Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Dragon Ball Super, or anything else related to the Dragon Ball universe, or any of its characters. They are all owned by Akira Toriyama.
Fighting on Piccolo's level was not at all like Gohan had expected.
It was so strange, and he hadn't even considered this aspect of fighting before.
He hadn't anticipated the subjective time acceleration that would be experienced while in combat against other Ki users.
It was clear now, that he had yet another ability. He could basically speed up his own perception of time.
He had noticed the effect before, but it hadn't ever really clicked. He had noticed it the first time when he had fought all of those people in that clearing a few months ago.
He had seen everything in slow motion back then, and could come up with complex plans faster than those people had been able to react to them.
From their perspective, it must have looked like he had an insanely fast reaction speed. But it was just slow motion. He had the time to consider his moves because of how slowly everything else was moving.
He was experiencing this again in his training sessions with Piccolo.
Piccolo was in the same slow motion time frame as him.
Gohan had effectively slowed down time, but Piccolo was still moving around at the speed of a normal human, totally unaffected by the change.
Which must have meant that Piccolo too, was slowing down his own perception of time. They both were, and as a result, they both appeared to be moving at reasonable speeds to each other.
…
Well, not quite both of them. Gohan didn't have a chance against Piccolo.
Because Gohan's ability to slow everything down, also slowed himself down.
Piccolo moved like an ordinary human in this slow motion state, which had to mean that he was moving at speeds comparable to a bullet to an outsider.
But Gohan was so slow in this accelerated world, in comparison.
Which meant that he could see all of Piccolo's movements in vivid detail, as if they were all happening at a reasonable speed that he could see, but when he tried to counter them, his body moved so agonizingly slowly.
The net effect was, strangely, that he could anticipate every single one of Piccolo's attacks, come up with multiple plans to counter them all, then being completely incapable of pulling any of them off because his body was just so slow.
He also had to concentrate heavily to keep the time slowed down to this extent.
A few times, he had dropped the accelerated time effect that he produced, just so that he could feel fast again, but when he did, he couldn't even see Piccolo moving around anymore. It was all just blurs and flashes, and sometimes even seemingly instantaneous movements.
It was crazy to think, in his opinion, that his mind could sort that all out at such high speeds.
Since he knew that biological neurons couldn't process information that fast, he knew that it had to be him doing it.
Not his body.
His soul had the ability to accelerate his subjective time. Which provided further evidence that he was not his body. His mind was like a software program that wasn't even run on the biological material of his brain all the time. It was on something higher up than that.
Or at the very least, his consciousness migrated to this other, higher tier substrate, every time he needed to fight.
He didn't know what it was though. And it made him wonder what his brain actually did, if he didn't need to use it to think. Probably all of the subconscious stuff, and all of the automatic scheduling for the chemical processes going on in his physical body, he figured.
Due to all of this slow motion combat however, battles took a long time to run their course to the people experiencing them.
He could be fighting Piccolo for seemingly hours at a time, and then when they stopped for a quick break, only a few minutes will have gone by in the outside world.
His whole perspective on combat had changed under these training sessions.
You didn't have to be strong at all, physically. Just coat your body in energy. You didn't have to have fast reflexes, just slow down time.
And it all happened so slowly to the fighters, and nearly instantly to any would be spectators.
It was just bizarre.
Piccolo wasn't faster than him. He could just move his energy around faster. He could focus on slowing down time a little better than him, too.
...
Another part that really threw him off, was the lack of pain in these fights.
In that slow motion world, as he would be fighting Piccolo, they would block each others attacks with a great deal of force, yet he'd barely feel a tap. He'd only really feel anything if his concentration on his energy slipped, or if Piccolo stopped holding back.
Because Piccolo definitely was holding back...
Gohan had a long way to go still, but he was improving rapidly. He could feel it.
Every single day, the spars against Piccolo either lasted a little longer, or Piccolo had to hold back a little less during them.
He would still be beaten into the ground at the end of every day easily, and he could certainly feel the effects of a battle afterwards, but he was noticeably improving.
And that's all that really mattered.
"That was some attack," Piccolo broke the silence, one evening.
The two of them didn't talk all that much. Piccolo gave him pointers, and shouted at him a lot, but neither of them liked small talk.
Gohan was currently lying down on the grass, looking up at the stars next to a crackling fire. Piccolo was seated in a meditative position a few feet away from him.
"Which one do you mean?" Gohan replied.
He could barely move by the end of a training day. Even speaking could prove to be a challenge after some of the harsher ones.
"The first one you showed me."
Gohan understood.
His laser. He should come up with a name for it eventually.
"Yeah... it's really just a prototype at the moment though. I still have to speed up the charge time."
He hadn't had any time to work on it since Piccolo had started training him.
"How long does it take?"
"A couple of minutes, at the moment. Too long to be practical."
There was a moment of silence.
"Tomorrow, we're going to start working on your energy manipulation."
"Alright."
Then there was silence again.
They had been at it for a few weeks already, and they hadn't touched Ki at all, really. Piccolo had focused on teaching him basic martial arts first.
But he was pretty sure he understood why they were starting now. He could feel that he wasn't going to get any better unless he could speed up his body in that slow motion world. And that took better control over his energy, he figured.
They hadn't touched flight yet either.
...
Gohan also hadn't brought up any of his experiments, his results, or the training he had put himself through already.
The only thing he had really told Piccolo was a quick run-down on why he had a house in the forest, miles and miles away from where Piccolo had dropped him off originally.
He had left out all his struggles for survival, the dinosaur he had lived in for a while, all the people he had killed, some of his ideas on how the saiyans might invade the Earth, his theories about Ki and magic, and the new results he had discovered after his initial series of experiments…
He also hadn't asked Piccolo anything yet either.
He wanted to see how that sword making technique was done, now that he had a better handle on his energy, and he sort of wanted to ask if Piccolo had really told Raditz about the Dragon Balls at some point. But he hadn't yet.
Piccolo didn't seem like someone to answer those sorts of questions, anyways.
So he'd just sit back, learn, and get beaten up until he could stand up on his own in the meantime.
He might ask Piccolo those sorts of questions when he was strong enough to actually fight him on equal ground.
The two of them were sparring again.
Piccolo was attacking him from all directions, and Gohan was barely able to keep up.
He had had to switch to his bubble sensing vision technique to even see Piccolo anymore.
In the previous spars he hadn't even attempted to use it, figuring that it was incomplete and wouldn't work on someone as fast as Piccolo, but he really shouldn't have doubted himself.
His time was slowed down, his eyes were closed, and he could feel exactly where Piccolo was. It was actually more effective than using his ordinary vision.
'I guess I just used it so much in the past that I've gotten used to it,' Gohan thought.
It was probably from all that practice inside that dinosaur. There had been no light at all back then, and he had spent a long time using that technique as his only way to see.
It was practically instinctive now.
He could tell that Piccolo was deliberately trying to attack him from his apparent blind spots, and while Piccolo was definitely still a lot faster than him, Gohan could feel where he was coming from and he was able to put up a much better fight this time.
He was still losing, though.
Just as he finished blocking another series of attacks, using some of the techniques Piccolo had drilled into him earlier, he felt something small rocketing towards him at high speed, from behind.
He couldn't tell what it was, but it was going at about the speed of a bullet. It was larger, but just as fast.
At least, he predicted that it was moving at that speed to an outsider. To him, it was moving at about walking speed.
He could dodge at these speeds however. He was a lot faster now than he had been in that clearing months back.
At the last moment, Gohan tilted to the left, just enough for the projectile to miss.
It skimmed past his right cheek, and continued forwards.
...
There were a lot of clues about how fast an object was going by watching its trajectory when time was slowed down like this.
Gravity was about 9.8 m/s^2 on Earth, which meant that an object in free fall would accelerate towards the ground at about that rate when you ignored atmospheric effects.
But when time was slowed down this much, and when things were moving this fast, that downwards acceleration appeared so slow that it was often negligible.
Thrown objects would move like lasers, here.
Leaping in any direction moved you linearly, in that direction, rather than on a parabolic arc trending towards the ground.
This slow motion world could be very accurately approximated linearly. As a world where gravity didn't even exist.
At the end of most of his attacks, he had to often pull himself downwards because gravity wasn't doing it fast enough.
...
Which produced really weird effects, on some occasions.
They could fight sideways, for instance.
They could have entire exchanges of attacks and counter attacks while their bodies were parallel to the ground, and while gravity was pulling them sideways.
It was just a different world, here. With completely different laws of physics.
...
He could see at these speeds, and even dodge at these speeds, but only just. His body was only fast enough to dodge with the barest of margins for error.
Since he was so slow in this time frame when compared to Piccolo, he had to adopt a minimalist style. Every movement he made, could be matched by two of Piccolo's, so he had to be very efficient in how he fought to even stand a chance.
As a result, he always aimed to dodge by the barest possible of margins, and no more than that. Anything more would waste time that he would otherwise need to dodge or block the next assault.
But where had that projectile come from?
Abruptly, he expanded his energy bubble further out, to see the source.
Simply opening his eyes, and glancing in that direction would waste time, so he opted to just push his bubble sensing technique further out.
…
Two Piccolos?
There were two of them here. One was just standing outside the clearing they were fighting in.
And Gohan was fighting the other right now.
Abruptly however, the fight stopped.
From Gohan's slow motion perspective, Piccolo's body seemed to just freeze in place. Which indicated that Piccolo had left the time frame himself, and returned to the normal one.
...
Gohan quickly did the same, dropping his concentration, and letting the flow of time return to normal.
It was a strange experience. Sound didn't really work properly when time was slowed, so everything was either silent all the time, or everything generated extremely low frequency sounds that he could barely hear.
But when going back to normal, sound returned suddenly. And he heard all of these low frequencies abruptly shift to higher and higher octaves, until he could finally hear normally again.
When time returned to normal, for a few moments, he could hear the shockwaves of the previous battle echoing off the trees around them, and even the hills further out, as they bounced off of the environment around them before eventually dissipating.
Gohan glanced in the direction of the second Piccolo.
Sure enough, there were two.
His sensing technique could not distinguish colour. Just geometric shapes, so all he had really been able to determine with it was that whoever had thrown the rock at him earlier had the same shape as Piccolo.
But they looked the same too. Was this some other sort of technique?
If it was, he could already think of countless applications for it. Both for battle, and for everyday life.
"So," Piccolo began. "You've learned how to sense energy signatures. That makes things a lot easier."
Energy signatures? Gohan had never heard of those before.
"Energy Signatures? What are those?" Gohan asked.
"Energy Signatures are a specific type of energy that is only given off by one person. Everyone has one that is unique to them. They are sort of like a fingerprint," Piccolo replied.
…
"You can measure that?"
Piccolo frowned at him, and narrowed his eyes.
"You can't? You fight with your eyes closed, yet it doesn't hinder you at all. In fact, you seem to fight better like that for some reason."
He continued.
"You were able to pick up on the energy signature of my double behind you, and the energy signature of the rock it had thrown at you."
"That is a skill that is actually surprisingly difficult to master, and since you have, I don't have to waste time teaching it to you."
That was actually pretty cool, in Gohan's opinion. But Piccolo had misunderstood his abilities, he was pretty sure.
…
"I see," Gohan replied. "But you're wrong. I don't know how to sense energy like that. I didn't even know you could do that."
He had debated the pros and cons of telling Piccolo what he was actually doing, but figured it could only help. If he could learn Piccolo's sensing ability too, it would only make his own vision that much more effective when he combined the two techniques together.
"What I'm doing isn't nearly as subtle. I've literally created a ball of energy so thin that it can't be felt, and so large as to encompass this entire clearing. I can feel every physical disturbance in it. I didn't see your clone at all, in fact. At least not initially. I felt the rock as it passed through my energy, though."
It wasn't subtle at all. It was a more brute force approach. He could intuitively understand where his energy was, and consequently, he could feel when it was moved around without his own interference.
"That's… actually pretty clever," Piccolo replied with slightly widened eyes. "I didn't know that it was possible to do that," he finished.
Piccolo seemed to think over the idea for a moment before continuing.
"It's pretty much useless though. It wastes too much energy, and everything that you can detect with it, can be detected without it with the right training."
'I think we'll just have to agree to disagree on that,' Gohan thought to himself. He wasn't going to say it out loud though.
He had actually developed a few new techniques that used his bubble sensing ability. Techniques that wouldn't work without it.
...
Like, for example, what happens when he ramps up the intensity of the energy bubble abruptly?
Then all of a sudden he has a spinning shield. It didn't even have to be very thick to be useful. It could produce the same effect as him just being in the eye of a hurricane.
Someone of Piccolo's strength could throw a punch at him, but they would have to take into account the circular wind that he had to travel through, and he'd have to correct for it. And then Gohan could just abruptly slow it down, or reverse its direction.
It wasn't as useless as Piccolo might think, even if Gohan hadn't worked out how to do all of those things yet.
And if what Piccolo said was true about this new sensing ability, he would only be able to detect things with Ki in them.
But what about bullets? Or rocks that travelled at high speed that didn't have any residual energy in them from a Ki user?
He had worked out the energy issue Piccolo had mentioned too, in fact.
As it turned out, energy conservation was very counterintuitive.
In his previous experiments, after calculating how much energy he contained, he had run into a problem that he had referred to as, 'the missing energy problem,' that his original theory of Ki didn't seem to explain.
The results of his conservation of mass experiment, had shown him that yes in fact, the food he was eating actually vanished.
The mass vanished, and no heat was generated, which would have blown a huge hole in thermodynamics if Ki and Magic didn't exist as other forms of energy. For thermodynamics to remain intact, it had to be the case that all of his food's mass energy had been directly converted into Ki and magic.
He had done the math, calculated the rest mass energy of the amount of food that had vanished using E = mc^2 , and noticed that the resulting increase of his Ki stores was three or four orders of magnitude less than what he predicted.
6.5 gigatons of TNT was a ridiculously high amount of energy that there was just no way he had access to.
Which left a huge amount of energy seemingly missing. Hence the name of the problem. But he had forgotten two important things.
The first was his magic energy.
Maybe he really did have that much energy inside him. And it might be the case that magic itself was simply very energy dense.
And it could be the case that he was using massive amounts of energy, simply directing those little balls of plasma around.
A unit of magic, the amount required to move a unit of Ki-turned-plasma around, could contain orders of magnitude more energy than the plasma itself.
Which actually explained an observation he had noticed in the past.
His dad liked to use large sweeping attacks that destroyed large areas of land. Which at first glance, seemed like a gigantic waste of energy.
Why throw around a huge bomb of energy, when you could compact it all down into a denser form, and use much less of it as a result?
It was like comparing a thousand pound foam block, with a steel pocket knife. Sure the foam was impressive, but the knife was not only easier to throw around, but it could punch through the foam without any difficulty.
But if magic was more dense than Ki, orders of magnitude more so, this was no longer the case.
If this idea was right, it was possible that large blasts of energy were actually more energy efficient than tiny focused lasers were. Because that concentrated beam of energy required more magic to create, even if they both used the same amount of Ki.
The theory fit his experiments too. He currently suspected that this was the main reason why he couldn't completely drain his Ki reserve with his own laser.
He was running out of magic energy long before depleting his Ki.
And this was also why he could deplete his Ki reserve if he didn't try to focus the energy at all. If he just threw a ball of energy out and let it rapidly expand, undirected.
Every last thing he did with his energy required him to use both some amount of Ki, and some amount of magic.
Basically it all came down to one concept.
Concentrated attacks were more magic intensive, even if they used less Ki, and large scale attacks were more Ki intensive.
Since magic contained more energy per unit than Ki did, it was more energy efficient to not control the Ki-created-plasma, beyond necessity. Even if it meant using a huge blast on a small opponent.
Balance was the critical component there. To be the most efficient possible, he had to make sure that he didn't run out of either Ki, or magic, until the last possible moment of a fight.
Having Ki, with no magic left, or having magic, with no Ki left, was indistinguishable from having no energy of any kind left at all.
So he had to always aim to deplete both containers simultaneously to make the most of his energy.
The second thing that he had to take into account with his solution to the missing energy problem, was the time delay.
When he ate his food, and then the food vanished, there was a delay before his Ki reserve filled up.
Which meant that the energy was still missing for a period of time.
And that had lead him to theorize on the existence of third container of energy inside him.
He couldn't be sure it was there, but it was the simplest answer he could come up with to fully explain his observations.
He had a third container of energy that contained a precursor form of energy to both Ki and magic. This type of energy, since he had no idea what to call it, he referred to as 'nameless stuff'.
Nameless stuff, was essentially the thing that most of his food turned into after it vanished, and was what was in this third energy container. And over a period of time, nameless stuff would be transformed gradually into both Ki, or magic, depending on which one was needed most at the time.
And this theory, crazy as it sounded, actually explained a few other unrelated things, which was why he was inclined to believe that it was likely to contain at least some truth to it.
It explained why warming up was important before a fight.
Another thing his dad always seemed to do, was play with his opponents, while significantly holding back. Another thing that made no sense to him at first glance.
But this theory, along with one other fact, explained it.
He had noticed that the rate at which Ki was restored, was a function of how much Ki he had left.
If he had a full or nearly full container of energy, the rate at which it restored itself was slow. If he had half or less however, Ki production was in high gear.
And that new Ki was being created from this third container of nameless stuff.
Warming up, was the act of deliberately wasting a small amount of energy from his Ki container, so that Ki production sped up considerably.
His body would freak out, thinking, 'we are running out of Ki and need more immediately!' and then nameless stuff would start to be converted into it.
There was some magic number then, according to the theory, the perfect amount of energy to waste at the start of a battle, to maximize the amount of Ki he had access to during the fight.
A so called 'perfect warm up.'
Having a container that wasn't full, but where Ki production was increased, would give him more energy to work with over the duration of a fight, then a full container would, right from the start.
And it was all because of the crucial fact that the fight would be over long before the nameless stuff container had fully depleted itself.
If a fight lasted x minutes, he only had x minutes of nameless stuff conversion time. So to optimize it, deliberately wasting a small amount of energy at the start, would leave him with more in the long run, because it increased the speed of the conversion, early on.
As long as that extra energy outweighed the energy loss at the beginning of the fight, it would be worth it.
He wasn't absolutely sure if this process worked on his magic container though, since he couldn't sense that one at all, and could only imply its existence because of its effects.
It wasn't like his Ki in that sense. He didn't have an intuitive understanding of how much magic he had left to work with. It would just suddenly run out abruptly, and he wouldn't be able to fight anymore.
He was actually still trying to figure out a way to properly measure it.
But all of this data had evolved his previous 'fundamental theory of Ki,' into what he called 'the triple tank theory.' Which was pretty self-explanatory. And with it, number five on his list, the mystery about the conservation of mass, had been solved.
There were also some possible routes to explaining his hidden power there too, but he hadn't flushed them out fully yet.
And it also made him reject this idea about wasting energy from Piccolo. Gohan's sensing ability may be a waste of Ki, but it sounded like this other one would be a waste of magic.
Which was worse, because of its energy density.
Magic was always the limiting factor for him too. More often than not, he'd run out of it long before running out of Ki.
...
He wouldn't speak up about it though.
He didn't know everything, and he could be wrong about a lot of his ideas. So he'd see where it went, and keep quiet.
"We'll work on it some other time then, since you can get by with that technique of yours for now. Instead, we are going to work on your flight." Piccolo continued.
"My flight?"
"Yes. Fights rarely take place on the ground. Whoever best fights in the air, is almost always the winner as a result."
Gohan had learned how to fly in the past, but he wasn't really all that great at it. So it would be an interesting experience in his opinion, learning how to fight in the sky from Piccolo.
The days went by, and they were essentially a repeat of the first few days of training out there with Piccolo.
He had gradually gotten a bit better at defending himself on the ground at first, and then when they started flying, Piccolo had wiped the floor with him with just as much ease as when they had started out.
The battles were agonizingly long, with the time acceleration, and he couldn't move by the end of them.
But he was pretty fast in the air now. At least, relatively speaking. Faster than 99.999% of all other people everywhere, but nowhere near as fast as any of the people that he happened to be surrounded by.
Not as fast as Piccolo, or his dad, or his dad's friends…
He was beaten bloody by the end of every fight.
But he had noticed the improvement over the sessions. His body was pretty good at repairing itself thankfully, and he was improving faster than he ever had.
Unfortunately, Piccolo wouldn't let him use any of his capsules, either. Not for his food, or for a bath, or really for anything.
He clearly thought that it was making him soft.
Another thing that he disagreed with Piccolo on.
There was a difference between being soft, and choosing to live a life free of inconveniences. At least, that's what he thought.
But what did he know? He was just some kid.
At the end of one particularly brutal training session, Gohan worked up the nerve to ask Piccolo a question.
If he hadn't been so tired, and hadn't lost all of his inhibitions from the beating he had received, he probably would have kept his mouth shut, but he said the words before he could think to stop himself.
"Hey, Piccolo," He began while looking up at the stars. He was lying on his back, and he couldn't move.
"What," Piccolo replied, sounding annoyed.
He always sounded annoyed.
He was seated a few feet away from him, on the other side of the fire, in his typical cross legged position.
"Why do you fight my dad?"
It had honestly never made any sense to him really.
There was a moment of silence.
"What are you talking about," Piccolo replied.
"My dad. You used to fight him right?"
"Yes. But that fight's not finished yet. I have to take care of these two saiyans first, then your father's next on my list."
…
"Why?"Gohan pressed. "I heard the story from my dad, at least parts of it. And I'm honestly curious about why you want him dead so much."
It would give him some insight into a lot of things.
Piccolo sighed.
"Your father and I have been enemies for a long time now. The fact that he happens to be dead right now hasn't changed that. Why that is, is none of your concern."
...
So, Piccolo had just brushed him off then?
Gohan sighed.
Maybe he should just drop the subject.
...
"My dad always told me that you wanted to rule the world. Like King Piccolo had. But I never really bought that. It seemed too childish to be believable."
...Or maybe he should continue on, full steam ahead.
Piccolo turned to glare at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Gohan continued.
"The only way that could ever happen is by turning the entire world into a wasteland. Some humans would always resist, and you'd have to kill them. And the ones that didn't would secretly plot behind your back and would utterly hate you in secret."
Gohan spat out a mouthful of blood. He had tasted the iron in his saliva for a while now, but he couldn't really get it out. He had gotten used to the taste though, after these sessions.
"Ruling a world out of fear just doesn't seem very desirable. At the end of it all, you'd be the ruler of a bunch of sycophants, who kissed the ground you walked on because if they didn't they'd be killed. People who would rather be anywhere else."
Gohan hated how weak and raspy his voice must have sounded. It was always like that these days.
He continued on.
"And then the saiyans, and the saiyan's friends, and their allies, and all the civilizations out there amongst the stars, would turn to look at you… and they would find Piccolo. Leader of nobody, ruler of the desolate wasteland called Earth, and the only resident of a dead planet. And they'd laugh."
"As all the civilizations out there explored the universe, and looked for their place within it, you would be a tyrant, who ruled over all on this planet, sure, but who wouldn't even be a footnote to them."
"It's why I could never believe someone would try to rule a planet through fear when they knew that there were other planets out there full of incredibly powerful fighters."
"King Piccolo was one thing, because he probably never met anyone as strong as the saiyans before... but you have."
"And it won't end with these two saiyans."
"There will be others out there. If I heard right, Raditz had been part of an interplanetary army. Who is the leader of that I wonder? How strong are they? What if they decide to come to Earth next after learning that the people here were strong enough to defeat the incoming saiyans?"
"And revenge against my dad for killing your's doesn't make sense to me either. If my dad died, and I was in your position, rather than waste my energy trying to get revenge, I'd gather up the Dragon Balls and wish him back. And beat the hell out of anyone that tried to stop me."
That was the only other reason Gohan could come up with, for why Piccolo would be so adamant in his desire to kill Goku.
"My dad would probably even help you out with that, if you asked him. Revenge just seems to be impractical. Because then all of my dad's friends would start hunting you down for the same reasons you hunt them down, and you would just be dragged into another series of battles. It just doesn't seem like it will ever end, and nothing will be gained by anyone."
There was another moment of silence.
Gohan, still on his back, reached one hand up into the air in gesture that made it seem like he was reaching for the stars.
"Don't you just get… tired of it all? All the hatred? The burning need to kill my dad? Because you could turn around tomorrow, tell my dad that you were tired of hunting him and his friends down, and that you decided to move on to something else, and my dad would immediately forgive anything you may have ever done to him on the spot."
Gohan smiled.
"He'd probably try to be friends with you, though. So, I guess you'd have to deal with that."
Gohan let out a chuckle, which turned into a cough.
"The ball is in your court." He continued. "It's always been in your court. That fight literally ends when you want it to."
That's how Gohan always saw it anyways.
"I just don't understand, I guess. There's gotta be something more at the end, right? More than revenge? More than ruling the world?"
"But I'm just some kid, huh. Maybe I'll just never understand. I guess I just wanted to know what you wanted at the end of it all."
...
It was the most he had ever said to Piccolo at one time.
And he never heard another response from him before he finally passed out a short time later.
The last thing he remembered saying before falling asleep was a question.
...
"What do you really want, Piccolo?"
The training had continued the next day.
Piccolo didn't say a word about anything Gohan had said to him the previous day, and Gohan, picking up on the queue, decided to do the same.
Both of them pretended that it never happened at all outwardly... yet, Gohan's words echoed in the minds of them both.
...
They both went back to their unofficial agreement of not talking to each other for quite some time after that.
A/N: Please excuse any grammar and spelling errors, as I have no beta reader at this time.
- LeviTamm