ichi Budokai, the tournament to determine the "Strongest Under The Heavens", and we were excited enough about that to want to keep going. Although the training seemed ridiculously difficult at first, Goku and I used our deepest reserves of strength to get by, and soon, without even realizing it, we got a lot stronger. Although the tasks were still hard, they soon didn't seem so daunting as before. Something else happened during that time, too: I really started to get to know Goku. At first I resented him. I resented him for being stronger than me, and I resented him for being so ignorant and naïve. He didn't seem to know anything at all about the world. Yet as time went by, we got to be good friends. We were stuck in a common situation, and after all, how can you not like Goku? He was the sweetest guy I'd ever met, and although he was a bit slow, he was also very noble. He was friendly, too. He would have been friends with me right off, it was my hesitance that made it take so long. He never told me about his adventure with the dragon balls then; I guess it just didn't occur to him to tell me without my asking. Occasionally, though, without realizing it, he'd mention a name - Bulma, Oolong, Yamucha - and when I asked him who that was, he acted surprised for a minute and then smiled and told me a bit about that person. His good-naturedness was amazing; he had fond memories of all these people even though some of them had introduced themselves by trying to kill him.

Eight months flew by and before we knew it, it was time to leave for the tournament. Especially after we removed our shells, Goku and I knew that we had gotten a lot stronger. Still, I was unsure of myself. After all, we had trained only for a scant eight months and we'd never really learned any moves during that time. How could we possibly aspire to be "The Strongest Under The Heavens"?

--END OF CHAPTER TWO--