Chapter 4: Acceptence

When we reached the shoreline, father stated he had to tell me something important. "What's the matter, dad?" He didn't answer as he continued to watch the water. We stood silent for some time before I saw something slowly coming towards us. It took a while for me to realize that is was a small boat with two females. "Who are they?"

"These lovely lady's come from the place your mother was born." I looked between dad and the ladies before fixing my posture. As they got out the boat, I took note that they wear almost as tall of dad. At that, they wore outfits similar to mom's child armor. "Long time no see, Ariel, Ashley."

"Same to you, Gyu Mao. Last we spoke my sister had given you a child." The lady with long black hair walked over to me. "So, I'm assuming you must be Chichi. My, what a strong one you are." I couldn't help smile as she patted my head. She then stepped before dad, and it was then I saw how close to dad's height they were. "I take it you told her about us taking over her training?"

"What!" The female with the short, brown hair now came forward. She was just as tall as the other lady.

"My sister, Ashley and I will be not only training you in what your mother knew. But we will also be training you of the old ways." The was the last I saw of dad, as I went off with Ashley and Ariel.

As I was doing my second lap around the island, I couldn't struggle just a bit. How many times were they going to change the weight of my clothes. Last month it was a mere 13.6078 kg (30 lbs.) in total. It even out from my pant to shirt to wrist bands. Not to mention my socks. But today they just had to make me run with a total of 22.6796 kg (50 lbs.), which was intense. This is also not including that I had to run laps around a large island.

"Come on, Chichi." I looked to my right and there was Ashley. "At this rate you'll be late for breakfast." With that in mind I tried to pick up pace, as I watched Ashley push past me. I quickly tried to catch up. There was no way I was letting her win.

…

As much as the training challenged me, it was becoming a boring pattern. From the intensity of fighting off lighting, to battling a doll look-a-like. Just everything was so lifeless up here on Kami's Lookout. There was barely any trees and flowers. No noise, besides the echo of Kami's staff hitting the floors. This place was so quiet that I could hear my heart beating.

Oh, how I wished to catch a glimpse of my friends. I knew I wouldn't be allowed to go down to earth. But I didn't expect to not watch them from the lookout. How disappointing. But if Kami said it had to be done, why would I argue? Well, at least there was one thing I could always count on up here.

During the day, the sky was as empty as the lookout. But during the night it came alive. The endless stars reminded me so much of home. Just looking up into them I would sometimes find myself wondering about things. Such as stuff I never had the time to think about.

Today, as I watched the stars, my wondered to my friends again. Especially the friends I rarely spent time with. Would I even consider them friends? There was Upa, Eighter, Suno, and Chichi. Chichi? I wonder how she's doing right now. The last I saw her was before I faced King Piccolo.

She looked so different that I almost didn't recognize her. And why does my heart beat faster just thinking of her? I wonder why my face is heating up and my body feel so fuzzy. Maybe it something to do with her. No other friend makes me feel this way. So, why does Chichi? I soon found myself wondering what would I do if I ever saw her again. How would I even react? It was strange.

Today I had to train with the bell again. As I was trying to catch Mr. Popo, my mind kept thinking about Chichi. Like, how I would go see her after I defeated the new Piccolo. Maybe we could even spar together like we did during that date thing. My mind swam with thoughts of all the fun possibilities if I saw Chichi again. That was until I felt my face making contact with a fist. "What got you so distracted today, Goku?"

I looked to Mr. Popo before avoiding his eyes. What should I even tell him? Does it even make sense? I looked back to him and tried my best to smile. "It's nothing important, Mr. Popo."

"You need to learn to stop being distracted. It's one of those things that will cause you to lose a fight."

"Understood, Mr. Popo." After yet another long day, I sat under the stars. It was peaceful until I smelled something funny. Looking around there was nothing that the smell could from. "Could the smell be coming from me?" I quickly tried to smell my shirt. "Ugh." That funny smell was indeed coming from me.

Since I spent so much time training surrounded by so many smells, I never did take note how I smelled. At that, Kami's Lookout doesn't even have a scent to it. I could never pick up on Mr. Popo or Kami, if it wasn't for them making themselves known with sound. Now I get why Bulma reacted the way she did, and introduced me to my first bath. A bath.

I did take plenty of baths while traveling with Bulma. I took them when living and training under Master Roshi. Now thinking about it, when was the last time I took a bath? I walked back to my room and into the attacked bathroom. This was nothing like Bulma capsule home or Master Roshi's bathroom, but it still was nice.

The moment I soaked in the hot water it was amazing. The water was as hot as I could get it and somehow it didn't feel hot enough. But regardless, my body felt like it was relaxing. My sore muscle felt numb to the touch. And the longer I stood in the hot water my muscle began to relax. I definitely need to do this after training again.

The weeks that follow were hard. But being able to escape in hot water did wonders. I wonder what it feel like if I took cold baths. When I stepped in the water, I had second thoughts. But I just took a deep breath and fully went into the cold water. While I soaked it almost felt as good as the hot water. At that, it seem to make the pain go away. After the water turned warm, I got out the tub.

After another long day of training, I went to my room. I was still in disbelief that I was about to get pass the lightening training. Before I even got to the bathroom, I faintly could smell a strange smell. I closed my eyes and sniffed the air. I couldn't track the scent anywhere. I wonder where that came from. I paid no mind to it as I filled the tub.

The moment I was soaking in the hot water I could smell that scent again. I tried to focus on it and I could faintly tell what the scent was. It smelled of apples with the hint of fire and smoke. The scent somehow made this bath even more enjoyable. And when I meditated the following days, I was able to smell the smokey apples. It almost had put me to sleep.

"Goku?" I opened my eyes and looked to Mr. Popo. "You're being distracted again. If you keep this up then training would be pointless."

In the shock I stood up quickly. "What do you mean Mr. Popo."

He poked my forehead. "Focus on your training and stop getting distracted."

After that day, I tried to keep back all thoughts that had nothing to do with training. But every time I took a bath I couldn't stop thinking or smelling that pleasant scent. Yet this time around I couldn't help notice something was different.

The more that smokey apple scent passed through my nose the more my body reacted strangely. Even though I was in cold water, my body felt it was on fire. My skin became sensitive to the touch. With each passing second, I completely forget that I was in cold water with how burning my body became. I couldn't help myself as I touched myself. It's when my hand reached my lower half that I finally snapped out of it. What in the world was I even doing?

After that night I tried my best not to think about what had happened. And throughout the day it was hard to stay focus on my training. That was until Mr. Popo asked if I was doing alright. "Mr. Popo, is it normal for a boy's wiener to stand?" I felt my face burning the longer he didn't respond. "And what about my limb hurts, that wasn't from training?"

"Goku," I looked up to Mr. Popo. "Do you not know that your body changes as you get older?" I quickly shook my head. He let out a sigh before walking in front of me. "I believe we should take some time to work on educating you. Maybe it will help you better in your training."

Before long not only did my training became intense, Mr. Popo and even Kami taught me other things. It was hard to keep up when they spoke too fast, or when I made to read. But during the days that I was given puzzles I found them to be more fun than the other things. It got to the point that Mr. Popo would speak about things as I tried to solve a weird box with colored sides. I barely heard him as I tried to get the colors to match.

That was until Kami places a few plants on the table. I looked at them before getting back to the cube. "Are you making jasmine tea?"

"Do you know what plant this is?"

"Yeah."

Kami then placed more plants on the table. Some of which I never seen before. "What can you tell me about these plants?"

I looked at them and pointed to the shiny one. "Those are poisonous." I then picked up a large leaf and sniffed it. "This came from tree that smelled of honey but much sweeter." Before long studying went from speaking and reading to Mr. Popo showing me pictures and explaining them. Today's listen was about the difference between a girl and boy. "That's weird. So, we're all the same except for this small difference?"

"Pretty much."

…

After another long day of training, Arial went about asking me about why I wanted to train. "I want to as strong as my future husband, Goku."

"What makes you so sure he will be your husband?"

"Because we promised each other."

"As children. There is no grantee that you two will get married. So, I ask again," She walked in front of me. "Why do you want to train?"

I looked away for a moment as I thought. What if my dreams don't come true? Then what else will I do? I still wanted to enter the tournament. At that moment I looked back at Arial. "I want to make it to the top 8 in the next Martial Arts Tournament."

She smiled as she patted my shoulder. "Now, that's a goal we can work on." I then watches as Ariel started to walk away before she looked over her shoulder at me. "I hope your dreams do come true. Just don't solely count on that dream."