Chapter 28: And So Two Years Have Passed
It all began with but a single Dragon Ball, the one Goku inherited from his grandfather Son Gohan… And from there, the adventures of Goku and his hybrid son Gohan began. An adventure that spread beyond the confines of Earth and involved the remainder of the Saiyan race, including its prince Vegeta and his son Trunks. And so, following the adventures of Trunks and his friends in space, and their series of struggles against Baby and the Machine Mutants, the setting of this adventure once again cycles back into East District 439 of Planet Earth… From here onward, the tale of the endless epic of all epics of the Dragon Balls chronicles the tale of Goku's second son, Son Goten. Two years have passed since the defeat of the Mightiest King, Baby.
The sun shone brightly on the steps of Chi-Chi's house at East District 439, where a young, muscular man was cutting wood with an axe just outside her lawn.
"Mom, I've done my quota of cutting wood for this week, I'm heading to West City to train my students!" said the young man.
"Are you sure you don't need to have more for breakfast? You only had twenty-five servings this morning, at this rate you'll start to lose weight!" said Chi-Chi.
"Don't worry, Mom. It's better for your stomach that you don't eat 'til you're too full before a workout, I'm headin' out!"
The young man grabbed hold of a wide, curved broadsword that had been perched next to his home's front door, strapped it to his back, and then put his index and middle fingers on his forehead and teleported to the location of his group of students. There, a familiar, purple-haired young man wearing a black Dogi stood.
"Goten-kun, you're late! I told you practice starts at 5:30 am sharp, what'll the reputation of our school be like if the Grandmaster shows up late to every practice?"
"H-Hehehehe, Future Trunks-kun, ya gotta remember my mother lives with me, and my grandfather is so old now, he can't do much fieldwork on his own! I'm pretty much the man of the Son family now! I was chopping wood – "
"*sigh* Taking care of an old widowed mother is something I'm all too familiar with… I really don't like your excuses, but it's better that we stop dawdling and start training already. Also, please don't call me the Future Trunks anywhere, as far as the general public is concerned, the Trunks of this timeline is working two jobs."
"Right. Gotta remember that," said Goten as they then walked into the dojo, where dozens of dedicated martial arts students, some of them so old that they had been around since the days of Mutaito himself, were busy swinging at each other with shinai. Some of the new students accidentally broke their swords swinging too wildly, prompting Future Trunks to interject and admonish them saying, "Not good! I told you, it's the balance of Ki you utilize to maximize the strength and speed of your swing while concentrating sufficient enough Ki to avoid breaking these delicate bamboo swords that's key! The three of you that just broke your swords, stay here after practice! It seems like you three need special attention!"
"The future Trunks-kun sure is dedicated to teaching everyone sword-art… Then again, I probably would be too, if I'd lost all my friends to enemies that killed my father as well… Speaking of my father, I wonder how Dad is doing in the Other World… It's been three years now since he passed on that fateful day that the Ultimate Dragon Balls scattered into the ends of the universe… And if I think about it, that really marked the day my life as I know it truly began… And the other Trunks-kun and I went on the adventure of our lives! He must be busy as a beaver with paperwork just about now…"
The present version of Trunks whom Goten spoke of was at his desk dressed in a black suit resembling a mafia uniform, with 100-ton weights strapped to each limb. He purposefully stood in a crouching position without a chair while taking care of paperwork on a mechanical desk that was built to hover over the ground, and after hours had passed and it was well past 4 pm, he then said, "Whew! Today's batch of paperwork is done. Time to get some Gatorades and go train with Gohan-san!"
As Trunks pressed a button that released a large, gallon-sized Gatorade bottle that he immediately drank, his sister Bra, dressed in a white Judo uniform with a black undershirt placed inside, turned Super Saiyan and said, "Onii-chan! Today's the day! All the time you've been buried in paperwork, I've been training my butt off! I'll win against you and make Dad realize I'm the toughest Saiyan!"
"Bra, I keep telling you, you really can't measure up to my level yet. You really need a proper teacher, and the future me and Goten would be more than willing to oblige – "
"Teachers, my butt! They use all the same sword moves you do, I've seen through 'em all! You're gonna wish you never became President, 'cuz it's put you out of shape!"
Bra quickly fired off a Ki blast that Trunks was forced to catch in the narrow hallway, upon which she took out Goku's old, handy weapon, the Nyoi-bo. With it, she kept Trunks at a distance while manipulating her Ki to strike at him by shaping the energy into yellow claws. Trunks, however, sped faster than the claws could move and then turned Super Saiyan, using the increased momentum caused by his power up and the massive weight of his 100-ton armbands to quickly place Bra on the floor by pressing at her staff. Trunks then quickly opened a capsule, causing a sharp samurai sword to emerge from it. Drawing the sword faster than Bra could react, Trunks quickly pointed the sword at her neck, saying "Admit defeat yet?"
"G-Grrrr…. W-Why?! Why does this keep happenin'?"
"You really can only progress so far on your own, Bra. The other me always said that he was shocked how much potential you were hiding when he trained you prior to that Budokai 2 years ago, but since then you've stubbornly insisted on training on your own… And I daresay, Pan-chan might have gotten ahead of you since she's got no such objections. She was… training with Oob-kun under Kuririn-san, isn't that right?"
"Bah! That geezer is so weak, I could beat him and Tenshinhan-san with my eyes closed! Without Super Saiyan! Just what would I have to learn from those two baldies?"
"That's where you're wrong, Bra. You have a lot of speed and power, you have a knack for using weapons you just recently got hold of, I'll give you that. But what you lack is the experience to predict someone else's moves, and as long as you insist on training by yourself, all you're really gonna amount to is increasing your brute strength. Since I know the Turtle School's moves inside and out, how about you pay Tenshinhan-san a visit? He runs with a different pack than the rest of Goku-san's friends, he might have a thing or two to teach you."
"That three-eyed weaking? Teach me?! What nerve!" yelled Bra, prompting Trunks to revert back to his normal state and say, "I gotta say, you've gotta be more proud and stubborn than our father ever was. In fact, that's probably why he doesn't bother training you… He thinks it isn't worth his time to try and teach someone who thinks she can climb to the top when she's making no real progress with the same routines over and over. I gotta fly, Gohan-san and I have five hours of training to do before we go and help Mom with building the future me his Time Machine, I think we're really close to a breakthrough. I've always wanted to see the future world the other me grew up in, and unless you go and teach yourself some humility, I'm not letting you tag along, got it?"
"You just sit there and watch, Onii-chan! I'll get better than you and Dad soon, you'll see!" said Bra teary-eyed as she strapped the Nyoi-bo to her back, turned Super Saiyan, and then flew off into the distance. She flew so quickly that she was circling around the Earth endlessly, causing Pan and Oob, who were busy training on Roshi's island home, to remark that they once again sensed her Ki.
"Hey, Pan-chan! It's Bra-chan! Why don't we greet her, she could train with us tonight!"
"Forget her. She's been insistent for like two years that she can be the best fighter on Earth without any teachers, she'd just get in the way," said Pan, who at this point had taken to wearing Goku's Turtle School uniform, with a blue undershirt underneath and safety gaiters on her ankles. She then went Super Saiyan and took a deep breath before saying, "it's almost here… The day I surpass Super Saiyan once and for all! I'mma get there before Bra, and she'll really know who the baddest bitch in the universe is!"
"You'll have to train even harder if you want to make that happen, Pan-chan! I won't hit you back, but I will maximize my speed with the Kaio-ken technique to dodge, your task for tonight is to hit me one time on each of my limbs!"
"You're on, Oob-san! I'm takin' off these heavy turtle shells too, so I can really go all-out!"
Around this time, Bra had grown tired of flying and fell on the ground, where she realized she found her head buried in a field full of lettuces.
"B-Bwarrrrgh! W-What is this?! Great, I gotta shower and wash my face with bleach now! Yuck!"
"Who's there?" said a man in the dark, who was accompanied by a floating, pale-skinned and extremely small man.
"A-A mime?! And he uses Bukujutsu? Are you two martial artists?"
"This voice… It sounds like Bulma's, are you per chance Bulma and Vegeta's daughter?"
"H-Hey, I remember your face from the pictures my mother showed me now, you're Tenshinhan-san, the one who tagged along with the future Onii-chan on the fight against Cell!"
"That was a long time ago. I've since retired from the front lines… These days I humbly farm lettuce and run a small dojo. It's called the Shin Tsurusennin-ryu dojo… It's got a fancy name, but it's really just five or so students that I teach Ki control to."
"Pfft, five students or six students, that's still more than Kuririn-san's so-called 'school'… That school's just got two students! Hahahahahaha!"
"Feh. This must be some sort of fate, you falling in the middle of my field just as I was going to draw some water and meditate the rest of the night. My students live with me on the second floor, I will nurse you back to full strength," said Tenshinhan as he then had Chaozu lift the exhausted Bra into the air and drag her with the two of them into a dojo not far from where she fell.
"H-Hey, I never said I wanted to go wi – "
Once they were at the dojo, Bra was surprised to see students using the Shiyo-ken, the technique of Tenshinhan that generates limbs from the back, as well as power up to levels surpassing Saibamen without so much as damaging the windows behind them. This prompted Bra to say, "Wow… These guys aren't really anythin' much in terms of power, but that Ki control is seriously awesome! There's no way I could control my power so delicately that that window wouldn't break!"
Her curiosity piqued, Bra quickly jumped to the window side and poked at it, causing it to instantly shatter and cut her index finger. She said, "Owwww… I guess this really isn't made of special material…"
The student who'd been powering up silently yelled, "Wench! How dare you perturb my training?! I have ben powering up for the greater part of this entire day in order to escalate my Ki to a new level, and you dare shatter the window I'd taken meticulous care to preserve?! I out to defeat you here and now and throw you out of this dojo!"
"Oh yeah? Just try it, I'll put you in your place right now!" yelled Bra as she tried to power up to Super Saiyan, only to realize that she was too tired from flying dozens of times around the Earth.
"Oops… I guess I don't have enough energy in me yet to go Super Saiyan right now… But Super or not, even my pinky should be 'nuff for you!"
"You dare mock me?!" yelled the martial arts practitioner as he charged at Bra, causing her to dodge before then grabbing hold of both the man's right limbs, dislocating them, and then elbowing him straight into the wooden floor, causing his real right arm to snap like a twig and his other right arm to disappear.
"Now you see who's wearin' the pants here, eh?! Eh?! Who's your momma, huh? Tell me?! Who's your – "
Just as Bra was about to keep mocking the unconscious martial artist, Tenshinhan quickly sped into her range and said, "That's enough. You remind me a lot of myself in my youth, wanting to prove you're the best at the expense of others, not being above crippling people if it means to flaunt your strength. I, as grandmaster of the Shin Tsurusennin-ryu, will take you on in the name of my students. I'm willing to wait until you're recovered from your fatigue, if you so desire."
"Recovery, my butt! I'm just getting' fired up now, my power's waaaaaaaay, waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy above yours even right now!"
Bra flared up an aura and took out her Nyoi-bo, at which point she flung it at Tenshinhan before shouting, "Taiyo-ken!" and saying, "Ha! Hahahahaha! Being the man who came up with the technique, it really must be a shocker to have it used against you, huh?!" and punching straight through Tenshinhan's stomach.
"Oops, I went too far. I guess I'll have to fly you to a hospital now. Just wait there, I'll go call Goten-san to get me a Senzu…"
"I think you have things mixed up," said the impaled Tenshinhan as he suddenly turned translucent before vanishing into a mass of energy, which then flew upward and concentrated into the real Tenshinhan's palms. Tenshinhan had used his Shishinken technique to split into two bodies, the main one having used Zanzoken to hide behind the fake and place himself above Bra while charging a Kikoho attack.
"Shin Kikoho!"
The blast immediately destroyed the floor of the Shin Tsurusennin-ryu school and incapacitated Bra, knocking her unconscious and leaving her clothes in tatters. Tenshinhan then took off his Manchurian-themed shirt and wrapped Bra in the clothes, before then saying, "This girl's got an insane amount of potential, already a Super Saiyan at her age, and wielding an unfamiliar weapon with such proficiency. But she's so cocky that she always tries to finish every fight with one blow… Perhaps my next pupil, will be Vegeta's own daughter! Fate really is a bizarre thing, training the child of my worst enemy…"
As these events transpired, Goten was busy sparring with Future Trunks in a practice match, which eventually resulted in the two of them nearly passing out as they ran out of energy to coat around their shinai. However, as if testifying to their precise Ki control prowess, the two warriors collapsed just as their shinai made contact, without breaking as their pupils had done earlier during the day.
"W-Wow… They were fighting like that for over twelve hours," said the pupils in awe, "I guess they really are the grandmasters for a reason…"
"Huff… Huff… So how am I doin', Trunks-kun? I may not have been swordfighting for as long as you, but I think at this point I've gotten about as good as a guy can get!"
"Which is good and all, but I don't think you've got the fuel to head back to where your mother is now… I say we call that a night. We've been training these past two years like our lives depended on it. Jinbu, Dobi! Support us as we head to Capsule Corp., tonight's feast will be a big one!"
"A feast?! Does that mean the three of us can join in, too?"
"Afraid not. You notice how even when Goten and I ran out of energy, we had precise enough control over our power to avoid breaking our shinai? Until you have that down perfectly, all you're getting for dinner is a protein shake!"
"D-Damn… I'd say no fair, but after seeing you two's incredible display, we really can't say anything back…"
"Which is a good thing. You two know where you are and how far you need to go before you come close to the top. I'll take a breather tomorrow and mostly watch you men practice, but the day after that we'll train intensely for five days straight! Is that clear?!"
"Aye-aye, sir!"
"The other Trunks-kun sure is strict… But then again, so was Piccolo-san, and I assume the other Nii-san must have been the same way, too… Maybe my life has been too easy by comparison, we've always had Dragon Balls waiting to wish back everything when we most needed them, I really wonder sometimes how we'd fare if we lost use of them for whatever reason…"
A few hours after the feast, Goten took a look at his watch and said, "It's well past 1 am, Future Trunks-kun. I'm heading back to East District 439, tomorrow I'll just watch the rest of our students train like you, and the four days after that, I'll train like I never did before! See ya!"
Goten immediately teleported to the location of Chi-Chi's house, where Gyu-mao was sleeping on the couch after eating a large portion of fried pork. Smiling faintly, Goten mumbled, "Same old, same old… I better hit the hay now."
As Goten was lying in bed hoping to have a peaceful sleep after a hard day of training, he suddenly found himself in a sea of raging, dark violet fire.
"W-What is this?!"
"Gwaaaaargh!" yelled a dark, shadowy figure as a mass of black, plasmic energy shaped itself into a Dragon with a darkened orb in its mouth, which suddenly eviscerated Chi-Chi and Gyu-mao, before leaping into Pan's direction.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
To be continued…