More time has passed and after a long and tiring training session a tired Gohan and Piccolo are resting at the top of a mountain, bowl filled with apples stands between the duo as Gohan looks up at the night sky, the only source of light is the crescent moon above.
Something Gohan has noticed is that the more powerful he gets the sharper all of his senses will become, he realized that as he looked up at the starry sky and saw all the stars above with clarity like no other as if he is a very expensive satellite. It's amazing how something that used to be so mundane has become so incredible, even the sound of a river running and the water splashing against the rocks are things that he learned to enjoy, especially while meditating alongside Piccolo. He's glad that he can appreciate the simpler things in life even now after he learned so much from Piccolo. as much as he loves sparring with Piccolo he's still nervous about actually fighting for his life when Vegeta and Nappa arrive on Earth, will he end up freezing up as the original Gohan did or will he be too confident and prideful of his new skills and end up messing up badly and get taken out by surprise?
Those thoughts must have been stapled all over his face because Piccolo decided to throw an apple at Gohan's head and the boy barely had enough time to react due to the speed at which it was thrown at him. "Woah!" Gohan cried out in surprise while gripping the apple tight enough for it to audibly crunch between his strong fingers. "Geez, are you trying to give me a heart attack or something?" He asked the green man then took a big bite out of the apple.
Piccolo gave Gohan a barely perceptive smirk and crossed his arms. "Call it heart training, it'll do you no good if your heart is weak when the time comes." He drummed the fingers of his right hand on his biceps. "Hm, you look worried about something, spill it." He'll bluntly order his apprentice.
Gohan sighed and scratched his cheek. "Well, I've just been wondering if I'll actually be useful in a real fight, y'know? I know I can handle sparring and training with you but you're not trying to kill me so I don't really have much to worry much even when we go all out against each other. I guess I'm just concerned I'll end up messing it all up and getting someone killed." He bit his lip and looked away from Piccolo's sharp gaze.
The man hummed and closed his eyes. "Don't be so sure about that, who says I've not been secretly trying to kill you when you begin to annoy me with all of your questions? I might just end up actually doing it one of those days." Piccolo knows from the way Gohan has acted around him so far that the boy seems to respond better to humor but after some moments of complete silence he wonders if his dry humor has not been noticed, he has never really joked before so the kid must have thought he's serious, shit, sometimes he completely forgets that no matter how mature Gohan seems to act he's still just a child.
Piccolo turned his head around and is about to apologize and set the record straight when his words got stuck in his throat due to Gohan's expression. He's covering his mouth with one hand but Piccolo can see that the edges of his lips are quirked up in a grin. Piccolo furrowed his eye ridges in confusion. "What?"
The boy stopped trying to hide his laughter and threw his head back while laughing and then laid down on the ground with his arms and legs spread. "You made a joke!" He somehow managed to stop laughing enough to form that sentence. Gohan's laughter soon turned into quiet chuckles, Gohan's laughter lasted for long enough for it to begin annoying Piccolo, which to be fair was quite fast. The only reason Piccolo did not snap at Gohan with some heated words is due to the next words that came from Gohan's mouth. "Thank you, Piccolo, this whole situation is as weird as it can get and I'm not the easiest boy to handle but I really appreciate how patient you've been considering the circumstances. I know you hate Dad and probably still want to beat the snot outta him but you're not a bad guy after all." He finished by giving Piccolo an honest smile. "Thank you for training me and being a friend, I'm glad that I've met you."
Now it's Piccolo's turn to look away while feeling embarrassed. "...Tch... It's getting way too late and I'll chalk up this nonsense speech to your brain being too tired to think straight, just go to sleep already." His words started out strong but by the end, he ended up speaking with a soft voice.
Gohan closed his eyes but his smile did not leave his face. "Good night, Mr. Piccolo." He'll say quietly with a tired voice as his body relaxed.
It took a few seconds but Piccolo did end up replying to the hybrid. "Good night, Gohan." As he closed his eyes and resumed his meditation. Several minutes have passed and Piccolo can now hear the gentle sounds of Gohan snoring. "Tch, already sleeping, huh?" He opened his eyes and glanced at Gohan's sleeping form. "...Tomorrow I'll increase the weights and work on upping the difficulty of our training sessions, I feel like his body and willpower have become strong enough to handle what I have planned for him."
-000-000-000-
Kuririn took a deep breath and entered a fighting stance that has been taught by him by Kami and Popo, right in front of him is a shadowy copy of Goku's older brother, Raditz. This form of Shadow Boxing might not be as effective as actually sparring with someone else but he finds it good enough to calm his nerves by picturing Raditz as his foe, after all, Raditz and Goku are the only Saiyajins he has met and he doubts he could show as much aggression if he pictured Goku instead.
Why is he training when it's so late at night and everyone has been sleeping? A simple question that has a very simple answer to match: Piccolo's and Gohan's training has made him realize just how utterly outmatched he is and he can't sleep no matter how much he tries due to not being able to think about how powerful those two have become during those past months. He feels like no matter how much he tries his hard work is not being rewarded and he wonders if it's because he's only human and he has reached his full potential as of now so training even more will not make much of a difference.
Was this the secret to Goku's power all along? Is his best friend only as strong as he was due to his gifted genes?
The bald man sighs and the shadowy figure he conjured with his mind slowly disappears. "No, that's not it, Goku also worked his ass off to get where he is. I'm just trying to find excuses to make myself feel better, aren't I?" He sat down and covered his face with both hands before looking up at the stars. "The Saiyajins will arrive in a few months... I can only pray that they don't suddenly arrive before a year has passed or else we'll be caught with our pants down." He continue to look up then tilted his head a bit to the left while raising an eyebrow and then furrowing his eyebrows. "Have the stars always been so bright?" He mumbled to himself.
Thankfully he is not very distracted as to not notice the sound of footsteps slowly approaching from behind him. Kururin twisted his body around to look at the person that is lazily walking from the inside of Kami's lookout.
And out came Yamcha with his hands buried deep into the pockets of his pajama pants, the scarred bandit blinked twice once he realized he was not the only one awake. "Shouldn't ya be sleepin'?" He asked while covering his mouth just as a yawn came out.
Kuririn shook his head and smiled. "Shouldn't you?" He shot back at Yamcha with an amused expression on his face. Yamcha barked a laugh and walked up to Kuririn until he stopped by his side.
"Watcha were lookin' at?" The former bandit asked while also looking up.
Kuririn hummed and crossed his arms. "Wasn't really looking at anything in particular, I've just been thinking about Piccolo and Gohan, there were still awake and fighting until like half an hour ago or something. I wish we had half of their stamina to do the same, maybe we could begin to catch up to them if we had." He finished with a sigh.
Yamcha palmed the back of his neck and laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Don't tell the other but I'm starting to think all of our training up here will be useless in the end considering just how strong those two are becoming, we might just get in their way when the bad guys arrive." His bald companion groaned at those words but he agreed with them.
"I know, but I still want to at least try, you know? They're out there training day and night with barely any stops for resting so even if we're not as strong as them I'll still do my best to better myself, if the worst happens I'll go down happy that I've managed to hold the Saiyajins back even if it's just for a couple of seconds." Kuririn said while looking up at the stars with a newfound determination and clenching his right hand into a tight fist until his knuckles turned white.
The scarred man looked down at his friend and somehow felt his determination rub off on him as well. "Shit, now you're getting me pumped up as well, dude." He'll smirk and smash a fist against his open palm. "What are we waiting for? We're going to have to start really going all out until we pass out for exhaustion this time, I'm sure Popo must have some devious ideas on how to push ourselves to exhaustion."
Kuririn stood up and nodded. "I'm tired of sitting here and feeling sorry for myself, that's not going to help us at all now, is it?" He grinned while entering a combat stance from the Turtle School.
Yamcha rubbed the underside of his nose and mirrored the position Kuririn took. "70-64 in your favor, let's see if I'll manage to lessen the gap tonight!"
Their eyes met and their blood pumped as adrenaline flooded their veins.
Even if they're weaker than Piccolo and Gohan it doesn't mean they'll just sit there and let those two widen the power gap more and more, they can at least do their damn best to better themselves so they don't hold them back when the time comes. This is the silent agreement the two warriors had as their eyes met.
And without another word, they rushed at each other.
Kami observed the interaction from behind a pillar with Mr. Popo by his side, he smiled as Kurirn's and Yamcha's fighting spirit reignited into a fiery inferno for the first time since they stepped on his lookout.
-000-000-000-
Madam Uranai, also known as Master Roshi's older sister looked down at her crystal ball with pursed lips and a glum expression. "The future is blurry at best, I can't read it at all... something is wrong, I can feel it in my bones." She's currently staying at her brother's house, it's been a while since they have properly talked, and right now is as good as ever to do so.
Right now she's outside of his house while trying to read the crystal ball but all of her efforts have proved to have been useless no matter how much she tries. She has been having those problems for almost a year by now and it frustrates her to no end.
"Now, now, if you keep frowning like that'll you'll end up getting all wrinkly!" Her brother showed up while carrying two cups of tea and offering one to her. The old woman clicked her tongue but accepted the tea nonetheless.
She shook her head and looked up at the flickering stars. " I'm afraid it's already too late for me to start worrying about wrinkles." Such are the downsides of living such a long life after all. Still, she's proud of what she has accomplished so far.
Roshi laughs and takes a seat to her side on one of those tacky beach chairs he has. "Maybe it is, but it doesn't mean I want to see you look so down, you're my sister and we may bicker a lot but I still care about you a lot." He took a sip of the tea he was carrying and made a disgusted face. "Bleegh! Still tastes just like hot leaf water!"
The old woman glanced at her perverted brother. "If you hate it so much then why do you even have tea at all?" She asked him with a deadpan tone of voice.
He looked up and smiled. "Why, isn't it obvious? And here I thought you were supposed to be the smart sibling, maybe I was wrong about you! Hee-hee-hee~" He teased his sister while placing the cup on top of a table.
She furrowed her eyebrows and huffed. "Still as rude as ever, I see. If it's so obvious then why don't you spill it out?" She took a sip from her tea.
"It's because you like it." He said softly and crossed one leg over the other while relaxing on the beach chair.
Madam Uranai made a surprised sound on the back of her throat and a blush appeared on her cheeks. "..Damn you." Despite her words, she could not hide the smile that appeared on her face.
-000-000-000-
Goku sat with his legs crossed on top of Kaioh-Sama's house while resting his head on the palm of his hand. He glanced to the left and spotted Bubbles copying his pose. "Monkey see, monkey do, huh?" He muttered to himself with a small smile on his face.
As a dead man he should not feel tired or hungry, right? But it seems like those rules don't apply to him at all! Maybe it's something related to him being able to keep his body when the other dead people he saw before meeting King Yemma were just simple ghosts. he doesn't really mind it too much but he wished Kaioh-Sama food was actually tasty.
Well, it's not like he can really be picky about it, he's dead after all. One might think that being dead would feel different or even weird but after spending months like so he hasn't really noticed anything all that different about it. Dead, Alive, it doesn't really matter to him right now so he doesn't think too much about it when he can instead train more.
He's never been the type to think too much outside of fighting and being dead did not change that. Or at least that's what he would have wanted to say but right now even if he tried he couldn't focus on training at all! He's learned some new moves and techniques from Kaioh-Sama and he's really thankful for him teaching all those new things, he really is.
But... he's starting to feel lonely.
How long has it been since he felt this feeling? Ah, it happened a few days after Grandpa Gohan disappeared, hasn't it? He remembers being so scared and crying for days once he realized his grandpa was not coming back.
Loneliness, what a terrible feeling. He's not really alone right now but he can't help but feel lonely.
How does that work? How can someone be with company and yet still feel so lonely? He misses his family and friends.
He misses the way Chi-Chi ties up her hair every morning when she wakes up and how she carefully brushes her hair to perfection before doing so. It might have been unimportant but right now he can't help but think about those small details such as the way she pronounced certain words or how she tends to hum while cooking. Or how she untangles the fur from Gohan's tail while they sing a tune in harmony. All those small things keep popping up in his head and if he's not careful he ends up dwelling on those thoughts for hours upon hours until he actually manages to properly rest.
Goku sighs as he thinks about how she must have reacted to his death, it was just supposed to be a nice meeting with him introducing Gohan to his friends after all. "Chi-Chi... Gohan..." He allows his body to flop back. "Please, just wait a little more, I'll come back home soon...' He whispered softly to himself as he felt his eyelids start to get heavy and heavier with each passing second.
And as he stared at the empty sky above he realizes he also misses the stars.
-000-000-000-
I am somewhat surprised with the responses I've got regarding romantic partners, it ranged from keeping Gohan single, to giving him a harem and several pairing suggestions with the most common somehow being Android 18 followed by Videl and Android 21. It's very interesting to see such different opinions over this and I like to read the reasoning behind the suggestions.
It seems like the most common reasoning is that "They're hot."
I can respect that.